The Mouse and His Child

A mouse and his child are the two parts of a single wind-up toy. They begin life in a toy shop. When they break they are thrown out with the rubbish, and at the dump they fall into the hands of a rat named Manny. Manny runs a casino there and puts broken toys to work by force. With help from their friends the pair look for a way to escape and to become self-winding. Under the look of a children’s animation the film tells a fairly dark story. The idea of stopping being dependent on someone else and standing on your own is the real subject. The story is adapted from a novel by Russell Hoban. Peter Ustinov gives Manny his voice. Charles Swenson and Fred Wolf’s eighty three minute film, a joint Japanese and American production, was completed in 1977.