Customer Reviews

The Mouse and His Child [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this movie years ago on HBO, and didn't quite understand it. It centers around two wind-up toy mice. A mouse and his child. The father mouse speaks in a monotone voice that may possibly drive you up a wall. Anyway, they end up on a journey to become independent and self winding. During their travels they run into Manny the Rat, who uses toys especially wind-ups, to do his dirty work. A very interseting, and funny part is Manny the Rat crashing the theatrical production and starts to recite some heavy vocabulary until getting hit in the head with a tomato. Will Manny get his? Will the mice conquer? Some interseting things to look at in this film: Forgiving, A fathers wisdom, love, and little life lessons that we all can pick up on. Pretty good animation too. Youngsters may not sit through it all, but it's a good film to have in your collection.

I haven't seen this movie in ages but I never forgot it and neither has my daughter who was about 8 y/o at the time. And ever so often we still talk about it. She's now 26 and recently graduated from college.

It sparked many interesting discusions but of the things I loved besides the storyline was the music. I remember what I believed to be the main theme sung by a child. That and a few other instrumental tunes stuck with me over the years because of their beauty.

This would be one movie that I would have to get if it ever came out on dvd.

I saw this movie when I was really young, too young probably to see it. Since then, I'd forgotten a lot about it, including the title and plot, but I have that impression (the gghost you could say) of the movie. All I clearly remembered was the can of dog food...for some reason it stuck with me. When I saw this reprinted (the book) I was so excited, and bought it immediately. This movie is crazy, dark, and disturbing, along the lines of the Hobbit. It has pretty deep meaning, most of which would fly over kids heads, but adults might like. If you're really uptight and only enjoy Disney-fied overdone saccharine things, this is not for you. But if you're willing to be disturbed, and hate and love a movie at the same time, this will stick with you.

Im afraid to watch this film again because it had such an impact on me as an eleven year old boy.The year was 1979 and it played sometime in the late winter or early spring.The HBO catalog used to have pictures of the movies playing back then and this one was definately in it. There are so many themes in this film I wont waste your time.It was so powerful for me back then that Im apprehensive about watching it now because I went through a bad time in my life recently with my health going sideways and I think the memories would come flooding back.If you want to see something highly unique and moving then see this film.Absolutely devoid of American sentimentality that permeates and ruins most "films" today.

There is something about this movie that becomes indelible in your memory. I watched it only a couple times as a really young child but it made such an impact that as an adult I had to find it. The subject matter is a bit heavy at times, there is an underlying sadness in this movie. But it really leaves an impression. It is a really great movie, as an adult I like it.. Wish it where on dvd.

My sister managed to nab a copy of it off eBay for me for my birthday. We had it when we were kids, and I just remembered that it was very strange, and sad... I was surprised that my parents let us watch that kind of thing. I think it left an indelible mark upon me. At any rate, it is perhaps even more relevant to me today... I think watching this cartoon with the context of 25 years behind me was a profound experience. I recommend a bottle of wine and abstaining from food as well. Seriously good stuff.

The Mouse (voiced by Alan Barzman) and his Child (voiced by Marcy Swenson) are mechanical toys who embark on a moving and dramatic quest to become self-winding. It all starts when The Mouse and his Child are thrown into a rubbish heap and are found and then bound in slavery by the evil Emmanuel Wolfington `Manny' Rat III (voiced by Peter Ustinov). The desire to become key-free drives The Mouse to overcome his captor, and propels he and his Child on a series of strange adventures where they meet a frog, a parrot, and a seal. Based upon the novel by Russell Hoban.

Wonderful for adults and their children.

Staci Layne Wilson

This is a fantastic film. The animation is great and the voice acting is top notch. The story is good but this is really, really not the kind of film to show kids. There's some disturbing scenes here and there, and an especially brutal beating scene that still makes me cringe.

Fantastic picture but just not for little kids.

item was received on time and as expected. this was my favourite childhood movie, so to finally get my hands on another copy has made me one happy camper. this movie has real sentimental value to me. thanks for the purchase.

How to rate "A Mouse and His Child"? I first became aware of this film in the late 1970s, and actually took a female date to it. Imagine, taking a date to an animated film! It didn't pan out date-wise, but the film was and is astounding ... philosophically astute, almost heart-breaking, keen in its analysis of search and redemption, familial, paternal, and more. It's a commentary on unfettered capitalism, individualism, friendship, internecine (and inter-species) warfare and prejudice. And friendship.

Plot: A "mouse" (father) and "child" (son) are the two parts of a single small wind-up toy, which must be wound up by means of a key in the father's back. After having been unboxed, they discover themselves in a toy shop where they befriend a toy elephant and toy seal. ("Papa, where are we? What are we?" asks the child mouse. "I don't know son," is all the father can offer, heart-breakingly.) After falling from a counter and becoming broken, they are thrown in the trash. ("Papa, is this the world?" "I hope not.")

Outside, they become enslaved by Manny the Rat, who runs a casino in the city dump and uses broken wind-up toys as his slave labor force. With the aid of a psychic frog (Andy Devine's voiceover, one of his great final performances), the mice escape and meet various animal characters on a quest of becoming free and independent "self-winding" toys. They rediscover the elephant and seal, who are somewhat broken down (hey, who isn't?), and manage to form a family and destroy the rat empire.

(Son) Papa, I'm scared. (Papa) I am too, son.

(Son) Papa, I'm afraid, I want to go home, what's going to happen to us? (Papa) Well, something good as easily as something ill. Well, anything can happen." Uh huh.

OK, that's the plot. But watch this movie, and engage with the underlying meaning, the musical score, the characters and the poetry. The action scenes are frightening: Ferrets war on mice and badgers. Rats enslave mice and toy elephants. Friendly ravens -- who wish they were thespians -- come to the rescue. Beavers, monomaniacal about beavering, are saviors when least expected. Theater folk give heart, trains arrive in the nick of time, and rats -- yes, nasty rats -- are the villains, but wouldn't you expect it?! But they live in a huge bird house high above a railroad line, jiving and dancing to jazz!

Manny the Rat, voiced by the great Peter Ustinov, is one of the great film villains of all time, and Mouse and Child (think about this .. father and son, in the ultimate protection gamut against evil) struggle against their limitations (they're windup toys, after all), and smallness. But (oops, plot alert ahead) they gain their freedom, and regain their friends.

Make no mistake, this is a dark film. Animals are killed, living (yes) toys are dismembered, Fascist animals force weaker kin to slave at meaningless labor, swarming armies overwhelm weaker foes, and murder them. One could say this is a profound metaphoric film of the human condition. OK ... I will say it. This is a profound metaphoric film about the human condition. I would recommend you buy this VHS cassette, and immediately convert it to DVD to preserve this classic for the ages. And then convert it again into the next generation of storage media for the enjoyment -- and cogitation -- of future generations.