A father and a son. A pair of windup toy mice. Permanently joined at the hands, when you wind up a key in the father's back, he dances around and swings his son by the arms joyfully, as a real parent might. But life is not so joyous for the titular mouse and his child. After coming into existence in McMacken's Toys the two (especially the son) question their reason for being alive. The other toys tell them it is to do what they're "wound to do" to entertain the humans.
The mouse child disagrees. He wants to stay in the toy store and be a family with the other toys. Specifically, he wants a windup pink elephant for his mother and a tin seal for his sister and live together in a dollhouse. This small hope is seemingly dashed when the pair fall off their shelf (despite a valiant attempt by a jack-in-the-box to grab them). The fall breaks the father's legs and so Mrs. McMacken throws them out. At the junkyard, a kindly homeless man repairs the father's legs.
Now able to walk again, the toy mice can't really go anywhere. Even when unwound, they're alive and can talk and move to some extent, but they cannot walk unless kept wound up. So it is that the pair find themselves enslaved by a vicious gang of junkyard rats led by the urbane and snobbish Manny. Manny has dozens of imprisoned windup toys working for him and is quite the sadistic slave driver; whenever a toy can't work anymore Manny has it dismantled for parts. Manny keeps the toys wound up... in exchange for their devotion and servitude.
Fortunately for our father and son duo, Manny sends them to assist his idiotic henchman, Ralphie, in stealing some "treacle brittle" (imported peanut brittle) from the Meadow Hoard & Trust bank. Ralphie gets himself eaten by the bank's security system, a hungry badger, leaving the unattended father and son to escape. If only they were wound up! Here the pair meet a friendly fortune-telling frog who used to work for Manny, and, the first true kind soul they've met since leaving the toy store, the frog offers to help them.
Each wants something different, yet linked. The son is still on about wanting the elephant as his mother and the seal as his sister, and for them all to live happily ever after in the dollhouse, whilst the father wants him and his son to be "self-winding," i.e. not depend on others to keep them going anymore. The frog can solve both problems it seems. He knows of a tin seal in the vicinity, and if they find her they can conceivably also find the elephant, and as for the father's request, there is also a brilliant (if scatterbrained) muskrat inventor who might be able to make the mice "self-winding." The trio set off on their journey. But happily ever after is not something that is going to be easily obtained, because back at the junkyard, Manny has just learned of Ralphie's death and the mice's escape. Determined that a pair of stupid windup toys aren't going to make him look like a fool, Manny hops into his remote-control sports car and heads off after them...
The Mouse and His Child is based on the novel of the same name by Russell Hoban and is one of the most emotionally fulfilling and touching animated films I've seen outside of Don Bluth's early work. The decidedly dark film has a distinctly Secret of NIMH feel to it in places, and also like some of Bluth's work, it has several scenes that are pretty disturbing. Standouts include the demonstration Manny gives on a windup donkey who says he can't work anymore, and what he does to the father and son when he finally catches up to them. I won't spoil anything except to say don't worry, everything turns out all right in the end. But I cried and cringed all the same. Your mileage may vary, though, depending on how you feel about abuse towards cute toy mice.
The voice acting is superb. Alan Barzman as the father and Marcy Swenson as the son are so naive and cute that I'm convinced whoever doesn't instantly love them has a heart made of stone. Andy Devine as the frog radiates friendly paternal warmth, while Peter Ustinov as Manny positively oozes vile sadism in every line. At least, early on. As the movie goes on, main villain Manny actually gets some character development, and one other thing about the film that impressed me was the message it seems intent on sending kids about how to treat people who have hurt you in the past.
But I'll spoil no more. This is another "Goddamn it it's not on DVD?!" movies, however it can be viewed on YouTube so if you wish to see it, I highly recommend it, as well as Russell Hoban's novel which can be found for reasonably prices on eBay all the time.
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