The Mouse and his Child

The Mouse and His Child is a 1977 animated film based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Russell Hoban.

Plot
The mouse and his child are two parts of a single small wind-up toy, which must be wound by a key in the father's back. After being unpacked, they discover themselves in a toy shop where they befriend a toy elephant and toy seal. The child mouse proposes staying at the shop to form a family, which the other toys ridicule.

They accidentally fall out of a window and land in the trash. Once transported to the dump, they become enslaved by Manny the rat, who runs a casino and uses broken wind-up toys as his slave labor force. With the aid of a psychic frog, the mice escape and meet other animal characters on a quest of becoming free and independent self-winding toys.

They rediscover the elephant and seal, who are somewhat broken down. Together they manage to form a family and destroy the rat empire.

Cast

 * Peter Ustinov as Emannuel Wolfington Rat III
 * Joan Gerber as the Elephant
 * Sally Kellerman as the Seal
 * Andy Devine as the Frog
 * Frank Nelson as the Crow
 * Regis Cordic as the Clock
 * John Carradine as a Tramp
 * Cloris Leachman as Euterpe
 * Neville Brand as Iggy
 * Bob Holt as Muskrat
 * Robert Ridgely as Jack in the Box
 * Iris Rainer as Starling / Paper People
 * Alan Barzman as the Mouse
 * Marcy Swenson as the Mouse Child
 * Mel Leven as Ralphie
 * Maitzi Morgan as Teller / Starling
 * Cliff Osmond as Serpentina
 * Charles Woolf as Bluejay / Paper People
 * Cliff Norton as the Crow

Home media
The film was first released on RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video on VHS in 1985 and re-released in 1991 in the United States. A DVD version has yet to be released in the United States, but it was released on DVD in Japan.