The Mouse and His Child (1977)

[dougo]

The other day I was reading about Droste Effect packaging (via BoingBoing via pfranzosa's shared items) which made me think of The Mouse and His Child, an animated feature from 1977 that I fondly remembered from childhood, which had a plot element about finding "the last visible dog" in the recursive picture on a can of Bonzo Dog Food. A few years ago I read the book that the movie was based on, but the movie has not been released on DVD and so is pretty hard to find. But, in a discussion last night, prog pointed out that it must be available on the Internet somewhere, and sure enough the entire 77-minute film is available on YouTube! You can watch the whole thing in all its tripped-out '70s glory, or skip to about the 51 minute mark to watch the search for the last visible dog.

The author of the book is Russel Hoban, whose Frances the Badger books I also knew from childhood. But ahkond mentioned that he is also well-known as the author of the post-apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker, which won the Campbell Award in 1982. That's a rather diverse oeuvre.

Comments

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

I loved that book and movie. Got a shiny new edition a couple of years ago. But whenever I've mentioned it to other people, they've had no idea what I'm talking about. I was starting to think it was either absurdly unpopular or totally unmemorable.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Oh!!
I had two of the Frances books when I was a kid.
Then in college I read Riddley Walker. Some time later, I found a carton of children's books that my mother had saved, and I was astounded to discover that the guy who wrote Riddley Walker had written Frances too. I was also intrigued to find that the two Frances books I knew were actually illustrated by two different people (a fact lost on my four-year-old self): Lillian Hoban, who I suppose must be Russell's wife... and Garth Williams, who illustrated my edition of Laura Ingalls' autobiographical series.

Speaking of autobiographical children's books, I made an equally fascinating discovery recently, concerning Robert McCloskey's books Blueberries For Sal, One Morning in Maine, and Time of Wonder. I had Blueberries For Sal as a kid, but I wasn't familiar with the other two. When I decided to read them, I realized that these three books are a series, albeit with three different illustrators, depicting three summers in the lives of McCloskey's own daughters.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I never heard of McCloskey or his books until Make Way For Dumplings. Maybe it's a New England thing (I grew up in South Jersey).

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess it must be a NE thing. I grew up in Providence, and we used to go to Maine occasionally in the summers. Do you know any books by Barbara Cooney, or is she also a New England phenomenon?

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Nope, I don't think so.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Miss Rumphius is the book of hers I know best -- it's one of my favorite picture books. She's famous for her illustrations of Maine coastlines; there's a very distinctive, precise style to her painting. I love her delicate but strong-willed people.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Ah, also, I'm probably not young enough to have seen that as a kid. Looks neat though.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't realize she published Miss Rumphius and Ox-Cart Man so late in her life. I met her once -- she was a little old woman with long white hair in a braid crowning her head.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I remember ... I must have been about six, or seven ... seeing a picture of a Dennis the Menace drum set in the Sears Christmas catalog.

The artwork on the base drum was of Dennis the Menace playing the drums. Playing, in fact, the very same Dennis the Menace drum set, which included a base drum with a smaller version of Dennis the Menace playing the drum set on it. And they kept going.

Even in my single digits, I realized there was something troublesome about this illustration, and I was rather glad they blurred away after four iterations.