The Devil and Daniel Mouse

"The Devil and Daniel Mouse" is a 1978 Halloween special that paved the way for the (initially ignored) theatrical feature "Rock & Rule." The premise is that singing partners Dan and Jan Mouse are split up when a shady character named B.L. Zebub offers Jan the chance to become an overnight music sensation. (Yep, it's a bit of a retread of that Faustian story used just a few years earlier for "Phantom of the Paradise" -- only this time with animated animal characters.) Jan later learns that old B.L. is actually the devil in disguise -- and that she owes him her soul -- so it's up to Dan to help Jan weas-el her way out of the Devil's contract.

Made by Canada's Nelvana studios, "Daniel Mouse" was the first collaboration between the studio and singer/songwriter John Sebastian, who'd go on to work on other projects like "Runaway Robots: Rome-0 and Julie-8," "The Get-Along Gang," "Strawberry Shortcake" and "The Care Bears Movie," amongst others. Like all of the early Nelvana TV specials, the animation is interesting, the characters are lovable and the music's catchy. Too bad the Nelvanamation videos have been out of print for decades.

A truncated version of "Daniel Mouse" appeared both on the "Rock & Rule" Blu-Ray and 2-DVD set released by Unearthed Films. This version seemed to be a print used for broadcasts in later years (after TV commercial time per half hour had increased), as a few minor moments have been removed to shorten the running time. Also included on both releases was "How We Made the Devil and Daniel Mouse," a vintage making-of special which was paired with the film for some early broadcasts so that the special could run in an hour-long time slot. The making-of is very by-the-numbers. It features a lot of shots where the cameraman was doing little but walking around, watching people work. As such, it's kind of boring but it's a glimpse into the increasingly-disappearing world of hand-drawn animation, and it also features John Sebastian recording a variation of the film's theme song.

In addition to its numerous home video releases, two pieces of merchandise were released to tie-in with the film. The more sought after is "A Nelvana Story Album." Boasting a whopping 13 tracks (coincidence?) this LP was was only issued in Canada in 1978 and seems to be very rare. I mean, kids have a habit of beating the hell out of their albums. Or they did before everything went digital. Anyway, the album is essentially the complete soundtrack for the special (sans a few lines of dialogue and some sound effects) with additional narration by John Sebastian.

It's worth noting that the first version of "Look Where the Music Can Take You" is barely audible (as in the film) and includes Sebastian's overdubbed narration. The second version (performed during the trial) begins with a mix of studio tracks before abruptly segueing straight into the film's soundtrack, complete with dialogue. Shame that they didn't include untampered with recordings of those songs.

Avon/Camelot books also the tie-in storybook which was adapted by Ken Sobol from his own screenplay. As was the trend for their based-on-TV-special-series, it includes music and lyrics for three songs, "Look Where the Music Can Take You," "Can You Help Me Find My Song?" and "I've Got a Song to Sing." Unlike the album, these books were mass-produced and much more common to come by.

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