The Devil And Daniel Mouse
Canada’s Nelvana Animation really knew how to put on a holiday special. Nelvana’s 1977 sci fi-tinged Christmas TV special A COSMIC CHRISTMAS was a hoot, as was the following year’s DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE, broadcast on Halloween. Both found only moderate success in the US, yet remain perennial favorites in their native Canada.
Canada’s Nelvana Animation really knew how to put on a holiday special.
Having commenced in 1971, Nelvana was capable of great good (it single-handedly established animated and children’s programming in Canada), but also great evil (it provided the animation for the notorious STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL). THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE, inspired by the classic story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benét, thankfully leans toward the former category, being extremely silly, but also quite endearing in its technical prowess and unapologetic sincerity.
Daniel and Jan are a pair of folk-singing mice who get thrown out of a club for playing music that’s not hip enough. Jan makes the mistake of saying she’ll do anything to become a music star, which summons up a hippopotamus named B.L. Zebub and his weasel sidekick. They draw up a contract for her to sign in her own blood, stating that she’ll become a big star until the stroke of midnight on a date several years hence. This leads to her becoming a Disco diva named “Funky Jan,” in which guise she croons several very late-seventies tunes with a band that includes a cricket bassist and a chipmunk drummer, and moves into in a luxurious mansion.
Eventually, though, Jan’s contract comes due. One night B.L. crashes through the ceiling of a venue in which she’s performing, and demands she hand over her eternal soul; Jan, however, points out that it’s not midnight yet. B.L. agrees to let her live until then.
…inspired by the classic story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benét,
Jan gets back together with Daniel, at which time midnight strikes and B.L. turns back up. Daniel manages to distract him by challenging the contract, inspiring B.L. to put together a trial involving a stacked jury of ghostly record company executives and agents, which Daniel manages to best by playing a folk tune whose lyrics, particularly one imploring us to “look where the music can take you if you let it go,” melts everyone’s hearts, proving “A song from the heart beats the devil every time!”
The director of this oddity was Nelvana’s British born co-founder Clive A. Smith, who also helmed A COSMIC CHRISTMAS and the feature-length ROCK AND RULE (of which THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE is said to serve as a “precursor”). That Smith (who previously worked as an animator on THE YELLOW SUBMARINE) had a passion for rock ‘n’ roll is evident in all three films, although his taste level is questionable; the DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE soundtrack, consisting of songs and music by John Sebastian, and performances by Sebastian, Laurel Runn and The Reggie Knighton Band(?), is at best outrageously dated (and downright awful at worst).
Animation-wise the film is striking. It has the Disney-inspired look of most cartoons of the seventies, but the attention to detail (a Nelvana trademark) is impressive. Portions are authentically scary, such as B.L. Zbub’s initial psychedelic appearance, and also his final stand, visualized via a massive free-flowing conflagration that all-but defines Hellfire.
It has the Disney-inspired look of most cartoons of the seventies, but the attention to detail (a Nelvana trademark) is impressive.
Vital Statistics
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE
Nelvana
Director: Clive A. Smith
Producers: Michael Hirsch, Patrick Loubert
Screenplay: Ken Sobol
Cinematography: Lenora Hume, Jim Christiansen, Dennis Brown
Editing: Roger Mattiussi, Bob Ablack
Cast: Chris Wiggins, Annabel Kershaw, Martin Lavut, Jim Henshaw, Dianne Lawrence, John Sebastian