The Mouse and the Monster
The Mouse and the Monster is a 1996–97 American animated series created by Jerry Leibowitz for Saban Entertainment. It centered around a mouse named Chesbro, and a beatnik monster named Mo.[2] The show was originally part of the UPN network's 1996 UPN Kids lineup alongside other Saban-produced shows, such as Bureau of Alien Detectors and The Incredible Hulk.[3] Reruns later appeared on the Fox Family Channel. The show subsequently aired on various Disney Channels in Europe following Disney's acquisition of Saban's library of shows.
| The Mouse and the Monster | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation Comedy |
| Developed by | Jerry Leibowitz |
| Written by | Glenn Eichler Peggy Nicoll Jerry Leibowitz Ralph Soll Ron Hauge |
| Directed by | Kent Butterworth |
| Voices of | Herbert Ikatap Buddy Johnson Marion Kaplan Lucille Scrubber Wes Turner |
| Theme music composer | Shuki Levy |
| Composers | Shuki Levy Kussa Mahchi Moris Tepper |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (25 segments) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Jerry Leibowitz Elizabeth Daro Eric Rollman |
| Producers | Larry Houston Will Meugniot |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production companies | Saban Entertainment Sunwoo Entertainment Saerom Animation |
| Release | |
| Original network | UPN |
| Original release | September 21, 1996[1] – March 8, 1997 |
Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, which also includes Saban Entertainment.[4][5][6]
Plot
During what would be his final concert, the brilliant pianist Flatnoteski suffered a heart attack and died. Among the front-row visitors were Dr. Wackerstein and his wife and assistant Olga. Dr. Wackerstein immediately claimed Flatnoteski's brain so that the Doctor could create a body to place said brain in and allow Flatnoteski's genius to live on. For this purpose, Dr. Wackerstein created Mo, a cycloptic golem bearing a passing resemblance to Frankenstein's Monster. However, even without a brain, Mo had a mind and personality of his own and did not want his own newly created life to make room for a brain that wasn't his. An inhabitant of Wackerstein's castle, a mouse named Chesbro, befriended Mo and helped him to flee. Pals together, they are on the run from the mad doctor.
Characters
- Chesbro "Chez" Mouse: An ordinary yellow former lab-mouse. He is Mo's best friend and travel companion, both on the run from Dr. Wackerstein. He has a pessimistic streak, often feeling regretful for leaving a cheese factory over a laboratory job. Chez is constantly busy keeping Mo (and himself) out of trouble.
- Mo: A large blue cycloptic beatnik monster. He's cheerful, impulsive, and generally kind. Having been brought into creation rather than being born, Mo possesses a childlike fascination for things he isn't familiar with. He loves drumming on his bongos in a true beatnik fashion. His favorite food is gumballs, especially Squid-flavored ones. He truly despises Liverwurst, from having been force-fed the stuff while a captive of the doctor, and can go on a berserk rampage if he even so much as hears the word.
- Dr. Wackerstein: A short purple man, who is a lunatic scientist with decent intentions, but insane means. He created Mo so he could place Flatnoteski's Brain inside of his skull, and when he found out Mo had escaped, he chased after him. Wackerstein also has an assistant named Olga, whom he always calls Igor; much to her chagrin, and in spite of her repeated corrections.
- Olga: A woman with a green complexion, a Slavic accent and a tall pink beehive hairstyle. She is Dr. Wackerstein's wife and assistant. Besides being a performance artist, Olga is a strange, completely inexcitable woman. She often keeps Dr. Wackerstein in line, acting as a voice of reason for his boisterous behavior. What few pleasures in life she has includes her mother's schnitzels, and interpretive dance paired with her own experimental form of music, which generally consists of a tuba playing short notes, accompanied by off-key opera singing. Her catchphrase is: "My name is Olga, you vertically challenged bupkis of a man!"
- Flatnoteski's Brain: The brilliant composer and pianist Flatnoteski has died from a heart attack, but his disembodied brain lives on. It's usually brought along with Dr. Wackerstein, riding in the toddler's seat in the back of the doctor's car. Despite being a disembodied brain, it will often express its feelings to the viewer, in the form of a thought balloon that conveys a brainwave frequency line, which changes to reflect what it's thinking, such as short words like "HELP".
Episodes
| No. | Title | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Ches Meets Mo" | Mel Sherer | September 21, 1996 | |
| The heart-burning origin of how Ches and Mo meet, develop a friendship and flee the insane clutches of mad Doctor Wackerstein, the brain of Doc's late favorite pianist, Flatnoteski, and Doc's avant-garde wife, Olga. | ||||
| 2 | "A Mouse, a Monster & a Baby" | Henry Gilroy | September 28, 1996 | |
| Ches and Mo become surrogate parents as well as living play-toys for an irritable 600-pound Baby Pookers left on their doorstep. After eating the carpets and soiling enough diapers to top off a landfill, it becomes clear what the gigantic infant's real purpose is for dropping in on our duo. | ||||
| 3 | "The Mouse, the Monster & the Mouse-Monster" | Glenn Eichler | October 5, 1996 | |
| Ches and Mo take over burnt-out Sappy the Clown's kid's party entertainment business with disastrous results. In hot pursuit, Doc and Olga crash the party. | ||||
| 4 | "Coffee, Tea or Mo?" | Peter Elwell | October 12, 1996 | |
| In an effort to save a few bucks, Ches elects to bring Mo's head aboard an airplane as carry-on luggage. A demented Doctor Wackerstein barely pilots the air-bus while stewardess Olga preps the passengers on how to save their worthless lives in case of emergency. | ||||
| 5 | "The Mouse and the Monastery" | Glenn Eichler | October 19, 1996 | |
| A wrong turn from a tour bus leaves our boys stranded at a strange monastery, where there's more monkey business than a barrel of — well, you get the idea. | ||||
| 6 | "Missing Mo" | Peggy Nicoll | October 26, 1996 | |
| It's a hot pursuit in the frozen tundra as Doc and Olga chase Ches and Mo to the Antarctic where a batty anthropologist takes a particular interest in Mo. Mush! | ||||
| 7 | "Bottles Away" | Mark Drop | November 2, 1996 | |
| Ches and Mo take the sewer route to a high-seas adventure that finds them hired as pirates by an old familiar friend, while Doc, Olga and The Brain give chase aboard a luxury cruise ship. Anchors aweigh! | ||||
| 8 | "Old Friends" | Ralph Soll | November 9, 1996 | |
| Ches naps in the park and dreams about himself, Mo, Doc and Olga under the same roof in an old-folks' home. Strained gumballs, anyone? | ||||
| 9 | "Heartless Mo" | Peter Elwell | November 16, 1996 | |
| Tired of constant heartburn from a horrid diet, Mo's heart pops a few stitches in the monster's chest, hops out and decides to see the world, leaving behind a heartless, one-eyed goofball suddenly with no scruples. | ||||
| 10 | "Bad Plumbing" | Ralph Soll | November 23, 1996 | |
| Beware ye… goes nowhere near the haunted house with possessed plumbing! Do you think our two idiots heed the warning? Yeah, right. | ||||
| 11 | "Of Mice and Mo" | Peter Elwell | November 30, 1996 | |
| Ches and Mo are good ol' country hitchhikers as the monster is recruited by town-folk to scare-crow away them ding-dangity parakeets that keep ruinin' the town's prize-winning melons. Good choice — have a melon-head guard your melons. | ||||
| 12 | "H.M.O. Mo" | Henry Gilroy | December 7, 1996 | |
| Mo's under the weather, which yields a trip to the pediatrician. But Ches is the one inadvertently ushered into the examining room and diagnosed as a rare rat-boy, while Mo's detachable body parts entertain kids in the waiting room. | ||||
| 13 | "All Systems Mo" | Glenn Eichler | December 14, 1996 | |
| Ches and Mo are abducted, er, recruited as astronauts for Slobovia's backwards space program as Doc and Olga, hot on our boys' trail, also get a taste of 4th-world hospitality. | ||||
| 14 | "Camp Mo" | Peter Elwell | December 21, 1996 | |
| Hey kids, for good wholesome summer fun, come to Camp Mo, where counselors Ches, Mo, Doc and Olga misguide kiddies through horribly unsafe fun and activities. | ||||
| 15 | "I Married a Monster" | Ron Hauge | December 28, 1996 | |
| On the road again, Mo is forced into drag as he and Ches check into the Honeymoon Hotel and encounter a couple psychotic characters that almost make Doc and Olga seem normal. I now pronounce you Mouse and Monster. You may kiss the bride. Feh! | ||||
| 16 | "Sleep Tight" | Henry Gilroy | January 4, 1997 | |
| Mo's sonic snoring tops a litany of annoyances that prevent Ches from getting a good night's sleep. And when Mo's body goes sleepwalking, an exhausted Ches tows Mo's head along in middle of the night on a city-wide search for the monster's torso. | ||||
| 17 | "Who Do That Voodoo Like Mo Do?" | Jerry Leibowitz | January 11, 1997 | |
| In this epic tale, Doc Wackerstein's Mo Voodoo doll ends up in the clutches of a toy conglomerate and ultimately into the hands of millions of pin-plunging kids worldwide. Oooch! Ouch! Eech! Yowch! | ||||
| 18 | "Nutballs and Meatballs" | Patrick Corcoran | January 18, 1997 | |
| Man, what these scammers won't do for a free meal! Stowaways Ches and Mo travel to Sweden for a meatball eating contest and wouldn't ya know it, run into good ol' Doc Wackerstein, who's in town for a mad scientist's convention. | ||||
| 19 | "A Tale from the Thinwall" | Peter Elwell | January 25, 1997 | |
| There are many odd tales from our duo's crumbling, vermin-infested Thinwall Hotel, and this is just one of the. Episode "lowlights" include a visit from the Eye Gunk Fairy. | ||||
| 20 | "Masked Masher" | Winston Richard | February 1, 1997 | |
| Ches turns wrestling promoter and hypes his oversized monster pal as the Masked Masher, a fierce grappler from "parts unknown." Unfortunately, The Mashers career-ending opponent is none other than crowd favorite, Baby Pookers, the 600-pound cranky infant badly in need of a nap. Doc, Olga and The Brain join the bone-crunching fun. | ||||
| 21 | "Fashion Victims" | Patrick Corcoran | February 8, 1997 | |
| Mo has an identity crisis when a fickle but famous fashion designer rips off his raggedy, tattered clothing style and makes the monster-look all the rage. | ||||
| 22 | "Blue Birthday" | Ralph Soll | February 15, 1997 | |
| Ches sneaks off to take an ill-fated job at a pet shop to earn enough money to buy Mo a birthday present. But Ches is mistaken for merchandise, becomes a pet rat for Olga's cat, then a hostage in Doc's efforts to lure Mo to save his pal. | ||||
| 23 | "Green Banana Moon" | Jerry Leibowitz, Ralph Soll & Jim Williams | February 22, 1997 | |
| Our cast and their nightmares are featured in this poetic pause. "Searching with its moonbeam, its glow will find you soon, and once it does you're sure to dream beneath the Green Banana Moon." | ||||
| 24 | "Monsters and Mazes" | Steven Melching & Sammy Bear | March 1, 1997 | |
| Ches and Mo are mistaken for distinguished scientists, but ultimately find themselves the subjects of bizarre behavioral studies. Doc shows up just in time to make matters worse. | ||||
| 25 | "Oh, My Name Is Olga" | Mark Drop | March 8, 1997 | |
| In this all-Doc-and-Olga episode, Olga finally snaps when Wackerstein calls her "Igor" for the one-millionth time, sending her packing back home to mama. Doc hires a psychotic temp that gives Wackerstein a taste of his own medicine. | ||||
References
- DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "The Mouse And The Monster (Saban Entertainment)". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 409. ISBN 978-1538103739.
- Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 566–567. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- "U.S. Copyright Public Records System".
- "Disney+ and Missing Saban Entertainment & Fox Kids-Jetix Worldwide Library - StreamClues". 14 September 2022. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- "Liste - BVS Entertainment | Séries".
External links
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