The Devil and Daniel Mouse
"The Devil and Daniel Mouse" is an obscure 1978 Halloween Special from Nelvana. It's about a pair of folk-singing country mice, Dan and Jan, who aren't pulling in money. However, Jan makes a contract with a shady... Reptile... Thing named B.L. Zebubb and becomes a rock superstar. It turns out B.L. is really The Devil, and after Jan's greatest success, he comes for her soul at midnight. The special inspired Nelvana to make the slightly better-known "Rock and Rule."
Tropes used in The Devil and Daniel Mouse include:
- Affably Evil: B.L. is rather affable despite being, yannow, the devil!
- Ambiguously Camp Gay: Wheez Weasel, B.L.'s henchman, seems to be rather flamboyant in a Paul Lynde-ish manner! He even sounds like him!
- Though he does have women hanging off of him during the montage sequences.
- Animation Bump: The special is REALLY well-animated for something from The Dark Age of Animation produced for TV!
- Cats Are Mean: B.L. shapeshifts into a cat while chasing Jan.
- Deal with the Devil: Obviously.
- Death From Above/Feathered Fiend: When he arrives to claim Jan's soul, B.L. has shapeshifted into an owl.
- Delayed Reaction
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Jan: "What have you been doing?" |
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- Evil Sounds Deep: But of course!
- Exact Words: Jan manages to buy a little more time by saying her soul isn't forfeit until midnight, which fortunately gives her enough time to find Dan.
- Face Palm: B.L. does this twice in the special due to Wheez's bumbling.
- Fat Bastard: B.L. is rather portly.
- Gender Flip: In the original story, a man sells his soul, but is virtually rescued by his wife's prayers. Here, however, a woman sells her soul, and is rescued by her boyfriend. Strangely, the boyfriend is named after the man in the original story.
- Heel Face Turn: It's not certain if Jan's backup band is made up of damned souls or demons or what, but in the end they provide encouragement to Daniel and Jan, and even play back-up during Daniel's song. Redemption apparently earns them a ticket out of Hell.
- Also the jury and even Wheez, but they don't get away.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: B.L. mockingly agrees to a trial, and in spite of cheating in order to get around certain technicalities is forced to abide by the jury's verdict.
- Jury of the Damned
- Laughably Evil: Wheez is this, for the most part.
- Lonely at the Top: Jan finds this to be true, and even devotes one of her songs to it after hitting it big.
- Louis Cypher: B.L. Zebubb.
- Read the Fine Print: Jan at least tries to do this.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Zig-zagged. Although B.L. Zebubb is decidedly reptilian, the cobra announcer for Jan's show is completely neutral.
- Singing the Monster To Death
- The Dragon: Wheez, more or less.
- The Seventies: And does it ever show in the wardrobes!
- Toothy Bird: In his owl form, B.L. retains his teeth in some shots.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: When he's chasing Jan to claim her soul, B.L. shapeshifts into an owl, a cat, a piranha, a rhino, and a tree.
- When Trees Attack: B.L. finally catches Jan by turning into a tree.