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Mice

Don’t Incite One

Creator Mac Smith has been getting attention in circles both furry and non-furry for their on-line comic Scurry. Various in-print compilations have been offered over the years, but now Image Comics have brought us the most complete collection yet with the Scurry Graphic Novel. “Enter a world where humanity is gone and only animals have survived. Wix, a brave scout from a colony of house mice, must embark on a perilous journey into parts unknown, where he’ll face dangerous threats, fantastic new creatures, and a destiny he never expected.” It’s available now in trade paperback.

image c. 2024 Image Comics

A Hero is a Hero, No Matter How Small

Another brand-new book for young readers we came across in the U.K.: Moonflight by Gill Lewis (with illustrations by Pippa Curnick). “Can a timid rat ever become a hero? Tilbury is about to find out on the adventure of a lifetime, journeying across the sea to the realm of the dreaded White Death, to return a priceless diamond to its rightful owners. A marvellous adventure begins and a truly intrepid hero is born . . .” The book is available for international shipping from Amazon U.K. And it’s also available as an audio book — everywhere!

image c. 2023 ‎ David Fickling Books

Say, Geronimo!

Got this directly from Animation Magazine: “Radar Pictures has secured the feature film rights for Italian children’s book favorite Geronimo Stilton, which follows the adventures of the eponymous mouse, a newspaper editor on New Mouse Island. Award-winning filmmaker David Soren (Turbo, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, the upcoming Under the Boardwalk) has been attached to adapt the beloved series into an animated feature and direct. Geronimo Stilton, created by Italian author Elisabetta Dami, has been featured in over 300 books translated into over 50 languages, which have sold over 180 million copies in 150 countries, making it one of the best-selling book series of all time. The intrepid rodent has also appeared in graphic novels, an animated series, eight live stage productions, video games, toys and more.” And the plot? “Longing to be taken seriously as a journalist and move beyond the cheesy puff pieces he’s usually assigned, Geronimo stumbles onto a conspiracy far bigger than anyone expected. He’s out of his league and with his eccentric family always up in his business, Geronimo’s problems seem insurmountable. But, working together, they might stand a chance as long as they can stay one step ahead of his foes in this explosive game of cat and mouse.” Stay tooned!

image c. 2023 Radar Pictures

Little Mouse, Big Heart

Disney is always doing so much; it probably makes sense that some of it would slip by us. Include in that category Delphine and the Silver Needle, a fantasy novel for young readers written by Alyssa Moon. It came out last year in hardcover. “When Delphine, a young orphaned dressmaker mouse living in the walls of Cinderella’s château, stumbles upon an enormous secret, it upends everything she thought she knew: The magical tailor mice of legend really existed. Racing to stay ahead of King Midnight, the fearsome leader of the rats who is bent on harnessing age-old magic, Delphine embarks on an epic quest to uncover the truth about the past. Joined by Alexander, the most pompous noblemouse in the royal court, she travels a perilous route, encountering strange enemies and unlikely allies along the way.” Silver Needle is available now, and the sequel book Delphine and the Dark Thread comes our way this August.

image c. 2022 Disney Press

Our House… is a Very Very Very Scary House

Furry things out of nowhere, the first part. We came across a trailer for The House, a new “dark comedy” that’s premiering early next year on Netflix. There’s a review at SlashFilm: “The House is an eccentric dark comedy about a house and the three surreal tales of the individuals who made it their home. An anthology directed by the leading voices in independent stop motion animation: Emma de Swaef and Marc Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza, and produced by Nexus Studios.” What that description doesn’t let on is that two of the tales are decidedly furry, featuring rodents and cats as the stars. Watch the trailer over at YouTube. And maybe watch The House with the lights on.

image c. 2021 Netflix

Judge Me By My Size, Do You?

Scout Comics have imported another interesting full-color comic from Europe: Sengi and Tembo, written and illustrated by Giuseppe Falco. “The African savannah, a windswept expanse of tall grass, a few all-too-rare trees, overwhelming heat… and more than a few hungry predators… Sengi, the little mouse, finds himself alone after the death of his mother and must learn to survive. Tembo, the old elephant, feels that his life is coming to an end. So he decides to leave his herd to try to reach the “Land without beginning,” a mythical place accessible by a secret passage to the west. For a few days, these two disparate lives, that of the pragmatic mouse and the even-tempered elephant, will collide and join paths. Their futures will be changed forever.” Scout has the collected story available in both paper and digital versions… and on VHS??

image c. 2021 Scout Comics

This Time It’s A Fox And Mouse

Doing some research on the Rottentomatoes site we stumbled across Even Mice Belong In Heaven, a new stop-motion animated film created as a co-production between several European countries. It’s directed by Jan Bubenicek and Denisa Grimmova. Here’s what the official web site says: “A film about two mortal enemies – a little mouse Whizzy and Whitebelly the fox, who after an unfortunate accident, meet in animal heaven. They lose their natural instincts and become best friends. Their wish to stay together after they return to earth comes true, but they are reborn into opposite roles. Thanks to the power of friendship they can even overcome what seems to be impossible.” Take a look at IMDB to find out more and check out the English language trailer. It’s supposed to be streaming widely soon, so maybe we’ll see it in North America.

image c. 2021 Les Films du Cygne

Go to the Rats. Again.

This one we found thanks to Facebook of all things. Gizmodo has an article about efforts at Fox to bring Robert C. O’Brien’s world of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH to television — almost 40 years after Don Bluth and company gave us The Secret of NIMH as an animated film. Here’s what they say about the new project: “NIMH, which seems to be its working title, will be based on Robert O’Brien’s 1971 book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and possibly its two sequels Rasco and the Rats of NIMH and R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH, written by O’Brien’s daughter Jane Leslie Conly after his death. According to Deadline, Fox — already home to animated series Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and more — has already issued a script commitment for the series, but has yet to hire a writer.” They go on to note, “In 2019, the Russo brothers of MCU fame were reportedly going to executive-produce a live-action remake of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH for MGM, which the studio had announced back in 2015. There’s no word on how this new adaptation may affect the former, but there’s also no guarantee Fox’s version will ever get made, either.” We hadn’t heard about that! It’s interesting that Gizmodo remembers Secret of NIMH as “terrifying” for children, whereas most cartoon fans from the time remember it fondly as a giant leap forward for animation, from a time when the industry was not looking all that great in America.

image c. 2021 MGM Studios

More Mice, More Adventures

David Petersen returns to his award-winning Mouse Guard comic with The Owlhen Caregiver, a new series of collected short tails (ha ha). “Which of life’s biggest lessons can be learned from the smallest amongst us? A young mouse learns that compassion and kindness are the great virtues in ‘The Owlhen Caregiver’. ‘Piper the Listener’ finds a brave mouse venturing into wild country to learn the tongues of other beasts. And a grizzled oldfur shares the lesson of putting a whisker out too far in ‘The Wild Wolf’. ” Find it now from Boom! Studios.

image c. 2021 Boom! Studios