Cinematic Mice

## Stats

**Cinematic Mice** is the 34th episode of the series *The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures* that aired on March 28, 1999. The setting in this episode is France.

## Summary

A train arrives in France, and Emily and Alexander had also arrived as they traveled in a littler compartment for mice. While Emily exits, Alexander gets kicked off himself by a chef, as he tells him that he doesn't cook food with "French" in the name, like French fries or toast. They are then greeted by their French cousin Monique, and she kisses them both. She has a big surprise, but first, she introduces them to her human friend Renee. Alexander doesn't greet her because he is distracted by two men with a contraption. Renee says it is her two uncles with a camera that takes moving pictures and projects them onto a screen, a new invention that they must keep secret. One of her uncles asks if she'd like to come to the theater tonight as they were given the key to present tonight, so she accepts. Alexander questions what is going on, but Monique says it is the second part of the surprise.

At the theatre backstage, Emily and Alexander clap at Monique reciting "To be, or not to be, that is the question". Although, Alexander's real question is how do moving pictures look. Renee says he'll have to see for himself tonight. Meanwhile, the Madame enters the theatre and tells Auguste and Louis Lumiere a "tragedy", along with her poodle, Fifi. She found a note on the front door saying not to present their show tonight. Renee crawls over to get it, but Auguste and Louis say that it will not stop them to present their new invention. Backstage, they analyze the note and it says "Sword of Damocles", a Greek saying that means there is danger. Suddenly, they begin smelling something and while Emily smells something on the note making her sneeze, Alexander rather smells something burning, and finds a candle burning below a rope, that goes all the way to a sandbag hanging above the Lumiere brothers. Fortunately, it is burnt out, but the rope breaks anyway. Renee attempts to grab hold of it but that isn't no use either, and the bag falls. Fortunately, they tell Madame that beside the reel of film which had been exposed to light, the invention can be fixed.

That night, the people come to the theatre for the show, and Renee, Emily, Alexander, and Monique take their seats as well. The lights turn off and the Lumiere brothers show them pictures of the train station that give the illusion of moving, which thrills the audience of this new invention. However, people are then frightened, believed that the train in the film is actually coming towards them. This causes pandemonium and everybody runs out of the theatre. The Lumiere brothers quickly explain that the train they have seen are just pictures, and they save themselves from being failures. Renee enters the theatre, and Alexander is sure that these moving pictures will not succeed. However, Emily points out that the invention is being stolen. They chase after the man backstage who had left his top hat, and he gets out of a door that is locked. The mice tell Renee to go tell her uncles, while the mice enter the doggy door.

But they meet Fifi and she chases the mice. They hide into the thief's hat. Emily feels a sneeze coming on, but luckily she is stopped. Alexanders notes that she must be allergic to the robber, as the note, candle, and hat made her sneeze. Alexander comes out to taunt the poodle, and she throws her water dish at him. Emily and Monique quickly lay the curtain on her. They later get with Renee who is sad, as not only did her uncles' invention get stolen, but she has to move back to her home as well, and they won't spend anymore money making another camera. An ad man with a board advertising The Count of Monte Cristo play walks by, and Alexander notices that the man in the picture looks like the thief. Monique says it is an actor, Jean-Pierre, and can't possibly think he would steal such thing. They go to where he lives, and hear Jean-Pierre's voice behind a door saying he stole it after all. Alexander uses a thread and paper clip to lift her up to the keyhole, saying she always wanted to fly. And sure enough, Jean-Pierre looks just like the man from the theater.

Suddenly, a mouse actor dressed like Monte Cristo appears and challenges Alexander to a duel after he "insulted" Monte Cristo, when Emily snatches the sword by accident when she falls. The mouse says he's a terrible actor, and says that he and Jean-Pierre had been rehearsing. Emily says that Jean-Pierre had stolen the camera, but the mouse shows them that Jean-Pierre is in his room with a broken leg, and he hasn't left the house in weeks. In fact, he may have been just reading a script. Unfortunately for the mice, they are now back to square one. They go back to the theater where they meet Renee, who had entered with the key the Madame gave to Renee's uncles. The key makes Emily sneeze, and then, they come to the conclusion that Madame is the thief, particularly because the other clues made her sneeze. They pull a cloth and find the invention, and also Madame comes out dressed up as Monte Cristo. Because the camera is too heavy, the mice take pictures and with a tripping act, Renee takes off Madame's disguise. She unlocks the backdoor and gets away, bumping into a vegetable cart and rolling down it. It goes well until she barely misses crashing into a cake. But the mice launch in the air after that and, to quote Alexander, they roll on the film reel just like the log rolling contest he and Emily were in, in Quebec. Renee makes her way to the Lumiere brothers, with her evidence. Later, back at their home, Alexander rolls a movie on the screen and Emily reads the caption to go along that Madame had confessed after all, and only stole the camera in fear that it would make live theater go out of business. However, the moving pictures have helped her finance her new play, and now the Lumiere brothers are shipping movie cameras all around the world. Alexander is still sure that these moving pictures won't catch on, but Emily tells him to rewind it and watch it again, and also decides that popcorn could go well with the film.

## Trivia

* This is technically the fourth episode that takes place in France. The other episodes featuring France are *The Mouse-tache Marauder,* Those Amazing Mice in Their Flying Machines *(which however, mostly takes place in England although France appears at the end), and* Bicycle Mice*.*