Tube Mice (1988)
First episode title: We Are the Tube Mice
How familiar with the show am I?: I'd never heard of it before!
British English lesson: Tube = London Underground, i.e. the London subway system. So a show called Tube Mice is about mice that live in the Underground. Probably the only one, to be fair.
I'm going to give my opinion on this one up front. The art style is lovely, with that rough hand-drawn look, collage-style backgrounds, and constantly twitching noses on the mice. No complaints on the voice acting and characterisation either. Unfortunately, this show has five-minute episodes and they've decided to devote the first one purely to introducing the characters. As such, there's no plot at all to speak of, making it very hard to judge as a representation of the show.
The opening sequence shows us a bunch of London landmarks as well as the mice on the Tube. The theme song has a high-pitched instrument in it that makes me wonder if they were intentionally trying to imitate mouse squeaks in musical form.
The episode starts, and a red London bus passes by a Tube station, so that we can be certain this is London. Inside, at the top of an escalator where mice in suits with briefcases are descending, a mouse in a bow tie and braces addresses the camera. I would assume that the only reason the characters talk directly to the audience in this one is because of the format of this introductory episode - I doubt it's a regular element of the show.
This mouse's name is Squeak, and he lives at Oxford Circus station. He's got a posh voice with a little bit of a speech impediment, and tends to add a little giggle into his lines sometimes. He explains that he used to live in the countryside and has now moved here - I got the impression when checking some things for this show that I would get to see the story of his arrival if I continued to watch further episodes. He explains that there's a lot that goes on in Tube stations that humans don't know about, and that he can show us as long as we don't tell anyone. Er... sorry, Squeak, but I'm kind of committed to this now.
Squeak shows us the courtyard where the Tube Mice all live, and gives us a very brief peak inside his own hole. Like, a mouse hole, not anything else, don't worry. Like in The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, a lot of the objects that make up the mice's world are repurposed human-scale objects. Next door is the home of his friend Bubble - if the reason for her name isn't obvious, "bubble and squeak" is a British dish of potato and cabbage. She's got what look like dreadlocks sticking up out of her head and has a Cockney accent. When she suggests going to see what's happening on the platform, Squeak remarks on what a "jolly good idea" it is, as if it's such a novel thing to do in a train station!
Bubble explains to us that the mice also spend their time cleaning up after humans and putting the rubbish to use, like using an old paintbrush as a broom. In other words, they're just like the Wombles. She also explains that the "Mouse Code" is their rule against stealing from people. Fine, as long as I don't hear anything about rats being okay with stealing.
As a train pulls in, Bubble points out to us that it's not just humans that use them, and we see a tiny door next to the regular train doors, from which several mice in suits get off the train! We can see the "seats" the mice had been sitting on - a bar of nougat and a can of soup. Bubble wakes up a sleeping mouse called Toaster who has a Mohican hairstyle and glasses, who had almost missed his stopped due to dreaming about food. Relatable.
The second gif above really shows off how much their ears tend to move around as the mice move, by the way. Anyway, now it's Toaster's turn to introduce himself as he exits the train, mostly just telling us how much he loves food, until he collides with a bar of chocolate that looks gigantic even at the scale of these mice! Seriously, it's huge, look:
Then Toaster's friend Vernon shows up. He's tall and wears a long coat. Toaster tells us how wise Vernon is, and Bubble and Squeak tell us not to believe it. Vernon is actually a bit of a bully towards Toaster, telling him off for falling over and then promising they can split the chocolate "two bits for you and six bits for me". Toaster doesn't seem to notice.
Vernon: Poor old Toaster. It's hard being an idiot when you've got no brain. He's as thick as that bar of chocolate.
This is Vernon addressing the audience. He also demonstrates to us that he knows where to find things around here, as he shows us some items from his coat, lined up on the inside of it like how someone trading in stolen goods would stereotypically display them. His things are the least explicable to find at mouse scale - I can understand how the mice's clothes would be made of small bits of human clothes and such, but Vernon has somehow got his hands on a bag of peanuts, several watches, and some kind of music player with headphones, all at the right size for mice! He also makes it clear that he doesn't follow the "Mouse Code" - i.e. he will steal from people if Bubble and Squeak don't catch him.
Thirty seconds before the episode ends, Squeak decides to introduce us to the rest of the Tube Mice, so it's all a bit hurried. There's Micklemouse, and he's their MP, "Mouse of Parliament" - see, because, over here, your government representative is your MP, "Member of Parliament". I'm trying to work out if Micklemouse is meant to be a play on any particular politician's name but nothing is coming to me. He wears a suit and reads the "Mouse Times" newspaper.
There's a mouse in a platform guard uniform called Derby who loves to sleep. Is he an actual employee of the station? No, presumably the humans don't know about him and he's just cosplaying. And then there's an artist mouse called Bo who wears a bottle cap on her head. The other mice all seem to laugh at her, even the good guys!
The last mouse to be introduced is the most cringeworthy one... a mouse just called "Rapper" who talks in rap.
Hi there, kids, just listen to my chatter!
Then you'll know why they call me Rapper!
God, that's bad. And what makes it worse, intentional or not, is that Bubble (who has dreadlocks) and Rapper (who raps) are the only mice in the cast with black fur, suggesting a very uncomfortable link between mouse fur colour and human skin colour that really shouldn't be there.
But anyway, as I said at the start, I like the animation style of this one, and I just wish there was anything at all in terms of plot for me to enjoy. If I had such a short timeslot to give an impression of my series in, I'd certainly try to make better use of "show, don't tell"!