The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale is an animated TV special from Michael Sporn

Michael Sporn

Michael Sporn is an American animator who founded his New York-based company, Michael Sporn Animation in 1980, and has produced and directed numerous animated TV specials and short spots.-Career:...

 Productions, which aired in December 1993 as part as the HBO Storybook Musicals

HBO Storybook Musicals

HBO Storybook Musicals is a series of television specials first airing on HBO, and now airing on HBO Family, combining animation that is true to the original storybook's illustrations, plus high-spirited songs from musical songwriters.-Episodes:...

series. As the title implies, the story is an adaptation of the Aesop

Aesop

Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...

 fable

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

"The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" is one of Aesop's Fables. It is number 352 in the Perry Index and type 112 in Aarne-Thompson's folk tale index. Like several other elements in Aesop's fables, 'town mouse and country mouse' has become an English idiom....

 that is set around Christmastime.

The special's two characters, Emily and Alexander, were voiced respectively by Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle is an American country music singer best known for her 1977 country-pop hit, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". An award-winning singer, she accumulated 18 number one country hits during the 1970s and 1980s...

 and John Lithgow

John Lithgow

John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, and author. Presently, he is involved with a wide range of media projects, including stage, television, film, and radio...

. These two cousins would appear in the animated series The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures is an animated TV series that aired on HBO from March 1, 1998 to early 2001. The show follows the adventures of two mice, Emily and her cousin Alexander, who go on adventures around the world in the early 20th century, usually to stop the evil rat...

, also on HBO.

Synopsis

At a house in the country, a female mouse named Emily, whose existence if known to the two children living there, decides to go into the city to visit her cousin Alexander for Christmas. However, for the short time she arrives, the cook of the restaurant Alexander lives in has set a variety of anti-mice precautions, thus scaring the two cousins out. Therefore, they return to the countryhouse to celebrate Christmas.

External links

• Review at Variety
  Variety (magazine)
  Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...