The Nelvana Holiday Specials: The Devil and Daniel Mouse

So the next holiday Nelvana tackled was Halloween with the 1978 special: The Devil and Daniel Mouse. As evidenced by the title, this special is based off the story the Devil and Daniel Webster. However, there are very few similarities with the original and is mostly an original tale.
Our tale begins with our two heroes, Jan and Daniel singing in a dank barely attended club. The owner fires our two protagonists calling their music old-fashioned, while they wander out onto the streets with no money. Daniel runs off to gather some money for food while Jan dreams of how much she wants to be a rock star. She states how she would give anything to be a rock star (which is obviously not going to have anything bad happen). Soon a lizard comes forth from flames saying that he is a music producer named B.L. Zebubb (yup not suspicious at all) and that he wants to sign Jan on to his record label. Jan excitedly agrees until the producer makes her sign the contract with her blood, but she agrees anyways and thus she begins her journey to rockstardom with her weasel manager.

Daniel is revealed to have sold his guitar to get money for food, but when he returns Jan is gone. Jan's fame has began to rise, leaving Daniel to think that Jan has left him behind. However on the night of the biggest concert at the height of her fame, B.L. Zebubb reveals himself to be the devil and comes for Jan's soul. Jan however finds a technicality and is able to give herself more time to find help. However no one is willing to help Jan, except Daniel whom becomes her lawyer in a trial for Jan's soul.

This special is very musical, probably the most musical of all the specials. The music is a very important aspect of the story, and very in the time period that the movie premiered . However this has the disadvantage of dating the special, as opposed to the more timeless aspects of the other specials. The music is still really good however and features my favorite music of all the specials and has a really nice moral of not taking the easy way out and how loving and caring about others will defeat any evil. I really enjoy this special a lot and consider this to be one of the stronger specials.

The next special we'll be looking at is another space themed one. The next one is Don't Eat The Planet, often known better by it's subtitle: An Intergalactic Thanksgiving.