TV REVIEWS : ‘Country Mouse’ Updates Aesop

“The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale,” an animated special premiering on HBO at 7:30 tonight, offers a new spin on the old Aesop’s fable by turning the country mouse into a rather prim girl named Emily (voice by Crystal Gayle), while her urban cousin, Alexander (John Lithgow), remains a sophisticated male.

Writer Maxine Fisher and producer-director Michael Sporn try to expand the familiar story by moving it to early 20th-Century New York and offering glimpses of life on a small farm. Although she’s loved and cared for by the farm children, Emily decides to accept her cousin’s invitation to spend Christmas in the city--after all, Alexander is family.

But during the course of her visit, the chef at the posh French restaurant Alexander inhabits buys a cat. Exiled from his gastronomic paradise, Alexander returns to the farm with Emily for a safe but quiet Christmas.

Although pleasantly warm in tone, the story feels padded. The viewer doesn’t really get to know Emily or Alexander well enough to appreciate their differences, and Gayle’s two songs don’t offer much in the way of insights.

The result is a rather tame, expanded storybook of a program that will appeal to younger children who aren’t used to the break-neck pacing and nonstop action of MTV-influenced cartoons.