Rastamouse

Mouseland's finest

Mouseland is a one-town, paradisaical island state in the Caribbean, with a democratically elected head of state and a police force with a lax uniform code and a sideline as a reggae band.

Rastamouse, Scratchy and Zoomer are, collectively, Da Easy Crew, Mouseland's premier small town reggae band and special crime fighting agents in the employ of President Wensleydale. It may seem odd that there are no police to do this work, but the mysteries that Wensleydale calls in Da Easy Crew to solve are pretty low on the criminal scale, so perhaps the Mouseland Bureau of Investigations are dealing with the island's gang violence or drug problems or what have you.

A typical episode has Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew called in from rehearsal or a jam session because some bizarre upset is threatening the latest in Mouseland's endless parade of civic events. Maybe the carnival is short of ice sculptures, or the orphanage doesn't have enough cheese due to a missed delivery. Da Easy Crew will zip around tow, following clues and, having found the person responsible, Rastamouse will come up with a crucial plan for them to redeem themselves and 'make a bad ting good'.

The show has been criticised by some for parodying West Indian culture and accents. It's a fair cop on the accents, perhaps, but the writer is Trinidadan by birth and steeped in London's West Indian expat culture. I'm not ideally placed to comment, but it seems to me that a fellow has a right to parody his own culture if he wants to.

See! He's like a milkman
caught in flagrante.

What worries me more is the moral conduct of President Wensleydale, a mouse who is forever without pants. Okay, no mouse wears trousers in Mouseland (although women and girls wear skirts,) but it is especially noticeable in light of Wensleydale's other clothes (formal shirt, tie and cap.) Is this the kind of mouse we want to see in charge of Mouseland, especially given that he seems to be largely incompetent and reliant on Da Easy Crew to keep him out of all manner of trouble.

The parody aspect is a thorny one, but overall Rastamouse is a fun little series, and I especially like the focus on making right when you do wrong, rather than either being punished or simply saying sorry. I can think of much worse lessons to teach a child than 'you got to make a bad ting good.'