Wherever there's adventure, you'll find these two cousins there.
A Canadian/French cartoon from Cinar and France Animation that ran on HBO from 1997-1999, concerning two anthropomorphic mice cousins named Emily and Alexander, who travel all over the globe to visit their foreign cousins and said cousin's human child friend, and help them solve problems that said friend and their family are dealing with, as well as problems brewing in their own mice society, often caused by their arch nemesis, No-Tail No-Goodnik.This show provides examples of:
- Artistic License – History: While the series appears to take place during the early 1900s, many of the people they meet and events that the protagonists appear all takes place in different parts of late 19th century and early 20th century. (Eg. In one episode, the protagonists are at New Zealand where the government is granting women the right to vote in 1893 while in another episode, the protagonists are in Germany to witness the first flight of a Zeppelin in 1900, which is seven years after the New Zealand episode.)
- Big Bad: No-Tail No-Goodnik is the most recurring antagonist of the series, and usually the one causing trouble for the kid's family whenever there's no human adult antagonist.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Yeti appears in an adventure in Tibet titled, naturally, "The Great Yeti Adventure."
- Cats Are Mean: Hardly surprising, given this is a series about anthropomorphic mice.
- City Mouse: Alexander is a literal example, though ironically, he seems to have more trouble adjusting to and understanding modern concepts and inventions than rural ones!
- Country Mouse: Emily is a literal example, but she usually adjusts to whatever setting they're in far better than Alexander.
- Cryptid Episode: The Great Yeti Adventure featuring, naturally, the Yeti.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both cousins, but Alexander more so.
- Detective Animal: Emily and Alexander aren't formally this, but each episode involves them investigating the troubles the kid's parents are experiencing and deducing/apprehending the culprit.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The whole murine cast, except for the Balinese mice (and Emily when she disguises herself as one), who are Barefoot Cartoon Animals.
- Green Around the Gills: No-Tail No Goodnik in "Klondike Mice". At one point, he gets light green-faced with motion sickness as he struggles to hang onto a running bear cub.
- Historical Domain Character: Arthur Evans, Harry Houdini, George Washington Carver, the Lumiere Brothers, Arthur Conan Doyle, and more.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alexander isn't the most polite mouse you'll come across and has some pretty misogynistic view towards women, but when someone he loves is in trouble, he won't stop at anything to help them.
- In Name Only: If you're looking for animated series that's heavily derivative from the Aesop Fable of the same name...look somewhere else. The fact that the series involves rural and urban mouse who are cousins is pretty much the only thing remotely similar to the original fable.
- Invisible to Adults: The mice only speak to human children in the series, although Santa and Mrs. Claus are exempt from this rule, because the mice like to think of them as "the world's oldest kids."
- Also, an Aborigine in "Outback Down Under" can communicate with and understand the mice.
- Mouse World: The mice in the series live in one that's very similar to that of An American Tail.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: No-Tail's disguises are absolutely pathetic to say the least, yet the only suspicion Emily and Alexander have when encountering him in one is "I have a feeling I've seen that rat before", only realizing it for sure whenever his fake tail comes off.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: No Tail takes a little too much pleasure in exposing Emily as a "female" mouse to get her disqualified from the mouse olympics.
- Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Something of an amalgamation of Levels 3 and 6. On the level 3 aspect, the rodents live in a Mouse World and seem to be the only creatures who are civilized and can speak to each other. On the Level 6 aspect, the mice do talk to certain human children, but not to adults. It's never quite clear whether they can't speak to adults, or simply choose not to. The episode Christ-mouse implies it's the latter. When Emily and Alexander's cousin Noel invites them to come meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, the two are surprised, claiming they don't usually talk to adults. Noel says that they like to think of the Clauses as "the world's oldest kids."
- Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The mouse characters are all borderline Little Bit Beastly. They're essentially very short humans with mouse heads, Four-Fingered Hands, and tails, and are capable of communicating with humans (or at least human kids). All animals other than mice are at the other end, being entirely normal animals with the very rare exception, like a talking (but otherwise non-anthropomorphic) magpie in the second episode.
- Stay in the Kitchen: As the series is set in the late 19th century, Emily runs into this from time to time. A notable instance is when she had to disguise herself as a male mouse just to be allowed to compete in the Mouse Olympics.
- Strictly Formula: Emily and Alexander visit a relative of theirs from a certain country, be it Switzerland, Paris, Russia, North America, etc., as well as their cousin's human child friend whose parents/guardians are of notoriety in some way or another. Things go well at first, but it is soon discovered that someone has it out for the kid's guardian, be it wanting them out of the way so they will not overshadow their own contributions, wanting to steal whatever idea they have for their own, or just needing someone to use as a fall guy for their crimes, and it's up to Emily, Alexander, and the relative they are visiting to help deduce who's behind the escapades and stop them just in the nick of time, as well as their arch nemesis No-Tail sometimes, who's causing trouble for the mouse society they're visiting. The episode ends with Emily and Alexander happily discussing their trip back home.
- Through A Face Fullof Fur: In "Diamond Safari", Tumaini's cheeks get rosy with modesty when one of the two African boys tells her she's a hero after hearing her story.
- Soapy Smith in "Klondike Mice". His face is in its normal color one minute, then a light shade of red the next, after being tricked by Danny into a booby trap he'd set up for him and this angers him.
- In "Cinematic Mice", Alexander's cheeks get rosy after cousin Monique gives him three kisses.
- Women Are Wiser: Somewhat. Both cousins are very clever and resourceful, but Alexander is a bit more absent minded than Emily and doesn't always have the best common sense.
- You Dirty Rat!: Besides No-Tail, Emily and Alexander encounter other villainous rats during their travels, which is even pointed out in the theme song. With one good rat being considered significant and also being a criminal who decides to reform.
