[9][10] The mouse and his child are two parts of a single small wind-up toy, which must be wound by a key in the father's back.

The child mouse proposes staying at the shop to form a family, which the other toys ridicule.

Once transported to the dump, they become enslaved by Manny the rat, who runs a casino and uses broken wind-up toys as his slave labor force.

With the aid of a psychic frog, the mice escape and meet other animals on a quest to become free and independent self-winding toys.

[11][12] The film was first released on RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video on VHS in 1983 [15] and re-released in 1985[16] in the United States.