An American Tail (1986)

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Boring, long, and too preachy.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

There were a few Don Bluth movies that I was really into in my formative years; and how well they hold up to adult eyes can be a real gamble. "The Land Before Time" lasts extremely well, and I'm honestly curious about "The Secret of NIMH". But as for "An American Tail", it's still got that luster. It's an affecting story, the animation's easy on the eyes, and even the music's well done (or course it is, it's James Horner). Speaking of the music, this has one of the very best tie-in songs I've ever heard. It sounds good on the radio and captures the emotional vibe and somehow makes you forget that these movie pop songs can be painfully saccharine.

I'm sure you know this movie, An American Tail, directed by Don Bluth and produced by Steven Spielberg. Based on a concept by David Kirschner, and a screenplay by Emmy-award winners Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss. This movie, I can't really call it a movie. I call it a Masterpiece! One of the finest meals ever prepared by one of the greatest people to make animated movies after Walt Disney died, Don Bluth. Director of The Secret of NIMH. I love this movie!!! I can describe it in two words! WOW! INCREDIBLE!!! Even only one word can describe it! BEAUTIFUL!!! First of all, the animation is nice. Very high-quality traditional animation with scents from Disney's Golden Age. And oh, Gobstoppers, the story! It's a wonderful story about Fievel Mousekewitz and his family as they emigrate from Russia to America to find freedom after an anti-Semitic attack from cats. But Fievel gets washed overboard and ends up in a different part of New York Harbor, and now he has to find a chance to find his family. And the score! This is one of the best scores that James Horner has ever composed before Braveheart and Titanic! Very beautiful! What about the voice acting? ALSO WONDERFUL!!! Like the voice of Phillip Glasser as Fievel. Just adorable! And Amy Green as Tanya Mousekewitz? Also very nice. Nehemiah Persoff? Nice as Papa Mousekewitz! Erica Yohn, also wonderful playing as Mama Mousekewitz. Pat Musick sounds nice as Tony Toponi, the streetwise Italian mouse who helps Fievel out. Dom DeLuise sounds wonderful as Tiger, as if his performance as Jeremy in NIMH wasn't good enough! Nice to hear Dom back in the game! Henri the Pigeon gets wonderful Christopher Plummer's voice. And voicing Gussie Mauseheimer is Madeline Khan, who also acted in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles! We also get Will Ryan who also starred in the Christian radio series Adventures in Odyssey. We also get Niel Ross, Cathianne Blore, and Hal Smith. But it's the songs that kick me twice in the awe-striking area! If we are not getting nice messages in songs like "Never Say Never" and "A Duo," we're getting beautiful tunes and lyrics, like in "Somewhere Out There" OH! MY! GOBSTOPPERS! Oh yeah!!! Right in the tenders!!! Ha ha!!! Wonderful! Incredible!!! Beautiful Singink!!! Wonderful!!! HA HA HA!!! It certainly deserves the two Grammies.I would give this movie 100/10!

An American Tail (1986): Dir: Don Bluth / Voices: Phillip Glasser, Dom DeLuise, John Finnegan, Pat Musick, Cathianne Blore: Edgy animation that makes great references to oppression. In this case a family of mice arrive in America in hopes of avoiding the cats that have always hunted them. The mice apparently are a symbol for Jews while the cats symbolize Nazi power. Phillip Glasser voices young Fievel who becomes separated from his family aboard a ship. He washes ashore in a bottle and discovers that he is indeed in America. He must learn to fend for himself while hoping to reunite with his family. Along the way he encounters a variety of characters, some interesting, others not so much. Dom DeLuise provides the most amusement voicing a friendly fluffy cat named Tiger who refuses to eat Fievel. John Finnegan voices the villain Warren T. Rat who has a secret of his own. Other characters are a mix bag of types that provide little differentiation. An Italian mouse named Tony with a daring spirit is a yawner, and the female he encounters, named Bridget is about as bland as cardboard. While the story is detailed with an exciting climax where the mice unleash their ultimate weapon against the cats, it becomes bogged down periodically with corny elements. Directed by Don Bluth who previously made The Secret of Nimh, this is a worthy animation about family survival during a devastating period. Score: 8 ½ / 10

I remember watching An American Tail as a kid. I can't say that I have fond memories of it, but director Don Bluth's animation and storytelling do leave an impression. The Secret Of NIMH (1982) remains Bluth's best film in my opinion. It was also his first film after he and his team of animators left The Walt Disney Company to work on more ambitious animation. But An American Tail comes close in terms of quality. It also follows The Secret Of NIMH in formula, even making the main characters mice again. What one should know about Bluth is that he's a Mormon, and the influences of his faith are obvious in his animation work. Bluth's grandfather was Helaman Pratt, an early leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An American Tail is very much a film for children, though the quality of the animation can attract adults too. Bluth and his team are known for sometimes using unusual animation methods. Their unique style in this film is made more striking by the near absence of bright colors, which often gives the film the look of an old photograph. Characterization is another of Bluth's strengths as a director. His characters are distinct and memorable. The downside to this in An American Tail is that they're often clichés. There's a poor Jewish family of mice, the Mousekewitzs, with thoughts of America as some land of milk and honey. There's a young Italian mouse (Tony Toponi) that falls in love with a young redhead Irish mouse (Bridget). There's a wealthy old German mouse (Gussie Mausheimer). The screenplay was written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss so this isn't entirely Bluth's doing. But what's interesting, and at the same time disturbing, for me about An American Tail is the anti-Russian propaganda, something that runs strong in Mormonism. Bluth showed his anti-Russian tendencies again with Anastasia (1997). The thing about Mormonism is that it started out as a British intelligence project in the 19th century. The faith's founder, Joseph Smith, was a British agent. For the last 200 years Russia has been London's enemy #1, and the British created many difficulties for Russia. In Smith's White Horse Prophecy Russia is mentioned as the ultimate enemy of the Mormons. According to him, the final struggle against Russia will come after the Mormons conquer the United States and absorb the British Empire. This is a piece of Mormon history that few non-Mormons know about. Therefore, it should be known that Mormons are some of the most reactionary, conservative, anti-Russian and pro-British people in America. Mitt Romney, by the way, is a Mormon. I recently found out about this thanks to Webster Tarpley's book Just Too Weird: Bishop Romney And The Mormon Takeover Of America: Polygamy, Theocracy, And Subversion. So the anti-Russian propaganda in the film is certainly no accident. In addition, one should know that Bluth collaborated with Steven Spielberg on An American Tail, so it's also no accident that the Mousekewitzs are a Jewish family. This isn't the only dark side of the film however. The American immigrant experience is tackled too, showing the very real difficulties and racism that immigrants had to deal with upon arrival. Still, this isn't something that children will understand unless their parents tell them. The lively animation and James Horner's fine score manage to make the experience uplifting and touching, but there's no hiding the film's intentional dark side. An American Tail certainly isn't a Disney product. It's a film that I can easily recommend because of its animation and music. The screenplay, on the other hand, doesn't impress.