Set during the 1880s, after the Mouskewitz family are forced to flee Russia, their young son, Fievel (Phillip Glasser), is soon separated from them on their journey to the United States. Fievel finds himself lost in a world of larger than life characters with some benevolent such as Henri the pigeon (Christopher Pummer), lovesick teenage mouse Tony Toponi (Pat Musick), and Irish-American anti-cat activist Bridget, while others are more malevolent in nature such as Warren T. Rat (John Finnegan) who leads a gang of cats to extort New York's mouse population. Now Fievel finds himself not only looking for his family, but also an unlikely hero in getting rid of the cats.
An American Tail began its inception intended as a TV special based on an idea by producer David Kirschner, development was expanded when producer Steven Spielberg determined there was potential for a feature film. Development of the film was a very back and forth process between Spielberg and director Don Bluth with many comments and ideas being exchanged during development. There's definitely a lot of admirable elements in An American Tail and it does harken back to pre-1960s Disney animation with smoother colors and a welcome departure from the more angular cost effective methods of animation that had been prevalent since the 60s, but it's also got some rather muddled elements that could've been polished.
The movie as a story of immigrants coming to American is fairly well told as we see the Mouskewitz family during a Hanukkah celebration that's interrupted by the Russian Pogroms, it's certainly an ambitious topic for a family film to tackle, but there's not much exploration as to what or why is happening so unless you're familiar with this part of Russian history it'll leave you somewhat confused. The movie was originally going to be told in an all animal world in a fashion similar to Disney's Robin Hood from the 70s before Bluth suggested a Rescuers type approach where an animal society existed parallel to human society and frankly I think it probably would've been better had they gone with the original Robin Hood-esque approach because they would've been able to connect more with the audience on an emotional level by making the situation more human. Aside from the rather esoertic topic of the Russian Pogroms, the movie also has a lot of references to 19th-century Tammany Hall politicians and New York High Society philanthropists that are rather confusing as to what purpose they serve in a world that lives off the scraps from the human society.
Despite the confusing world the movie does have a strong emotional core in Fievel trying to get back to his family. Fievel is a likable lead with his naivety and penchant for mischief connecting with children and there's a nice sweetness on display in key moments of the story such as the film's iconic song "Somewhere Out There" which strikes all the right cords. What doesn't work as well is the film's comedic bits. Having watched a number of Don Bluth films I've come to find he's got a weakness with films are more structured on comedy than drama. He can do humor, but only if the humor comes from characters or organically from the situation. A lot of comic moments in the film fall rather flat such as scenes between Tony and Bridgit or they come off more confusing than funny such as the song sequence "There Are No Cats in America" where various mouse immigrants (Italian, Irish, etc.) tell stories that are "humorously" about losing family or loved ones to cats.... While the song is certainly an ear worm I think the joke embedded in the song was a lot darker than they thought and it really isn't all that funny and more just uncomfortable how they switch from these insincere stories of death to the jaunty music.
An American Tail is a heavily flawed film, but it can't be ignored that it helped to revitalized audience interest in large scale animated epics especially at a time when the failure of Disney's big budget The Black Cauldron failed and was beaten by the economically produced Canadian import The Care Bears Movie. The movie doesn't have the singular vision that made Bluth's The Secret of NIMH the classic it became, but An American Tail did prove audience hunger for animated films of this ilk and the film rightfully deserves recognition for it.
An American Tail began its inception intended as a TV special based on an idea by producer David Kirschner, development was expanded when producer Steven Spielberg determined there was potential for a feature film. Development of the film was a very back and forth process between Spielberg and director Don Bluth with many comments and ideas being exchanged during development. There's definitely a lot of admirable elements in An American Tail and it does harken back to pre-1960s Disney animation with smoother colors and a welcome departure from the more angular cost effective methods of animation that had been prevalent since the 60s, but it's also got some rather muddled elements that could've been polished.
The movie as a story of immigrants coming to American is fairly well told as we see the Mouskewitz family during a Hanukkah celebration that's interrupted by the Russian Pogroms, it's certainly an ambitious topic for a family film to tackle, but there's not much exploration as to what or why is happening so unless you're familiar with this part of Russian history it'll leave you somewhat confused. The movie was originally going to be told in an all animal world in a fashion similar to Disney's Robin Hood from the 70s before Bluth suggested a Rescuers type approach where an animal society existed parallel to human society and frankly I think it probably would've been better had they gone with the original Robin Hood-esque approach because they would've been able to connect more with the audience on an emotional level by making the situation more human. Aside from the rather esoertic topic of the Russian Pogroms, the movie also has a lot of references to 19th-century Tammany Hall politicians and New York High Society philanthropists that are rather confusing as to what purpose they serve in a world that lives off the scraps from the human society.
Despite the confusing world the movie does have a strong emotional core in Fievel trying to get back to his family. Fievel is a likable lead with his naivety and penchant for mischief connecting with children and there's a nice sweetness on display in key moments of the story such as the film's iconic song "Somewhere Out There" which strikes all the right cords. What doesn't work as well is the film's comedic bits. Having watched a number of Don Bluth films I've come to find he's got a weakness with films are more structured on comedy than drama. He can do humor, but only if the humor comes from characters or organically from the situation. A lot of comic moments in the film fall rather flat such as scenes between Tony and Bridgit or they come off more confusing than funny such as the song sequence "There Are No Cats in America" where various mouse immigrants (Italian, Irish, etc.) tell stories that are "humorously" about losing family or loved ones to cats.... While the song is certainly an ear worm I think the joke embedded in the song was a lot darker than they thought and it really isn't all that funny and more just uncomfortable how they switch from these insincere stories of death to the jaunty music.
An American Tail is a heavily flawed film, but it can't be ignored that it helped to revitalized audience interest in large scale animated epics especially at a time when the failure of Disney's big budget The Black Cauldron failed and was beaten by the economically produced Canadian import The Care Bears Movie. The movie doesn't have the singular vision that made Bluth's The Secret of NIMH the classic it became, but An American Tail did prove audience hunger for animated films of this ilk and the film rightfully deserves recognition for it.