An American Tail

An American Tail is an animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and directed by Don Bluth, originally released in movie theatres on November 21, 1986. It was the first full-length animated film released by Universal Pictures.

Story
This film shows the story of the life of a family of Jewish-Russian mice who emigrate to New York City, believing that there are no cats in America. Once there, they immediately discover that there are indeed cats in America and plenty of them, and begin living in a typical late 19th/early 20th century immigrant manner: working in a sweatshop, living in horrible conditions, and paying the cats tribute as an alternative to being eaten. The film follows Fievel Mousekewitz (his first name comes from that of Steven Spielberg's grandfather), who is separated from his family as the boat approaches America; the movie chronicles Fievel's search for his family, and his struggle against the Cats, including, their money hungry leader, Warren T. Rat.

An American Tail is an allegory for the terrible conditions immigrants to the United States faced at the turn of the century (the mice represent the Jewish immigrants, and the cats their Anti-Semitic tormentors) and the film is similar in this respect to Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus. It also illustrates the hope (of a new, better life) that America represented to these immigrants at that time.

The ethnic and even religious backgrounds of characters are made somewhat starker than is normal in animation. This is most true in the case of Fievel's family, but it is also true with other characters. For example, characters discuss their lives "back home" in Ireland, Sicily, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. Later, a dead mouse is shown clutching a rosary and a cross.

Characters
Note: These character descriptions are based on this film only, and do not contain information from later films in the series. The actors/actresses who voiced the characters are shown in parantheses.

Fievel Mousekewitz (Phillip Glasser)
The story's central character, Fievel is modelled on a curious, hyperactive and seemingly fearless boy. However, throughout most of the film, while separated from his family Fievel becomes as a very scared and lost child in a strange land, given hope and encouragement by the friends (Henri the Pigeon, Toni, Bridget and Tiger the vegetarian cat) he meets on his search. Toni and some of the other American mice call him 'Filly'.

Fievel is always drawn with an oversized red jumper and blue hat somewhat too big for his head (it fits at the end of the film). The hat is an heirloom of sorts, having been passed from father to son for three generations (Fievel is the fourth to wear it). Except for a brief period near the story's end, Fievel never loses the hat through all his adventures and scrapes.

He has two sisters, Tanya and Yasha.

Tanya Mousekewitz (Amy Green)
Fievel's elder sister, she is drawn in a traditional Russian peasant girl's dress, including a red head kerchief (incorrectly called a 'babushka' in the film) given to her on Hannukah at the beginning of the film. She is optimistic, cheerful and obedient. After Fievel was washed off the boat to America she continued to believe that her brother was alive, a hope fulfilled when the Fievel was found at the end. She was given an American name 'Tillie' at the immigration point at Castle Garden on Ellis Island.

Tanya has two siblings, Fievel and Yasha.

Note: An American Tail's official web site states that she is younger than Fievel, however she acts and sounds older than him throughout this film, and her behaviour towards Fievel appears more consistent with that of an elder sibling.

Note: Tanya was voiced by Betsy Cathcart for the song 'Somewhere Out There'.

Papa Mousekewitz (Nehemiah Persoff)
The head of the Mousekewitz family, Papa plays the violin and tells stories to his children. Too overcome with grief and believing his son to be dead after being lost at sea, he stubbornly refuses to search for Fievel after the family land in America. He tries to convince Tanya of that fact, however things change when he eventually meets Toni and Bridget, who show him Fievel's hat.

Two of his stories were realised later during Fievel's adventures, notably the Giant Mouse of Minsk, which was built as a giant mouse machine, the mice's secret weapon to drive the cats out of New York.

By his account during the sail to America, Papa's father was a cat victim.

Mama Mousekewitz (Erica Yohn)
Fievel's mother. She appears the stricter of the Mousekewitz parents, and has a fear of flying. Mama, like most of the mice in the film, has a deep and open fear of cats.

Toni Toponi (Pat Musick)
A streetwise young mouse of Italian descent and with a 'tough New Yorker' attitude, Toni meets Fievel during their slavery at the sweatshop. He takes a liking to Fievel, and gives him an American name 'Filly'. After they escape the sweatshop, he becomes Fievel's friend and guide to the town.

While helping Fievel find his family he meets and falls in love with Bridget, a pretty Irish activist.

Tiger (Dom DeLuise)
A very large, long-haired orange cat who also happens to be vegetarian, Tiger was a member of Warren T. Rat's 'Mott Street Maulers' cat-gang until he met and befriended Fievel, whom he helped to escape. He is the only cat in the story to have given mice a non-hungry smile.

Warren T. Rat (John Finnegan)
The main villian of the film's story, Warren T. is really a cat in rat's clothing and the leader of the Mott Street Maulers, a gang of cats who terrorise the mice of New York City. He pretends to the mice to be a rat liasing with the gang, receiving protection money for a 'warranty' on their safety.

Warren T. plays the violin and quotes Shakespeare, both very badly.

Henri (Christopher Plummer)
Henri is a pigeon of French descent, who is in New York while building the Statue of Liberty. He is the first to meet Fievel upon entering America. He nurses Fievel back to health, and tells him that he should never give up in his search for his family, a message which Fievel takes to heart.

Other Characters

 * Bridget (Cathianne Blore) - An Irish activist and Toni's girlfriend.
 * Honest John (Neil Ross) - A local politician who knows every voting mouse in New York.
 * Gussie Mausheimer (Madeline Kahn) - New York's richest mouse, who rallies the mice into fighting back against the cats.
 * Digit (Will Ryan) - Warren T.'s cockroach accountant.

Production
Fievel was voiced by Phillip Glasser, who later did voicework for A Troll in Central Park. The voices of Mama and Papa are Erica Yohn and Nehemiah Persoff, who had no other roles in animation. Dom DeLuise, who also voiced Don Bluth's The Secret of NIMH, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and A Troll in Central Park, was the voice of Tiger, a fat but friendly vegetarian cat that Fievel befriends (who presumably represents the less prejudiced of American citizens). In the simultaneously-released Spanish version of the film, Fievel was voiced by Laura Bustamante.

Note that while all of the animal characters were animated from scratch, the human characters are portrayed using the rotoscoping technique, in which sequences were shot in live action and then traced onto animation cels. This provides a realistic look for human characters, and distinguishes the cartoonish animal characters from the more realistically-animated humans. Rotoscoping is frequently employed in Don Bluth films, including The Secret of NIMH and Anastasia.

The film was released on VHS in the same year by CIC Video and is now available on a DVD that contains the main English track, as well as dubbing for French and Spanish.

Release
The movie became the highest grossing non-Disney produced animated feature in first release in history at the time, drawing over $47 million USD. It was one of the first animated films to outdraw a Disney film, beating out The Great Mouse Detective by over $22 million USD. It would later be bested by the next Bluth film, 1988's The Land Before Time, creating the impression that Don Bluth had wrested the animated movie genre away from Disney. That record would in turn be shattered by Disney's The Little Mermaid in 1989.

Sequels and TV Series
The film was followed by its theatrical sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, the television series Fievel's American Tails, and two direct-to-video sequels An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster, none of which Don Bluth had any involvement with. Most viewers consider the first film to be the best in the series.

Fievel later served as the mascot for Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, appearing in its production logo.

Fievel has his own playground at Universal Studios Florida, featuring a large water slide and many over-sized objects such as books, glasses, cowboy boots, and more.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack includes a Grammy-winning James Horner song, "Somewhere Out There", whose lyrics describe, as in the film's story, the bond between two siblings and their optimistic hope in being able to see one another again after being separated. Besides being sung by the actors, a professionally sung version was also recorded for the closing credits.

Soundtrack album track listing

 * 1) "Main Title" (orchestral)
 * 2) "The Cossack Cats" (orchestral)
 * 3) "There Are No Cats In America" (song)
 * 4) "The Storm" (orchestral)
 * 5) "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" (orchestral)
 * 6) "Never Say Never" (song)
 * 7) "The Market Place" (orchestral)
 * 8) "Somewhere Out There" (song)
 * 9) "Somewhere Out There" (performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram)
 * 10) "Releasing the Secret Weapon" (orchestral)
 * 11) "A Duo" (song)
 * 12) "The Great Fire" (orchestral)
 * 13) "Reunited" (orchestral)
 * 14) "Flying Away and End Credits" (orchestral)