| 2nd | 1986">Top animated feature-length films: 1986 |
| 31st | Top programs broadcast by USA Network |
| An American Tail | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for An American Tail |
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| Directed by | Don Bluth |
| Produced by | Don Bluth Gary Goldman John Pomeroy (producer)George Lucas Steven Spielberg (executive producer) |
| Written by | Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss |
| Starring | Phillip Glasser Dom DeLuise Nehemiah Persoff Erica Yohn |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Studio | Amblin Entertainment Sullivan Bluth Studios |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 1986 |
| Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Gross revenue | $84,542,002 |
| Followed by | An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) |
An American Tail is a 1986 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 animated film produced by Universal Pictures.
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After an army of cruel cats destroys their village, the Mousekewitzes—a Russian-Jewish family of mice—decide to immigrate to America, where all mice know there are no cats.
During the trip, little Fievel Mousekewitz gets separated from Papa and washes overboard in a storm. The Mouskewitzes arrive sadly in America believing they've lost their son.
Fievel, however, floats to America in a bottle, and after a pep talk from a French pigeon named Henri, embarks on a quest to find his family. He is waylaid by conman Warren T. Rat, who gains his trust and then sells him to a sweatshop. Fievel escapes with Tony, a street-smart Italian mouse, and they join up with Bridget, an Irish mouse trying to rouse her fellow mice to stand up to cats. When a gang of cats called the Mott Street Maulers attacks a mouse marketplace, Fievel realizes there are indeed cats in America.
Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, a politician who knows all the voting mice in New York City. But as the Mousekewitzes have not yet registered to vote, he can't help Fievel find them. Meanwhile, Fievel's sister Tanya tells her gloomy parents she has a feeling that Fievel is still alive somewhere out there.
Led by the rich and powerful Gussie Mausheimer, the mice hold a rally to decide what to do about the cats. Warren T. Rat is extorting them all for protection he never provides. But no one has any idea what to do about it.
Until Fievel whispers a plan to Gussie.
The mice take over an abandoned building on Chelsea Pier and begin constructing their plan. On the day of launch, Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren T.'s lair. He discovers that the rat is actually a cat in disguise and the leader of the Maulers. They capture Fievel, but a goofy, soft-hearted orange cat named Tiger takes a liking to Fievel and sets him free.
Fievel races back to the pier with the cats in pursuit, and Gussie orders the mice to release the secret weapon. A huge mechanical mouse, inspired by the bedtime tales Papa told to Fievel of the Giant Mouse of Minsk, chases the cats down the pier and into the water. A tramp steamer bound for Hong Kong picks up the cats and carries them away.
During the battle, Fievel is once again separated from those he loves, and falls into despair. But his friends and family team up for a final effort to find him, and Papa's violin playing leads Fievel back into the arms of his family. The journey ends with Henri taking everyone to see his newly completed project—the Statue of Liberty. The Mouskewitzes' new life in America begins.
While all of the animal characters were animated from scratch, the human characters were animated 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 musical score for the film was composed by James Horner. The song "Somewhere Out There", composed by Horner and written by Barry Mann, won a Grammy Award. One scene incorporates the John Phillip Sousa march Stars and Stripes Forever.
At the time of its release, An American Tail became the highest grossing non-Disney produced animated feature, drawing over $47 million USD. It was also one of the first animated films to outdraw a Disney film, beating out The Great Mouse Detective (also released in 1986 but four months earlier) by over $22 million USD. It would later be outgrossed by the next Bluth film, 1988's The Land Before Time, which marginally outperformed Oliver and Company. The record would quickly be shattered with the release of The Little Mermaid three years later.
The film was released on VHS in the same year by CIC Video, with a Spanish dubbed version separately released on VHS as Un cuento americano (An American Tale, dropping the pun inherent in the English title), and is now available on a DVD that contains the main English track, as well as dubbing for French and Spanish.
The film was a box office success, marking the first Universal animation movies success in theaters. The film has grossed up to $47 million in the United States and $84 million worldwide. The movie currently has a "B" rating at Box Office Mojo. After years of its score on Rotten Tomatoes going back and forth between "fresh" and "rotten", it has managed to settle above the line at 63%. Its score among the website "community" is more secure at 84%.[4]
The film was followed by its theatrical sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), 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.
Fievel later served as the mascot for Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, appearing in its production logo. Also, as reported on the official An American Tail website, Fievel has become the mascot for UNICEF as well. There is also a Fievel-themed playground at Universal Studios Florida, featuring a large water slide and many over-sized objects such as books, glasses, cowboy boots, and more. It is the only such playground at any of NBC Universal's theme parks.
Art Spiegelman suspected Spielberg of plagiarism due to the fact the Jews are depicted as mice in An American Tail just as in Spiegelman's earlier Maus, a metaphor Spiegelman had adopted from Nazi propaganda. Instead of pursuing copyright litigation, Spiegelman opted to beat the movie's release date by convincing his publishers to split Maus into two volumes and publish the first before he even finished the second.[5]
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An American Tail is a 1986 animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and directed by Don Bluth, originally released in movie theatres on November 21, 1986.
Contents |
[Heavy German accent, cannot say "R" - spelling is intentional to show the sounds she makes]
   | The Official ''American Tail'' Site - American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island |
| | Detailed Info on An American Tail - Don Bluth American Tail |
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