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 theatres on November 21, 1986. It was the first full-length animated film released by Universal Pictures.
==Plot==
In 1885 Shostka, Russia, the Mousekewitzes—a Russian-Jewish family of mice—are forced to emigrate to the United States, after an army of Cossacks and their cats destroy their village as part of anti-Jewish pogroms. During the trip overseas, the family's young son, Fievel, gets separated from the others and washes overboard in a storm. Thinking that Fievel has drowned, the others arrive in New York City.
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. He 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, the immigrant mice learn that the tales of a cat-free country are not true.
Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, a drunk and reliable politician who knows all the voting mice in New York City. But, as the Mousekewitzes have not yet registered to vote, he can not help Fievel find them. Meanwhile, Fievel's sister, Tanya, tells her gloomy parents she has a feeling that Fievel is still alive, but her parents insist that the feeling eventually go away.
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 that he never provides. 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 he is actually a cat in disguise, and the leader of the Maulers. They capture and imprison Fievel, but a goofy, soft-hearted cat named Tiger befriends and releases him.
Fievel races back to the pier with the cats chasing after him when 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 them up and carries them away.
During the battle, Fievel is once again separated from his family and falls into despair when a group of orphans tell him that he should have given up years earlier. Papa Mouskewitz overhears Bridget and Tony calling out to Fievel, but is sure that there may be another "Fievel" somewhere, until Mama finds their son's hat. They team up for a final effort to find him and, in the end, the sound of Papa's violin 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, and the Mouskewitzes' new life in America begins.
==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 parentheses.
=== 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 behavior 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 Tony 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.
===Tony Toponi (Pat Musick)===
A streetwise young mouse of Italian descent and with a 'tough New Yorker' attitude, Tony 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 villain 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 terrorize 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 Tony'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.
=== Uncredited ===
* Frank Welker - Various Voices
* Steve Jay Blum - Roc
* Barbara Goodson - Pee Wee
* Diane Michelle - Noodles
* Dan Kuenster - Jake from the Mott Street Maulers
* Mel Blanc - Birds and Seagulls
==International Versions==
=== Danish ===
	DANSKE STEMMER 	· KARAKTER 	· ORIGINAL STEMME
	 	 	
	Karin Wedel 	· Bridget 	· Cathianne Blore
	Henrik Koefoed 	· Ciffert 	· Will Ryan (Digit)
	David Sebastian Buus	· Fievel Muskowitz 	· Phillip Glasser (Fievel Mousekewitz)
	Lillian Tillegreen 	· Gussie Mussenheimer	· Madeline Kahn (Gussie Mausheimer)
	Jess Ingerslev 	· Henri 	· Christopher Plummer
	Elin Reimer 	· Mama Muskowitz 	· Erica Yohn (Mama Mousekewitz)
	Edward Fleming 	· Moe 	· Hal Smith
	Jesper Klein 	· Papa Muskowitz 	· Nehemiah Persoff (Papa Mousekewitz)
	Kjeld Nørgaard 	· Steen Sikker Rotte 	· John Finnegan (Warren T. Rat)
	Marie Ingerslev 	· Tanja Muskowitz 	· Amy Green (Tanya Mousekewitz)
	Steen Springborg 	· Tiger 	· Dom DeLuise
	Martin Vieth 	· Toni Toponi 	· Pat Musick (Tony Toponi)
	Thomas Eje 	· Ærlige John 	· Neil Ross (Honest John)
==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 Warner Bros. Animation.
==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 was composed by James Horner "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===
# "Main Title" (orchestral)
# "The Cossack Cats" (orchestral)
# "There Are No Cats in America" (song)
# "The Storm" (orchestral)
# "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" (orchestral)
# "Never Say Never" (song)
# "The Market Place" (orchestral)
# "Somewhere Out There" (song)
# "Somewhere Out There" (performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram)
# "Releasing the Secret Weapon" (orchestral)
# "A Duo" (song)
# "The Great Fire" (orchestral)
# "Reunited" (orchestral)
# "Flying Away and End Credits" (orchestral)
==External links==
de:Feivel der Mauswanderer
ru:Файвел в новом свете, или из России в Нью-Йорк (мультфильм)6
Category:Anthropomorphic films
Category:Fictional mice and rats
Category:Best Song Academy Award winners
Category:Best Song Academy Award nominees
Category:Films directed by Don Bluth
Category:Fish out of water films
Category:1986 films
Category:Films
Category:Films with vocal and instrumental credit music
Category:An American Tail
Category:Films with a single song
Category:Sullivan Bluth Studios films
Category:Sullivan Bluth Studios animated films
Category:Amblin Entertainment films
Category:Amblin Entertainment animated films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:Universal Pictures animated films
Category:Films produced by Steven Spielberg
Category:Films without Humans
Category:1980s children's animated films
Category:Articles with red links