An American Tail

**An American Tail** is a 1986 American animated musical comedy-drama/adventure film directed by Don Bluth, which was released on November 21, 1986 by Universal Pictures.

## Plot

The film tells the story of Fievel Mousekewitz and his family as they emigrate from the Imperial Russian territory of Ukraine to the United States for freedom; however, Fievel ends up getting lost and must find a way to reunite with his family.

## Voice Cast

* Phillip Glasser as Fievel Mousekewitz
* Amy Green as Tanya Mousekewitz
	+ Betsy Cathcart as Tanya (singing voice)
* John Finnegan as Warren T. Rat
* Nehemiah Persoff as Papa Mousekewitz
* Erica Yohn as Mama Mousekewitz
* Pat Musick as Tony Toponi
* Dom DeLuise as Tiger
* Christopher Plummer as Henri le Pigeon
* Cathianne Blore as Bridget
* Neil Ross as Honest John
* Madeline Kahn as Gussie Mausheimer
* Will Ryan as Digit
* Hal Smith as Moe
* Dan Kuenster as Jake

## Production

Production on "An American Tail" began in December of 1984 as a collaboration between Steven Spielberg, Don Bluth, and Universal based on a concept by David Kirschner. Originally, the idea was conceived as a TV special, but Spielberg felt it had potential as a feature film.

Spielberg had asked Bluth to "make me something pretty like you did in NIMH...make it beautiful." In a 1985 interview, he described his role in the production as "first in the area of story, inventing incidents for the script, and now consists of looking, every three weeks to a month, at the storyboards that Bluth sends me and making my comments."

Don Bluth later commented that *"Steven has not dominated the creative growth of Tail at all. There is an equal share of both of us in the picture."*

Nevertheless, this was Bluth's first animated feature, and it took some time for him to learn that adding a two-minute scene would take dozens of people months of work. In 1985, he stated, *"At this point, I'm enlightened, but I still can't believe it's so complicated."*

It was Universal Pictures' first animated feature film since Pinocchio in Outer Space in 1965 and the first animated film that they co-produced.

Originally, the film's concept consisted of an all-animal world, like Disney's "Robin Hood", but Bluth suggested featuring an animal world existing as a hidden society from the human world, like his own "NIMH" and Disney's "The Rescuers".

After viewing "The Rescuers", Steven Spielberg agreed. Emmy-award-winning writers Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss were brought in to expand the script. When the initial script was complete, it was extremely long and was heavily edited before its final release.

Don Bluth felt uncomfortable with the main character's name, thinking "Fievel" was too foreign-sounding, and he felt audiences wouldn't remember it; however,
Spielberg disagreed.

The character was named after his maternal grandfather, Philip Posner, whose Yiddish name was Fievel. Spielberg eventually won out, though something of a compromise was reached by having Tony refer to Fievel as "Filly."

Spielberg also had some material cut that he felt was too intense for children, including a scene Bluth was developing revolving around wave monsters while the family was at sea.

### Casting

Don Bluth described the process of voice casting as *"sometimes you can select a 'name' voice [i.e., a well-known actor] because it fits the essence of the character so well. Other times, you need to seek an obscure voice, close your eyes, and just listen to it. If it has the highs and lows in the deliverance of lines and it captures the focus of the character, it allows the animators to get a true fix on the action."*

Phillip Glasser (Fievel) was discovered by accident when Don Bluth and his crew overheard him auditioning for an Oscar Mayer commercial.

Amy Green (Tanya Mousekewitz) was a young actress who had done some previous television series work and several commercials.

Nehemiah Persoff (a respected actor in many films) was chosen to play the part of Papa Mousekewitz mostly because he had a similar role as Barbra Streisand's father in Yentl.

Erica Yohn (Mama Mousekewitz) has appeared in many features, but her work as a Russian gypsy on a TV show attracted the attention of Bluth and John Pomeroy.

John Finnegan won the role of Warren T. Rat by reciting excerpts of Shakespeare's Hamlet in the voice of a Brooklyn taxi driver; this idea inspired the writers to make Warren a pretentious illiterate who continually misquoted Shakespeare.

Pat Musick (Tony Toponi) is one of a small number of women in animation chosen to voice a male character. She based his voice on a friend that she knew from grade school.

Dom DeLuise (Tiger) had worked previously with Don Bluth in The Secret of NIMH, and DeLuise even added material to the script at various points. During the song "A Duo", he suggested they stop the music where the lyrics mention "back scratch" and have Fievel actually scratch Tiger's back.

Henri was originally to be voiced by comedian Sid Caesar and was conceived as scraggly and worn. Christopher Plummer was later cast for the part and Henri was drawn with a more dignified look. Don Bluth felt that Henri was an essential character to act as a voice for the statue "welcoming" Fievel to the new world.

Madeline Kahn was chosen to play the part of Gussie Mausheimer with the hopes that she would use a voice similar to the one she used as a character in Mel Brooks' film, Blazing Saddles.

Will Ryan (Digit), Neil Ross (Honest John), Cathianne Blore (Bridget) and Hal Smith (Moe) are all voice actors well known in the animation industry.

### Design and animation

In designing the look of "An American Tail" and its characters, Don Bluth worked with Amblin Entertainment and the Sears marketing department.Sears had a major marketing push on the main character.

He decided to make a stylistic shift from the more angular "modern style" of animation of the time to a style similar to Disney animation from the 1940s, where the characters have a more soft and cuddly feel; this proved successful, and at release many critics praised the "old fashioned style" of the film's look and feel.

This was during a period when the market for nostalgia was particularly strong among baby boomers, who at this time were seeking products for their young children, and only three years before the beginning of the Disney Renaissance for the studio Bluth once worked for.

Don Bluth preferred to storyboard an entire picture, but it soon proved to be an enormous task. Larry Leker was brought in to assist, turning Bluth's rough sketches into final storyboard panels.

Bluth commented that he would then *"send them over to [Spielberg]. Often I brought them over myself, so that I could explain them. Steven would get very excited by what he saw, and we'd edit the boards right there...adding more drawings, or trimming some back."*

A large crew of animators was pulled together from around the world, utilizing cel painters in Ireland. Discussion arose about moving the entire production to Ireland, but Spielberg balked at the idea of a story called "An American Tail" being produced overseas.

At this time, Don Bluth and his crew discovered that using a video printer greatly increased their productivity.

They could videotape an action, then print out small black and white thermal images from the tape for reference for both human and animal characters, a shorthand method similar to the rotoscoping technique (called in fact xerography) used since the earliest days of animation, in which sequences are shot in live action and traced onto animation cels.

They also utilized the process of building models and photographing them, particularly the ship at sea, and the "Giant Mouse of Minsk", a technique also used in many Disney films.

### Production issues

During production, Amblin and Universal expected to view the dailies and approve all major work on the film, and various outside parties also requested changes here and there.

The production buckled under the excessive oversight, and Don Bluth felt that he was losing freedom of control over the production process. As the release deadline approached, pressure grew among the crew and numerous problems arose, ranging from slower-than-expected cel painting in Ireland to low footage output by some animators.

Also, the songwriters had written the score much later than originally desired. Suddenly scenes had to be dropped to save time and money and new, shorter scenes had to be created to help pick up the story points lost in the process, sometimes making the story line look jumbled.

Notable cuts include the Mousekewitzes' journey across Europe, a scene in which they first meet Tiger and he gets stuck up in a tree, an upbeat song that Fievel was planned to sing while imprisoned in the sweatshop, and a scene that gave greater explanation of the changing of names at Ellis Island. Cuts are also responsible for baby Yasha's apparent disappearance after the boat trip.

"An American Tail" was also plagued by union difficulties. Don Bluth had agreed to accept $6.5 million to get it produced (which later grew to $9 million), at a time when Disney was spending around $12 million per film.

He knew it would be difficult, but felt it was worth the sacrifice to work with Steven Spielberg on a major project. With the agreement of his employees, salaries were frozen for a year and half.

Unlike the former Bluth studios, the new Sullivan Bluth studios were non-union, and when many workers attempted to withdraw from the union, it sparked a battle between Bluth and the union that continued through most of production. It was mostly this struggle that later compelled Bluth to relocate to Ireland, which he felt offered a more supportive atmosphere.

## Box Office

"An American Tail" grossed $5,234,446 during its opening weekend, making it the highest-grossing non-Disney produced animated feature.

It was also the first animated films to outdraw a Disney film (beating out The Great Mouse Detective).

Overall, it grossed $84,542,002 worldwide.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "An American Tail" has an approval rating of 71% based on 28 reviews with an average rating of 6.37\10. The site's consensus reads: *"Exquisitely animated, An American Tail is a sweet, melancholy immigrants story."*

Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four, giving credit to the animation, calling it *"full and detailed, enhanced by computers and an improvement on so much recent animation that cuts corners,"* but that the story was too *"dark and gloomy."*

Vincent Canby of The New York Times said: *"An American Tail looks good but the tale itself, as conceived by David Kirschner for the screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, is witless if well-meaning. It's mostly bland, though every now and then it rises to express its own brand of kiddie-bigotry."*

The Washington Post wrote: *"In the hands of director Bluth, An American Tail is technically impeccable, combining much of the richness of bygone Disney animation with modern technological effects. But if it's polished, it's also strikingly uninspired."*

TV Guide Magazine said: *"The story is moving, and the animation includes some powerful images, although some of the early scenes depicting the suffering of the mice in Russia may be too frightening for younger viewers."*

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Charles Solomon said: *"But rarely has so much animated opulence been wasted on such a thin, badly told story."*

## Awards

**Academy Awards** (1987)

* Oscar for Best Music, Original Song: James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Wells for "Somewhere Out There" [*Nominated*]

**Golden Globes** (1987)

* Best Original Song (Motion Picture): James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Wells (lyrics) for "Somewhere Out There" [*Nominated*]

**Saturn Awards** (1987)

* Best Fantasy Film [*Nominated*]
* Best Music: James Horner [*Nominated*]

**Grammy Awards** (1988)

* Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television: James Horner, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann for "Somewhere Out There" [**Winner**]
* Song of the Year: James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for "Somewhere Out There" [**Winner**]
* Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television: James Horner [*Nominated*]
* Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal: Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram for the song "Somewhere Out There" [*Nominated'*]

**ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards** (1988)

* Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures: James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for "Somewhere Out There" [**Winner**]

**BMI Film & TV Awards** (1988)

* Most Performed Song from a Film: James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for "Somewhere Out There" [**Winner**]

**Young Artist Awards** (1988)

* Best Animation Voice Over Group: Phillip Glasser and Amy Green [**Winner**]
* Best Motion Picture (Animation) [**Winner**]

## Sequel

A sequel, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West was released in 1991.