An American Tail

**An American Tail** is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth, produced by Don Bluth, John Pomeroy, and Gary Oldman, and filmed by Universal Studios, Sullivan Bluth Studios and Amblin Entertainment. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from Russia to America for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must find a way to help his family. The film was released on November 21, 1986. This is the first American Tail film that is followed by An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

## ***Plot***

In 1885 Shostka, Russia, the Mousekewitzes — a Russian-Jewish family of mice — decide to immigrate to America after an army of cruel cats that belong to the Cossacks (a reference to actual pogroms occurring in Russia at the time) destroy their village. The family encounter a friendly mouse named Reese on the Piers while attempting to board the ship in Hamburg Germany where he quickly made friends with the Mousekewitz family especially Fievel, (It was discovered that Reese was residing in Germany before America in the Origin days of Reese's creation in the 1990's) During the trip overseas, the family's young son, Fievel, including that of Reese (Who attempted and rescuing Fievel for Papa Mousekewitz) gets separated from the others and washes overboard in a storm, after he decided to see the fish during the terrible weather by throwing his hat on the deck, much to Reese's protests. The Mousekewitz arrives sadly in America, believing they've lost their son.

Fievel and Reese, 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. with Reese standing by him all the way. He is waylaid by conman Warren T. Rat, who gains his trust, despite Reese's protests, and then sells him to a sweatshop.

They escape 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 some called the Mott Street Maulers attacks a mouse marketplace, the immigrant mice learn that the tales of a no-cat country is not true.

Bridget takes Reese, Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, a drunk (but reliable) 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, his sister, Tanya, tells her gloomy parents she has a feeling that he is still alive, but they urged her that the feeling would soon 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, and Reese comes up with an alternative solution on how to finally end the cat threat once and for all.

The mice take over an abandoned building on Chelsea Pier and begin constructing their plan. On the day of launch, Reese and Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren T.'s lair in the sewers, after having to get attacked and almost eaten alive by Beetles, Reese is critically injured in the tail, but is able to continue along side Fievel making up excuses that he will be okay in order not to worry the little mouse. They discovers that Warren T is actually a cat in disguise and the leader of the Maulers who later capture Fievel and place him in a cage while they torment and torture Reese off screen for their amusement. A goofy, soft-hearted orange cat named Tiger takes a liking to a crying Fievel and sets him free, where afterwards he ventures deep into the lair and rescues an unconscious Reese, and retreats with him back to the surface.

Reese after having to regain conscince had managed to make his way alongside Fievel as they race back to the pier with the cats in hot pursuit, 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 those he loves, as Reese is critically and once again Injured from a piece of smeltering debris that almost cost him his life, and inhaling a large amount of smoke, as Reese begins to weaken from these Injuries, Fievel falls into despair when a group of orphans tell him that he should have given up a long time ago and he believes them, much to Reese's despair.

Papa Mouskewitz overhears Bridget and Tony calling out to Fievel, but is sure that there may be another "Fievel" somewhere, until he sees Mama picking up his son's hat. They team up for a final effort to find him, and in the end, Papa's violin playing leads Fievel back into the arms of his family. Their happy moment is cut short, when Fievel later realizes that Reese had never followed him like he promised and quickly ventured back out in the direction where he was only to find him lifeless in a puddle of Water.

Fievel is left both Heart broken, and Angry, when he learns that Reese had all this time had been lying to him about his condition, but eventually cooled off, after Toja, a Japanese Immigrant, and Doctor who had just arrived in the country stepped in after watching amongst the population of Mice, had managed to help Reese recover, but revealed that Reese won't be moving for a couple of days.

The journey ends with Henri taking everyone, Including Tony, Bridget, Reese, Tiger and even Toja to see his newly completed project — the Statue of Liberty, and the Mouskewitzes' new life in America begins.

## ***Production***

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.

### **Music**

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.

## ***Reception***

An American Tail was a box office success, the first among Universal's animated releases to do so. The film has grossed up to $47 million in the United States and $84 million worldwide.

Currently, An American Tail has a "B" rating at Box Office Mojo. After years of its Rotten Tomatoes score 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%.

The staff of Halliwell's Film Guide gave it one star out of four. "[This] expensive cartoon feature," they wrote, "[has] not much in the way of narrative interest or indeed humor."