An American Tail

Don Bluth was once an animation giant that didn’t only bring out movies that once rivaled Disney, but in certain instances, surpassed them (especially since Bluth’s peak era was during a time when Disney was floundering). Starting off working with Disney during the 1950s to the 1970s, Bluth eventually developed his own animation studio, Don Bluth Productions, that turn him from Disney’s former worker into their competitor. Bluth’s strongest time was definitely during the 80s when his movies were beating out Disney from a box office as well as an emotional level (with many viewing his films as more like traditional Disney than the ones they were releasing at the time), but he was eventually taken back over when Disney hit their Renaissance and Bluth proceeded to direct less-than-favorable movies in the 90s and then-onward. While it’s clear who won that exchange with one continuing to evolve and expand and the other sadly not releasing much if anything anymore, no one can deny that his three strongest movies can still stand up to any Disney movie. Those movies in question being The Secret of Nimh in 1982, The Land Before Time in 1988, and (the one of topic today), An American Tail in 1986. Trying to escape a communist-filled Russia and travel to the new world of America in order to finally have peace, a young family of mice suffer a tragedy when the young son, Fievel (voiced by Phillip Glasser) is thrown overboard during their sea voyage and declared dead. Miraculously making it to shore, Fievel is faced with finding his family in a place that is very alien to him and is filled with several dangers that are more likely to kill him than assist him in his quest to return home. Coming across friends and foe alike who are often hard to pinpoint, the young mouse needs to reunite with his family while avoiding the gaze of the still-problematic cats, especially Warren T. Rat (voiced by John Finnegan) a cat disguised as a rat who schemes newly arrived mice (including Fievel) for his own gains. Coming off the heels of several failed Disney movies, An American Tail was capturing the remarkable charm and visual eye that Disney was sorely missing at the time and managed to outperform their current film at the box office (earning $84 million whilst The Great Mouse Detective only earned $38.7 million). With a wonderfully emotional and engaging story, likeable characters, beautiful animation, absolutely enchanting music, and the familiar harsh tone that are quite common in Bluth films which results in the heartfelt moments being all the more effective, this film (while it may be the bottom of the totem pole of the big three) is still an incredibly impressive film.

What’s appreciated about most Bluth films that separate them from any other animation company at the time (or at least ones that were appealing to children on the mainstream), it was how they managed to make their audience earn their happy endings. With something like Disney, it can feel like walking up a steep hill sometimes, but it won’t be too hard to reach the positive endpoint, whilst with Bluth, it’s like punishing hard labor that needs to be bled and sweated through in order to survive. While there is a light-hearted nature involved with each of his films that make them appealing to children, there is also a noticeable grittiness and even harshness that makes them feel more raw, unapologetic, and even sometimes cruel, yet never mean-spirited. The hardships and the struggle often enhance the experience the audience has with the movie and take what could be a done-before plot and make it all the more enthralling because it makes you buy and invest in the situation. The journey of a young child finding his lost family isn’t new grounds for family movies, but the realistic environment it creates with its harsh living conditions and brutal nature leads to realistic dangers that feel a little alien to most kids’ films; people that aren’t always friendly, places that aren’t automatically safe, situations that aren’t easy to get out of. This simple yet brutal journey works in keeping the audience engaged and invested all the way through, and the stronger the struggles are will only make the eventual reunion all the more wondrous. The story for this film written by David Kirschner, Judy Freudberg, and Tony Geiss (with the latter two acting as the film’s screenwriters) is wonderful at playing to expected tropes and scenes from other family animated movies, yet never loses sight of its own identity and really creating an environment that feels real despite the talking animals. Even without spelling it out, the film actually manages to be a wonderful metaphor to real-life immigrants who ran away from a communistic Russia in hopes of finding a paradise within American soil and finding out their perceptions of the new world weren’t as perfect as they believed. Even though the movie didn’t need that element, it does so much in not only growing up the film and including an element of history that could educate children without even needing to actively show it to them, but it helps add a nice layer of believable depth to this cutesy animated world that calls back to several struggles these immigrants would have gone through, like the need for them to change their identity in order to fit in, being exploited by American occupants and used for slave labor by people who feign care, but only wish to use them, having to be kept ostracized and left on the streets, and getting caught up in rallies and political movements as a means of togetherness. The film is well paced, it never forgets to balance its hopefulness and helplessness, the animation and frantic nature of the world gives this film such personality, and the ending is easily one of the most positive conclusions ever put in an animated film.

The characters are given that nice connectable charm not only from the great voice cast but also through their designs which are definitely cute and marketable yet contain just enough rugged edges to be distinctly Bluth. They have a much smoother rounder design as opposed to the pointier more jagged animation style of the current era or even of Bluth’s other two smash hits, but you can still feel his fingerprints all throughout this movie. They have the cartoonish extremes that come with this type of movie in the way that they talk, act, how they’re clothed and are animated, but the world they create acts like a traditional world in a new age time-period that it doesn’t feel too out-of-place to have them talk about real world issues. The tone of the movie has been set up well enough that it doesn’t feel out of place to see animated mice talk about disruption of class and hints of communist propaganda. All the voice actors feel perfectly hand-picked for their specific character; each design seems to mirror the actors’ voices to a tea, and it benefits the movie all the more because of it, resulting in the devious characters looking and sounding appropriate and all the good guys being very friendly and smoothly drawn. Fievel isn’t the most engaging lead, if anything he’s just a typical little kid, but that’s what the role requires. Seeing a kid in turmoil is already pretty hard to watch but the fear and wonder is felt all the more because you can hear and feel his age just through his delivery and animation. It never feels annoying to be around him and Phillip Glasser definitely has some aspects that highlight his extreme youth like an occasional slurred delivery, but it always feels genuine and never fabricated. The side characters all have pretty crazily memorable designs and the voices match each character perfectly, whether it’s Nehemiah Persoff and Erica Yohn as Fievel’s parents, Pat Musick as a streetwise mouse named Tony, Christopher Plummer as a pigeon on the Statue of Liberty, Dom DeLuise as a friendly cat, John Finnegan as the villain, and even Madeline Kahn as a rich mouse helping out the rallies in the end of the film (obvious stereotypical German accent aside)

The animation for Bluth movies has always been wonderfully vibrant and stylized, but it feels like this movie managed to do an amazing job at giving such an atmosphere to its environment. Movies like Secret of Nimh and Land Before Time have an air of mysticism to its atmosphere and landscapes which was handled beautifully in the animation, making it feel both realistic and dramatically other-worldly at the same time. Due to the real-life location of this movie, it should have been difficult fitting this theme in, but they cleverly used the mouse perspective to make everything in typical industrial America feel incredibly alien and larger than life (literally), which matches perfectly with the main character’s reaction to being in a strange new place. There’s a lot of great dramatic angles, the details present in the background (as well as the foreground) are always appreciated and wonderful to look at, and the colors are still as vibrant as ever to the point where the gold-tinted lighting can sometimes be overwhelming with how beautifully it covers the screen in the happiest of moments. The musical composition and score by James Horner does a really great job with building the grandness and setting the mood of what should be a little adventure, being lively and upbeat while also dramatic and somber at the opportune moments. The songs aren’t anything remarkable and probably didn’t need to be put into the point of making it a musical, but No Cats in America is a fun number (despite the subject matter), and Somewhere Out There is easily the best one. This movie, out of Bluth’s perfect three, is easily the heaviest in involving slapstick; while the other two had a very grounded element to its character’s movements and actions, this one does fall into a more classical rendition of cartoony antics. This isn’t a negative exactly, but it isn’t something that strengthens the movie in any way.

An American Tail is another one of Bluth’s masterworks that takes what could be generic and too childish and makes it something timeless and beloved by anyone who watches it. Between the main three, this one is arguably the lowest one due to some minor faults, but minor faults in an otherwise pretty amazing kids’ movie is something that should be expected. It tells a wonderfully engaging yet easy to understand story with underlining darker themes, the characters are all pretty likeable and none overstay their welcome, the animation is rich and full of light and color that makes it a joy to view, and the music does a nice job making the audience feel the appropriate emotions of every scene (especially when you need to cry). Off-key singing has never sounded cuter, definitely worth checking out. It’s a shame that Bluth never returned to the realms of amazing that he did with these three movies, but it’s safe to say that no-one is ever going to forget him for these works of art.