An American Tail Reviews

It has been a while since I have seen this flick and I was quite impressed when I saw this as a kid in the movie theater. I must have been 6 or 7 years when I saw it at the time and I thought it was pretty dark and almost scary. Watching it back after so many years later, I can see that there was in fact not much to be scared about after all. I mean, sure, it was darker than your usual Disney feature but it was still really kid friendly with the usual annoying songs popping up every 10 minutes. At the time, Don Bluth, who once worked for Disney but decided to work on his own, was going through a golden period and this movie and his following directing effort ‘The Land Before Time’ were easily his biggest successes. Basically, I think it is a flick really enjoyable when you are very young and, for grown-ups, it remains an interesting watch but the cheesiness is a little bit too much for my taste. Anyway, to conclude, all in all, it is definitely a pretty good feature and I think it is really worth a look, especially if you are interested in animated movies.

Such a touching animated movie that makes me feel sad. Great soundtrack with really cool characters. I think the sequel's much better.

Following the critical success of The Secret of NIMH comes American Tail, which was created with Steven Spielberg's help (protagonist Fievel was named after Spielberg's great-grandfather). As a result, this movie raked in a haul at the box office thanks to audiences that enjoyed it, but the critical reception from Siskel and Ebert was a little frosty. While carrying some of NIMH's dramatic tone to the point of bringing people to tears, it is balanced out with whimsical musical numbers and a few genuinely funny moments. Some Bluth fans say that the best film after NIMH is The Land Before Time, but personally, to me, it's An American Tail, for its realism and whimsy despite nearly the entire cast of characters being mice and cats.

My rating: 8/10

You dont notice how clever this film is untill you watch it as an adult. On a childish level..ooh look mice are wearing hats; but on an adult level it is a sophisticated representation of cultural conflict, racism and immigration.

A family of Russian mice emmigrate to America, fleeing cats. Labouring under the misconception that;

'There are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese'

Unfortunately Fievel becomes separated from his family on the way; and finds himself alone in New York; surrounded by the cats they tried to leave. I wont go as far to say its a direct mirror of the flee from facism...but there are certainly many similarities.

Not only is this a fun and imaginative film, well animated and reeking of Don Bluth's genius; it is very well written and makes you think.

If you're not impressed by its 'message' a set of enjoyable and memorable songs throughout, will brighten your day.

I loved this movie when I was a kid and still like it now. For starters it's cute. It's also short and sweet with lots of moral lessons in it which is perfect for young audiences with short attention spans.
The only real hang up I have is that the Russian mice don't always sound Russian, well that's the adults anyway and the young mice don't sound Russian at all, but I'm sure kids aren't going to notice that.