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An American Tail
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(c) 1986
<-- BUY THE VIDEO --> 
"There are no cats in America!" (Plays Immediately)
(Non-streamlined version Real Audio - 389K)
A short 'Making of...' documentary shown on "Sky Movies Plus" in 1991. (36Kbit stream, 8fps)
(Non-streamlined version Real Video - 1.24Mb)
(Non-streamlined version Real Video - 217K)
A trailer for "An American Tail II" from its 1991 theatrical release (33kbps Streamlined)
(Non-streamlined version Real Video - 247K)
(Trailer © Amblin Entertainment, recorded from BSKYB's "UK Top 10" in 1991)
A longer trailer for "An American Tail II" (I think this is the theatrical trailer) 45Kbps stream
(Non-streamlined version Real Video - 844K)
An American Tail was my first experience of the works of Don Bluth. It features Feivel, (named after Steven Spielberg's grandfather as far as I know!) a Russian mouse and his family emigrating to America to escape the persecution of the Cossack Cats!
During the journey to America the mice passengers sing about how "There are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese!". At the end of the song the ship is hit by a storm, and the storm washes some fish into the ship. Fish are a fascinating to Feivel. He goes closer to the stairs leading to the deck above where the howling wind can be heard. His father calls him back, but Feivel throws his hat up the stairway and shouts to his father that he's going up to get it.
Feivel however is hit by a wave and carried away into the sea. His family consider him to be lost, but he washes up in a bottle near the incomplete Statue of Liberty where he is taken in by Henri, the French-accented statue builder pigeon [hey, its a cartoon!] and is taken to immigration to find his family.
Feivel doesn't make it this far however. He is picked up by the Shakespeare-quoting Warren T. Rat and forced to work with the other street urchin types in a clothing factory. Feivel escapes from there and ends up on the New York streets where he is befriended by an "Artful Dodger" mouse called Tony, and Bridgette, a 'Freedom from Cats' campaigner, who take him to the local Mayor - the ironically named "Honest John" (who knows every mouse in the city), but Honest John doesn't know his family yet.
The mice in the area are being terrorised by the local cats - The "Mott Street Maulers" (There ARE cats in America!) Our first sight of Honest John is at a wake for one of the latest casualties. A rich mouse named Gussie Mousheimer is organising resistance against this persecution, and at a freedom from cats rally Feivel suggests a plan... they need The Giant Mouse of Minsk! They will use a giant mechanical mouse to drive the cats onto a ship bound for China, but the timing of the attack must be perfect to make sure the cats are driven onto the ship the moment it departs, so they do not have the opportunity to escape.
The cats (led by Warren T. Rat) surround the building where the giant mouse has been completed, cornering the mice On hearing Feivel's shouts that 'the cats are here', one of the mice sounds the alarm - starting the attack too early!
The plan has gone wrong!...
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Visit
Fieval's "An American Tail" page
and
for more about this film!
This film was the first of an intended three to be made through Steven Spielberg's 'Amblin Entertainment', and also the first to be backed by Morris Sullivan, to form the new Bluth company 'Sullivan Bluth' after the previous Bluth company had gone into bankruptcy following the bankruptcy of their laserdisc game backers Cinematronics in 1984.
This film was followed five years later
by the sequel "An American Tail II - Fievel Goes West", althought this film was
not made by Don Bluth's group. I like AT2, although it isn't as richly detailed as Bluth's
film - although that's not to say that there was anything wrong with the artwork at all, it was very good. (probably because this was a theatrically released sequal and not a direct-to-video one!) I just feel that there was a lack of texture in AT2. Although this lack of detail is easy to miss on television, on a cinema screen it becomes a large area of flat undetailed colour. AT2 is a lot more light-hearted than AT1 though, and I'm sure many will find it more fun! Recently the third feature was released - "An American Tail III - The Treasure of Manhattan Island". (bafflingly, not listed on Amazon.com at all! [The film has now appeared on Amazon! It took over a year, but its there now!] You'll find a special page with a massive Quicktime trailer on Universal Studio's site though) This film reprises a lot of the character (and charaters!) of the original film, but keeps the lightheartedness of the second. The simple main story of a treasure hunt in the Indian-built tunnels below Manhattan becomes surprisingly well told as the film progresses, lightly covering themes of exploitation, predjudice, the displacement of the original Indian people and (in the case of the crooked policemen) the concept that
those who represent the good guys can turn out to be the bad guys! The film also has some great lines, although they're easy to miss - keep your ears open!... One thing I'll really give the makers of this film - they've made an effort to keep the voices the same - something that let down "The Secret of NIMH II". Many of the voice actors are from the original film, and Phillip Glasser's [see IMDB entry] replacement (Thomas Dekker [More here]) sounds very like him! (to me anyway...) One thing I really didn't like though - An American Tail II was passed off in Tail III as being just Fievel's dream the night before! Agh!! I suppose the makers needed an excuse to pull the timeline back to the original's era so they could continue the story without having to make the characters older... it does seem a little weak though! Anyway - have a look at this film yourself! If you're a fan of the Tail films (especially the first) I think you'll like this one!
Apparently the two previous 'Tail' films are to be re-released along with AT3 in the U.S. (see here for details). The site also mentions a theatrical release for the film. Given the long delay releasing it at all in America - enough time for it to appear on video in other territories - I suspect that plan is probably off now.
I've learned from guestbook signatory Aaron Banks that there is going to be a fourth Tail film! According to the Internet Movie Database it will be called "The Mystery of the Night Monster".
Feivel has been spelled both as "Feivel" and "Fievel" in the two films!
Feivel's voice, Philip Glasser, has recently been the voice of another mouse - Timmy (as a teenager) in "The Secret of NIMH II".
This page was created Sunday 3 May 1998
