Introduction
Welcome to my corner! This week, I'm sharing my thoughts on the film An American Tail. The Emil M. Larson Library will be showing An American Tail as part of their Summer Reading Program Movie Lineup on June 26 at 3:00 p.m. Go and enjoy!
An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth and written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss. It stars the voices of Cathianne Blore, Dom Deluise, John Finnegan, Phillip Glasser, Amy Green Madeline Kahn, Pat Musick, Nehemiah Persoff, Christopher Plummer, Neil Ross, Will Ryan, Hal Smith and Erica Yohn.
Production on An American Tail commenced in December 1984 and was originally conceived as a television special; executive producer Steven Spielberg felt it had potential as a feature film, and asked Bluth to "make [him] NIMH." The film was animated at Sullivan Bluth Studios, with James Horner composing the film's score and writing original songs.
An American Tail was theatrically released in the United States on November 21, 1986, by Universal Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing $85 million worldwide on a $9 million budget. The success spawned a franchise, including a theatrical sequel, a television series, and two sequels released on home video.
Plot: A young mouse named Fievel Mousekewitz (Phillip Glasser) and his family emigrate from Russia to the United States by boat after their home is destroyed by cats. During the trip, a fierce storm throws Fievel from the ship, and he loses contact with his family. Luckily, he manages to sail to New York in a bottle. There, Irish mouse Bridget (Cathianne Blore), an Italian mouse named Tony (Pat Musick) and a kindly cat named Tiger (Do DeLuise) help Fievel search for his loved ones.
(Voice) Acting: My favorite title is the American Tail franchise for the following actors, if not stated otherwise.
Phillip Glasser voices Fievel Mousekewitz. While "Fievel" is a generally accepted spelling of his name, and appears as such in the end credits, the opening credits spell it as "Feivel", the more common transliteration of the Yiddish name. Glasser (Fievel) was discovered by accident with Bluth and his crew overheard him audition for an Oscar Mayer commercial. His four most notable titles are The Illusionist, An American Tail, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, and Agent Cody Banks as additional crew.
John Finnegan voices Warren T. Rat, a small Havana Brown who disguises himself as a giant rat. 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. His four most notable titles include JFK, An American Tail, Vegas Vacation and The Natural. He appeared in one of my favorite television series, Murder, She Wrote.
Amy Green voices Tanya Mousekewitz (singing voice provided by Betsy Cathcart), Fievel's older sister, whom he mutually adores. Green (Tanya Mousekewitz) was a young actress who had done some previous television work and several commercials. An American Tail was the only major project she starred in. For whatever reason, she didn't voice Tanya in the rest of the movie franchise.
Nehemiah Persoff voices Papa Mousekewitz, the head of the Mousekewitz family who plays the violin and tells stories to his children. Persoff, a respected actor in many films, was chose to pay the part of Papa Mousekewitz mostly because he had a similar role as Barbra Streisand's father in Yentl. His four most notable titles are Some Like It Hot, Twins, An American Tail, and The Wrong Man. I enjoy Some Like It Hot too. I've already written a column on it.
Erica Yohn voices Mama Mousekewitz, Fievel's mother. Yohn (Mama Mousekewitz) has appeared in many features, but he work as a Russian Rom on a TV show attracted the attention of Bluth and John Pomeroy. Her four most notable titles include Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Corrina, Corrina, An American Tail, and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
Pat Musick voices Tony Toponi, a streetwise teenage mouse of Italian descent. Musick (Tony Toponi) based Tony's voice on a friend she knew from grade school. Her four most notable titles are Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014), Batman: Mask of the Phantom, An American Tail, and the Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man cartoon series.
Dom DeLuise voices Tiger, the most physically imposing member of the Mott Street Maulers, for whom he serves as an enforcer, and often is the brunt of their cruel jokes. DeLuise (Tiger) had worked previously with 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. Dom is so fun to listen to. He's my favorite character. His four most notable titles include The Cannonball Run, Blazing Saddles, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and The Secret of NIMH. I enjoy All Dogs Go to Heaven too.
Christopher Plummer voices Henri le Pigeon, a pigeon of French descent, who oversees construction of the Statue of Liberty. Henri was originally to be voiced by comedian Sid Caesar, and was conceived as scraggly and worn, but later Plummer was cast for the part and Henri was drawn with a more dignified look. Bluth felt Henri was an essential character to act as a voice for the statue "welcoming" Fievel to the new world. His four most notable titles are Beginners, The Insider, Remember, and All the Money in the World. The Velveteen Rabbit television special is my absolute favorite.
Minor roles were voiced by Cathianne Blore as Bridget, an attractive, elegant Irish-born mouse and Tony's love interest; Neil Ross as Honest John, a local Irish-born mouse politician who knows every voting mouse in New York City; Madeline Kahn as Gussie Mausheimer, a German-born mouse considered the richest in New York City, who rallies the mice into fighting back against the cats; Will Ryan as Digit, Warren's British cockroach accountant who has a fondness for counting money but is plagued by frequent electrical charges in his antennae whenever he gets nervous or excited; Hal Smith as Moe, a fat rat who runs the local sweatshop; Dan Kuenster as Jake, Warren's burly aide-de-camp.
Background information: Production began in December 1984 as a collaboration between Spielberg, Bluth, and Universal, based on a concept by David Kirschner.
This was Spielberg'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 concept consisted of an all-animal work, 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, Spielberg agreed.
Bluth felt uncomfortable with the main character's name, thinking "Fievel" was too foreign-sounding, and he felt audiences wouldn't remember it. Spielberg disagreed. The character was named after his maternal grandfather, Phillip Posner, whose Yiddish name was Fievel. The scene in which he presses up against a window to look into a classroom filled with American "school mice" is based on a story Spielberg remembered about his grandfather, who told him Jews were only able to listen to lessons through open windows while sitting outside in the snow. Spielberg eventually won out, though something of a compromise was reached by having Tony refer to Fievel as "Filly".
Final Thoughts: As funny as it may seem An American Tail is one of my least favorite in the movie franchise, and one that I'm not as familiar with. I've only seen the original An American Tail a handful of times. I've seen the sequels a lot more. Despite that, it is a good little movie. It introduces the history of immigrants to its young audience and provides a perspective in that sense as well. I think it's a great film for youngsters to watch. It might give them, and maybe even adults, an idea of what people, even now, are going through.
On another note, the Giant Mouse of Minsk? Terrifying.
My favorite scene was the "Somewhere Out There" song sequence. This song is pretty much the only thing I remember from when I watched An American Tail as a child.
My favorite quote is "Hey, hey, who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" —Warren T. Rat
Rated: G
Where to watch it: According to Google, An American Tail is not currently available on any streaming service. But, you can purchase or rent a digital copy for few dollars.
The Emil M. Larson Public Library will be showing An American Tail as part of their Summer Reading Program Movie Lineup on June 26 at 3:00 p.m. Go and enjoy!
