Review of An American Tail (1986) by Jonny P — 09 Feb 2014

"An American Tail" is one of the better efforts by director Don Bluth but it falls short of Disney in every category. The best part of this film is its quality animation, but it still does not reach the standard set by Disney.

There are some interesting characters but they cram so many characters in this 80-minute film that even some of the important characters are in the story for less than 5 minutes (including the villain).

What was the point of the cockroach, the drunken "Honest John," and those three bully mice toward the end? Even Henri the pigeon was only in the film for 5 minutes (and he had his own feature song)! The songs are good but (with the exception of "Somewhere Out There") you won't be singing them for weeks after the movie is over.

The story is interesting but if your biggest twist is that a mouse is actually a cat in disguise (and none of the characters notice the size difference), the audience is going to be disappointed. In fact, the biggest surprise of the film is that the writers did not give Fievel any sort of character transformation throughout the story.

It is so obvious that he should either become brave, independent, mature, or responsible by the end of the film but aside from growing into his hat, he is the same as he was at the beginning. There is even a great emotional moment at the end of the film with a poignant final line, but then it is spoiled with a comical bonus scene and a winking Statue of Liberty.

It just feels like the magic is missing. I am really shocked that this film outperformed Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective," a far superior film. The story has so much potential as it is probably the only animated portrayal of immigration and there could have been a lot of interesting parallels between American immigrants and mouse immigrants finding their way in America; however, the parallels end as soon as the mice arrive and then the story completely fades away from the sociological challenges of life in a new place.

My favorite part of the film is James Horner's beautiful cultural scoring, both through the violin solos played by Papa Mousekewitz and the main theme that expresses the loneliness of Fievel. Sorry Don Bluth, the best part of your film doesn't even involve the animation and direction.

"An American Tail" is one of those films that, even though isn't the greatest, you should see it due to its historical importance (one of Bluth's financial victories in his competition with the Disney company throughout the 80's); however, if you want to see Don Bluth's best work, check out "Anastasia.

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