Review of An American Tail (1986) by Saban E — 14 Oct 2011

As close to a perfect animated film as you can get, and definitely my favorite film of all time. A lot of people seem on the fence about this film, or unable to quite enjoy the characters or the style. It's perfect for me. Creepy rats, timid mice, a globe-spanning story of finding a new homeland, and a young child separated from his family in a strange, new, dangerous land. There is a lot to eat up in this film, and I feel like the only thing keeping it from having an Oscar or Academy Award is because it's about mice and not humans.

Take away the musical numbers and the animated anthro characters through whose eyes we see the world of early turn of the century New York City. Take all of that away and what do you have? A touching story about an immigrant child lost at sea, who washes up on American shores and must evade swindlers and killers involved in child labor, while making new friends, liberating people from the strong arm tactics of the child laborers, and reuniting himself with his family. Don't try to convince me that this is not Oscar material, because you won't. In fact, putting this story through the small, vulnerable eyes of a mouse makes it even more poignant, because it takes this incredible story and adds an incredible amount of atmosphere and gorgeous animation.

Now I've seen people complain about the style, with one of the biggest complaints being that the cats look like otherworldly monsters. Simple. It's cats through the eyes of mice. This reigns in one of my biggest points on this film. Everything is from the viewpoint of Fievel, the young mouse the story revolves around. Everything, fearful or magical, is seen as through his eyes. There is a realism and a grounded feel to the story and the animation, for being about cats and mice, as its all very elseworlds, but what needs to be interpreted in a mousey viewpoint still manages to retain consistency.

As far as the music, I love it. Well, the musical numbers are okay, and I consider Somewhere Out There to be the lowest scene in the movie, although cute, but the actual instrumental music is so beautiful I would swear no Disney film has ever come close to its haunting melodies. However, the film doesn't quite hold a candle to a Disney film in terms of musical numbers, although I don't see that as the biggest and best thing about the film, so I don't consider it a downside. They are good for what they are.

The voice cast for this film is stellar. Every character is portrayed so memorably, I swear I can imitate almost all of them, from Papa Mousekewitz, to tough yet flirtatious Tony Toponi. I've heard a lot of criticism for Tony, and yeah I guess he could be irritating to some, but he's my favorite character in the story. You see, I'm not claiming any originality for the film's characters, but every stereotype is added in simply to make the story and setting more familiar for children, and that's good. This is, after all, a film intended mainly for children, but I also believe that for adults there is a lot of meat here. Moreso than most give it credit for.

The final complaint I want to address is mainly one Roger Ebert brought up, which is that the film is too depressing. Well, that depends on what you find depressing I guess. A lot of very sad things happen in this film, yes, but it's incredibly light-hearted for what it's about. I mean, it could have been so much worse, and I applaud Don Bluth for having the cajones to tackle the hard, realistic issues he did, such as feelings of abandonment, or the danger a child alone in a big city is threatened with.

All in all, this movie is a masterpiece, and one that is heavily underrated. I hope you read though this, and I hope my points gave you pause to think of the film in a different light.