My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analyses: "An American Tail" - The Second Don Bluth Animated Feature Starring a Mouse That Was Successful

Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies.

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I wanted to outshine the Statue of Liberty :)

I`m trying to stand like this to
be taller :)

Mice and rodents has always been perfect to animation. For the sake of being cute, accessible and easy to make. After all, we`ll have to remember that the one who started it all (pardon my intended pun) for Walt Disney was a tiny, little rodent that became representative of his company. But the 1980`s was a peculiar time which had many animated movies starring mice. Sure, it was somewhat preceded with 1977`s The Rescuers. But it was expanded in the 1980`s. The first one was The Secret of NIMH, which wasn`t financially successful domestically, but gained it`s fanbase. But the year of 1986 actually had two movies that starred those cute and tiny rodents.

Yes, this saloon is gun-free :)

The first one was Disney`s The Great Mouse Detective. Which perhaps haven`t been regarded highly by Disney Historians, but still managed to make it`s small impact on Disney`s history. But the second movie was essentially one that managed to outgross Disney`s own rodent movie. And that was also from Disney`s nemesis, the same people who were behind NIMH, Don Bluth. If you`ve followed the career of Don Bluth, he left Disney as he felt that they didn`t took enough risks. But he still managed to make his own impact on animation, as his movies were outgrossing Disney`s in the 1980`s. And one of these contenders were An American Tail.

General Information About An American Tail

Yes, this coin is heavy, but it
will make me rich. So it`s
worth carrying it :)

Released November 21th 1986, An American Tail
was the second full-length feature directed by Don Bluth. It was produced by Bluth, John Pomeroy and Gary Goldman. It was Universal's third animated film. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer. James Horner (Titanic, Balto) composed score (his first score for an animated film) and wrote the songs with Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann (who`ve written for Dolly Parton). David Steinberg was the assistant director. David Goetz (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tangled) was an background artist.

Snow White kissed me :)

Ralph and Dick Zondag (Pocahontas, Dinosaur), T. Daniel Hofstedt (Aladdin,

Mulan) and Michael Cedeno (Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas) were the animators.

Don Paul (Aladdin, Pocahontas) was the special effect animator. David Bossert (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) was special effects assistant. Tim Allen (Aladdin, The Lion King) Eric Daniels (Tarzan, Treasure Planet) and Brian Primental (A Goofy Movie Tarzan) were the clean-up inbetweeners. The music was recorded in Abbey Road Studios in London. While Tail received mixed reviews, it still was a commercial success, Grossing $85 million worldwide on a $9 million budget. And it sold 75 million VHS tapes.

The Plot and Elements of An American Tail

Yes, I thought your mustache
was curtains :)

As for the plot

of An American Tail, it`s a story about a journey to a new

paradise. And yes, it is something that actually could reflected as what happened with American immigrants. It`s also remarkable how this movie would precede Anastasia with a Russian setting and even with some similar designs. But Tail is also a story about a protagonist who gets separated from his family and must reuinite with them. It`s also a story about the feud between cats (who in this movie comes across as feriocious and grand monsters) and mice. But it`s also includes a brief friendship between those adversaries. Between Fivel and Tiger, who`s the only nice cat.

We`re the drooling cats :)
Don`t ask us why :)

And who also has his own need and mission. And yes, while it may be a shallow comparision, their friendship does somewhat resemble that of Mowgli and Baloo in The Jungle Book. An American Tail is also a musical. But it`s designs does highly resemble Bluth`s previous features. And sure, since An American Tail is essentially another rodent movie, it`s superfluous to compare it to it`s predecessors. Cause it`s different from them (as the lead is a child and the story isn`t about a rescue mission). But still also take cues from them. As it has animals and humans co-existing, like in The Rescuers and The Secret of NIMH.

The Ratings and Controversy

As for the overall legacy of An American Tail, it was a movie that was popular at it`s time. And as for it`s final reception, it has a 6.9. on Imdb, 76% on Rottentomatoes and 71% on Popcornmeter. And it has 41K followers on Facebook. And at the time of its domestic release, it became the highest-grossing animated feature, even for a non-Disney movie. And when it was released on Home Video, it made some critics change their minds on the film However, Tail didn`t escape controversy. Art Spiegelman accused Spielberg of plagiarism, as the Jews are depicted as mice in the film. Just as in Spiegelman's Maus, a metaphor he adopted from Nazi propaganda.

Instead of pursuing copyright litigation, he tried beat its release date by splitting Maus to two volumes and publish the first before he even finished the second. But at least some praised the decision, as Time's Richard Schickel was pleased by Fievel was Jewish. Charles Solomon criticized how Fievel`s dad didn't move like of an old Russian Jew. And compared the cats and mice conflict as a metaphor for religious persecution. The Post criticized the depiction, but Des Moines Register supported it, as he equated cats with Nazis and Cossacks. But McDonalds were urged to take back Christmas stockings with Fievel's face during, for being a Jewish character in a Christmas stocking.

Franchise

And it ain`t going to be
cheap :)

An American Tail was popular enough to warrant a franchise.

The theatrical sequel Fievel Goes West was released five years later it`s predecessor (1991). And followed Fievel and his family from New York to the Wild West (having John Cleese and Jimmy Stewart in his very last role as Wylie Burp). Directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells and produced by Spielberg. While it was a modest success theatrically ($40,766,041 Worldwide), it found it`s success on VHS (at the time, it haed the record for shortest theater-to-home-video transfer).

Those pictures are from our
playground :)

A 13-episode TV series called Fievel's American Tails aired on the CBS network between September and December 1992. Where both Wylie Burp and Tony Toponi were written off (the former for James Stewart's retirement and the latter as Pat Musick raised her daughter Mae Whitman). Two direct-to-video films were also later produced by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment: The Treasure of Manhattan Island in 1998 (the first in the series not produced by Amblin Entertainment) and The Mystery of the Night Monster in 1999. And yes, there were plans to do some TV specials, but they never appeared.

Behind the Scenes Information

They drew me when I was
having my hiccup :)

Originally An American Tail was conceived as a TV special. But Spielberg felt it had potential as a feature film. And asked Bluth to make something like NIMH. The crew back groaned about making another mouse picture. But it was Spielberg's first animated feature, and it took time for him to learn that adding a two-minute scene would take months of work. Jerry Goldsmith urged Spielberg NIMH for it`s quality. But Spielberg didn`t make many changes in the script or the storyboards. Production on Tail began in December 1984. Originally the film was about of an all-animal world, like Disney's Robin Hood. But Bluth suggested featuring an animal world hidden from the human world. Emmy Award-winning writers Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss (Sesame Street) wrote the script. Bluth had never written a script, as he was used to the Disney tradition to write as they animated it, before a script was completed. But it proved to be an huge task.

You`ll grow into this hat
someday :)

When the script was complete, it was long and was heavily

edited. Bluth was uncertain with Fievel`s name, as he thought it was too foreign-sounding. But Spielberg disagreed. Fivel was named after his maternal grandfather, Philip Posner. Spielberg won, but a compromise was reached by Tony refer to Fievel as "Filly". Spielberg cut some material that was too intense for children. Nehemiah Persoff was chosen as Papa Mousekewitz cause he had a similar role as Barbra Streisand's father in Yentl. How John Finnegan won the part of Warren T. Rat by reciting Shakespeare's Hamlet in a Brooklyn taxi driver`s voice, had the writers make Warren a pretentious illiterate who misquoted Shakespeare. The style of the characters was like Disney`s style from the 1940s, where the characters looked softer and cuddlier. Which was made to make it different. Which the critics praised.

I`m screaming because I`m
freezing without my pants :)

While it was proposed to move the entire production to Ireland, Spielberg balked at the idea of an American setting being made overseas. But he allowed the film to be painted in Ireland for financial reasons. Bluth and his crew discovered that a video printer increased their productivity. They could videotape an action, then print out small black and white thermal images from the tape for reference. They also built models and photographed them. Manty outside parties also requested changes to the movie. But it halted the production, and Bluth felt that he lost freedom of control. As the deadline came, pressure grew among the crew, as production was slower. The songwriters had written the score later than desired, as they were given four weeks. But it also affected the story (for baby Yasha's disappearance after the boat trip). Union difficulties also plagued production, as Bluth had agreed with $6.5 million (which later grew to $9 million).

These are the different stages
of becoming tabby :)

They had to freeze the salaries for a year and a half. But Bluth felt it was worth the sacrifice to work with Spielberg on a major project. But they couldn`t be members of the union, as the rates required the price to be high. But the new Sullivan Bluth studios were non-union, and many workers tried to withdraw from the union. Why is why Bluth relocated to Ireland at last. Tail began a trend of shorter time schedules, tighter budgets and high security (requested by Spielberg). At first Tom Bahler was brought (who worked with Quincy Jones and recorded We Are The World). While the songwriters didn't think they had a hit, Spielberg thought that Somewhere Out There could be one. Which it became and won two Grammys. Goldsmith was considered to compose the score, but declined to other works. The crew gave the impression that it would be the greatest animated film in history. Unlike NIMH, Tail debuted in over 1200 theaters. The success of Tail came as a surprise to Bluth, as he and his crew were busy moving to Ireland at the time.

Epilogue

At the end, An American Tail is a noteworthy and remembered addition to the World of Animation. Released in a time where animation was different and where it was Hand Drawn, it made it`s own small impact. As for my own personal opinion, I remember seeing it theatrically when I was a toddler. And frankly not liking it. Frankly, I found the movie unappealing and off-putting, as it didn`t click with me. And frankly, I never liked Bluth`s work as a child, as I found his material to be on par with Tail. But watching it again for the sake of this entry, it`s essentially a mixed bag for me.

While it is better than I remembered and does have it`s genuine endearing moments, it`s also awfully and blatantly juvenile. The screenplay is poorly structured and scattered. And frankly the movie feels too sloppy and uneven as a whole. So yeah, I liked it, but at the same time it could`ve been better. At the end, it`s hard to believe that it`s now been 40 years old since it was released. But considering that this entry was meant to synergize with it`s 40th Anniversary, there`s nothing left than to wish An American Tail Happy 40th Anniversary and may you continue to have many more.