An American Tail
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An American Tail is an animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and directed by Don Bluth, originally released in movie theatres on November 21, 1986. It was the first full-length animated film released by Universal Pictures (then a division of MCA, now currently a division of GE's NBC Universal).
Story
This film is the story of a family of Jewish-Russian mice who emigrate to New York City, believing that there are no cats in America. Once there, they immediately discover that there are indeed cats in America and plenty of them, and begin living in a typical late 19th/early 20th century immigrant manner: working in a sweatshop, living in horrible conditions, and paying the cats tribute as an alternative to being eaten. The film follows Fievel Mousekewitz (his first name comes from that of Steven Spielberg's grandfather), who is separated from his family as the boat approaches America; the movie chronicles Fievel's search for his family.An American Tail is an allegory for the terrible conditions immigrants to the United States faced at the turn of the century (the mice represent the Jewish immigrants, and the cats their Anti-Semitic tormentors) and the film is similar in this respect to Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus.
As such, the ethnic and even religious backgrounds of characters are made somewhat more clear than is normal in animation. This is most true in the case of Fievel's family, but it is also true with other characters. For example, characters discuss their lives "back home" in Ireland, Sicily, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. Later, a dead mouse is shown clutching a rosary and a cross.
Production
Fievel was voiced by Phillip Glasser, who later did voicework for A Troll in Central Park. The voices of Mama and Papa are Erica Yohn and Nehemiah Persoff, who had no other roles in animation. Dom DeLuise, who also voiced Don Bluth's The Secret of NIMH, All Dogs Go to Heaven and A Troll in Central Park, was the voice of Tiger, a fat but friendly vegetarian cat that Fievel befriends (who presumably represents the less prejudiced of American citizens).
Note that while all of the animal characters were animated from scratch, the human characters are portrayed using the rotoscoping technique, in which sequences were shot in live action and then traced onto animation cels. This provides a realistic look for human characters, and distinguishes the cartoonish animal characters from the more realistically-animated humans. Rotoscoping is frequently employed in Don Bluth films, including The Secret of NIMH and Anastasia.
Release
The movie became the highest grossing 'Non-Disney' animated feature in first release in history at the time, drawing over $47 million USD. But it would later be beaten by another Don Bluth film, The Land Before Time, creating the impression that Don Bluth had wrested the animated movie genre away from Disney. That record would in turn be shattered by Disney's 28th animated feature film - The Little Mermaid.Sequels and TV Series
The film was followed by its theatrical sequel [[An American Tail: Fievel Goes West]], the television series Fievel's American Tails, and two direct-to-video sequels [[An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island]] and [[An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster]], none of which Don Bluth had any involvement with. Most viewers consider the first film to be the best in the series.Fievel later served as the mascot for Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, appearing in its production logo.
Fievel has his own playground at Universal Studios Florida, featuring a large water slide and many over-sized objects such as books, glasses, cowboy boots, and more.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack includes a Grammy-winning James Horner song, "Somewhere Out There."
Soundtrack album track listing
- Main Title (orchestral)
- The Cossack Cats (orchestral)
- There Are No Cats In America (song)
- The Storm (orchestral)
- Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor (orchestral)
- Never Say Never (song)
- The Market Place (orchestral)
- Somewhere Out There (song)
- Somewhere Out There (performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram)
- Releasing the Secret Weapon (orchestral)
- A Duo (song)
- The Great Fire (orchestral)
- Reunited (orchestral)
- Flying Away and End Credits (orchestral)
External links
| Don Bluth |
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| Video Games |
| Dragon's Lair (1983) • Space Ace (1984) • [[Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp]] (1991) |
| Animated films |
| The Small One (1978) • Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1982) • The Secret of NIMH (1982) • An American Tail (1986) • The Land Before Time (1988) • All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) • Rock-A-Doodle (1991) • Thumbelina (1994) A Troll in Central Park (1994) • The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) • Anastasia (1997) • Bartok the Magnificent (1999) • Titan A.E. (2000) |
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