Don Bluth is another animator I love along side Max Fleischer and Hayao Miyazaki, and this film An American Tail is one of my favorites from him; It is a childhood favorite.

A reason I like mice (not rats) is that well...they are the "goodbeasts" from my books like the "Redwall" series by Brian Jacques (my favorite author) and also "Mrs Frisby and The Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien (which was maded into another film by Don and well those rats are good so I could accept that). I love the romantic scene with Tony and Bridget (when they first meet that is), and besides I love Bridget,Tony,Tanya and Fievel himself.

I partially agree with some of the previous reviews here. Don Bluth never made another film quite like NIMH. But to be honest I think that he never made another film quite like An American Tail either. This bittersweet little movie is a charming yet deep experience.

The story is a simple one - whilst immigrating from Russia, a young mouse named Fievel is seperated from his family. The film is about his struggle to be reunited with them, and about the mice uniting together to stand up to their cat opressors.
Unlike NIMH, this movie isn't based on a book (although it's obviously inspired by Disney's Pinocchio), and it's a satisfying tribute to the 'American Dream.'
This film kinda reminds me of a John Steinbeck book I read, called 'Of Mice and Men,' where the main characters dream of a place where food is plentiful, and pain and prejudice are non-existent. It too, is about the 'American Dream' and like the film, the characters realise that it is this very dream that cannot be realised. Perhaps if An American Tail had a sad ending, it might even displace NIMH as Bluth's most powerful film.

There are a few flaws - the songs, although catchy, I felt were unnecessary time filler. The only exception I think is 'There are No Cats in America,' which builds up the hope that is to be so tragically dashed. 'Somewhere Out There' was nice, but I think it would be better off as a background song.

This is not the best Don Bluth film, but it's an excellent story which far surpasses Bluth's later efforts. Small children will probably be bored to death by this, but anyone aged 7 or over is bound to like it. Highly recommended.

I remember this one. CUTE! Little mice immigrants. JUST CUTE!!! Mice migrate from Europe in hopes of a new life just like the humans of the time and to achieve the American Dream. I loved the plotline and little Fievel is adorable. Just watch it for yourself.

Don Bluth followed up his masterpiece The Secret of NIMH with another mouse movie. This time, the story focused on the immigrant Mousekewitz family who fled mother Russia for New York because "There are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese." Along the way, little Fievel aka Filly was washed overboard and separated from his family leading to the Grammy winning classic song Somewhere Out There. Aside from the quest to reunite Fievel and family, the story involves the American mice's plan to send all the cats to Hong Kong, as it turns out there are cats in America and the streets actually aren't paved with cheese.

The film is all right, but it isn't really that exciting. The songs are one of the main highlights. One thing that really annoyed me was that Fievel's sister was the only one that was even looking for him. Daddy mouse kept explaining away any hints that his little mousling was still alive.

In 1986, An American Tail's $47 million earnings were considered a pretty decent success - significantly larger than Disney's Great Mouse Detective's $38 million earlier that year. Like other Bluth projects with moderate success, this film spawned a ton of follow-ups. There was Fievel Goes West, the theatrical sequel, then the TV series Fievel's American Tails. Also there were two more direct to video sequels, The Treasure of Manhattan Island, and The Mystery of the Night Monster.

In all, this is a nice "tail" of the immigrant struggle relatable to kids, but not really a movie I want to watch over and over again. Sorry Feivel. You get a B-.

For the first few minutes of this film I usually hit the fast forward button so that I can avoid watching the long snowflake opening titles. Yes they’re pretty and that but they serve no real purpose and speeding pass them doesn’t affect the rest of the film. We can tell it’s winter by the snow on the background paintings, this isn’t the Grinch film, where a snowflake can be the whole world.

With the titles in the past the real film begins and we find our little cute hero and his family (as well as their human mirrors) celebrating Hanukah; Papa playing his violin and Fievel is given his hat that he’ll spend the next hour losing and retrieving. Not soon after, their celebrations are cut short by a group of “Cossack” cats and human counterparts. This is a strange metaphor for religious persecution, using the natural enemies of cat and mouse, for what is in reality a very human problem. Its also a theme that sometimes weakens the importance of Fievel’s journey to reunite with his family.

This powerful beginning is, in some ways, a reversal of the more slower, more mature beginning of Bluth’s previous film Secret of Nimh; which is altogether less bombastic than this film. Much of this must have been a result of working with Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment. Sentimentality may be one of the usual things that Spielberg brings to the works, but so is a higher budget to make more elaborate, more action orientated scenes.

If you compare this with Nimh then Fievel has some pretty big shoes to fill, he’s simply not as interesting as Mrs. Brisby and her quest. Taken on his own terms Fievel is a cute creation, but doesn’t necessary have the qualities to carry the film by himself. It doesn’t help that during some of the movie he’s a mischievous and plucky individual, but through most of the film he crying, about to cry or just plain unhappy about his predicament. Of course he has plenty reason to be these things, but for most of the film he just there to look cute while other characters fill the screen.

And it is these secondary characters that help save the film somewhat, carrying the viewers interest through the bulk of the movie; keeping them entertained. Tanya is perhaps the strongest of the rest of the Mousekewitz family and the only one given anything much to do after a while, yet apart from trying to convince mum and dad that they should go look for her little brother she doesn’t really do a great deal. Tony helps give the film some character, but every time I see him these days I can’t help but recalled Lampwick from Disney’s Pinocchio; only without the turning into donkey scene. Tony’s persona is nicely opposite to Fievel’s innocence and naivety, being both streetwise and nondependent. Ultimately he as clueless as his protégé as to how to help, especially after seeing Bridget.

It must be said that Honest John and Miss Gussie Mausheimmer are the characters who really steal the show. Both may be stereotypes of the politician and the extremely wealthy, but some of the best parts of the movie have them somewhere involved; as well as the fact that they actually move the film along from stagnation.

Tiger is kind of a repeat of Jeremy from Nimh, although both characters are effectively a send up of Dom DeLuise, who performs both voices. Whatever the case, Tiger really appears too late in the film and doesn’t do enough to make much real impact.

Some of the background characters tend to repeat a bit too much, a rather obnoxious kid with the glasses appears three times during the film, this starts jarring after you start noticing, especially since they are suppose to be different characters. Otherwise the character animation is strong, with Fievel being the best of all naturally.

The music is mostly good, if somewhat over melodic and laboured at times, but this is understandable as this isn’t a film with happiness written on it. Songs are very hit and miss, mostly miss with only the delightful “Somewhere Out There” and “Duo” on the hit side; the later less so. The former marks a high note of the film, which is something which the young actors have trouble with reaching with any degree of subtlety, yet they sing it as you’d expect real kids to. “Duo” is just a silly little ditty that lightens up the mood and gives the audience something to bring them back up, as well as forming the fringe of a relationship for the duo.

All in all, An American Tail is a decent family film: but problems with the meandering story, and a whole collection of secondary characters propping up the film mean that it is just short of reaching the mark. Yes at times it is charming and at others it can be difficult; yet its inconsistent nature works against it and while it a good film, for me it just misses that vital something for me to give it three.

This is one of the rare cases where I liked the sequal better than the first. Don't get me wrong, I do like this one quite a bit, but it lacks something that the sequal has. The story is fairly good, but it's a little slow in places. There are a couple songs I enjoyed in this movie. I think they were placed in the right spots, and one is Tiger(a cat voiced by Dom Deluise) and Fievel(the hero) sing "a Duo". The score is excellent (composed by James Horner), and the animation is great. Overall an enjoyable romp. :)

If you're a fan of The Secret of NIMH, don't expect anything just as great with THESE mice from Mr. Bluth.

An American Tail was a satire about immigrants coming to America in the late 1800's and early 1900's, when Russians escaped persecution (or in this case "cats") to go to America in which there was no persectuion (heh, suckers...) and gold ("cheese").

Yeah. Well, although some of the songs downright irritated me (think "Never Say Never"), the movie all and all was pretty cute. The animation was nice too, and some of the backdrops were beautiful.

For the time period it emerged, I think Bluth and Spielberg did an okay job on this movie, in which Fievel gets lost in the big city and faces many of the problems immigrants did while he tries to find his family.

Although aimed at the whole family, it kind of weirded me out as a kid. This may have been due to the style of Don Bluth, but I'm not really sure. A lot of it was rather heart-wrenching (if you're sensitive to family issues like me), but worth seeing on a rainy day with a bag of popcorn and a loved one.

It's not a bad movie by any stretch, but after the masterpiece 'The Secret of NIMH', I had come to expect big things of Don Bluth. Unfortunately, AAT is a step backward in every department, and unfortunately, worse was to come, as Bluth backslid at the same time that Disney finally hit their straps again.

I'll admit it's a long time since I've watched this movie, and so I'm not going to attempt to give a very authoratative review, except to say that generally speaking the characters were less endearing, the story less poignant, and the artistry less marsteful than in NIMH. Fieval is a likeable enough hero. Likeable, but not, for my money, loveable. The duet song is excellant. The cat is just silly.

If anyone else had made this movie, I would probably have given it a thumbs-up at the time, for introducing a talented new player into the field. As it stands though, 'An American Tail' can't help but be rated by comparison with 'The Secret of NIMH', and in every respect it is depressingly inferior.

edit: it strikes me now that the silly cat may have been in 'Fievel Goes West', or possibly both. Apologies to anyone who watches this expecting a silly cat and doesn't find one.

I love Fievel! The plot was so enchanting, though highly unbelievable, but still an awesome movie. Don Bluth had some of the greatest films mmade in the 1980's, and An Amrican Tail is diffently one of them.

Don Bluth's inherently weak narrative abilities combined with Spielberg sentimentality makes for a very poor combination. One can't deny the big impact this movie had on my childhood. Fievel is just such an adorable character and his plight to find his family is so emotional that you can't help but like the movie. You also can't deny the lasting power of the theme song "Somewhere Out There", however poorly sung Fievel's version is. An American Tail is one of Don Bluth's more successful movies, so obviously it does a few things right. However there are two things wrong with this movie. One, the songs are weak and seem out of place, except for maybe the theme song. Two, the villain is terrible and never seems menacing. The movie is dark throughout, both in terms of color and in atmosphere. It seems Don Bluth wanted to inject a level of seriousness into an already emotional tale by adding in themes of suffering and revolution in Russia, all of which are nothing but window dressing but may still suitably upset younger kids. When held up against a certain other mouse movie by Don Bluth, The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail has no magic or sparkle. The scene with the fish crunching on cockroaches may churn stomachs, and the giant mechanical cat scene is just a bit too much to swallow. However, this is as good a Don Bluth film as any, and if you have to check it out, watch this one and skip its charmless sequel. At any rate, Dom Deluise still makes a fine character, whether it's Jeremy the crow or Tiger the cat, and is worth the price of a viewing alone.