Week Two: An American Tail

Year: 1986,

 Director: Don Bluth,

 Nostalgia Score: 4/5,

Most Recent Watch: As an adult, but only a few times.

Best Quote: "There are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese."

There are an inexplicable number of kids' movies featuring talking mice and many of them are actually quite good. Off the top of my head, I can think of An American Tail, but also The Secret of NIMH and the two Rescuers movies. One at a time though. This week, I specifically watched An American Tail and, let me tell you, I had much difference experiences watching this movie as a child and as an adult. As a kid, all of the historical context went straight over my head and I never really got emotional while watching. As an adult, I'm much more aware of just how dark and sad some parts of this movie actually are. But no matter how much my perception of the story has changed, the beautiful animation has not. I remember liking An American Tail (and other movies from director Don Bluth) because things glowed and sparkled in a way that you didn't see anywhere else. Even judging it against contemporary animated movies, those sparkles still seem like something really special.

Returning to the historical content in An American Tail, as a kid, I had no idea that Fievel and his family were Jewish and that they were leaving Russia because of antisemitism. I had no idea that all the other mice in New York City had different accents because they were immigrants too. I didn't know that Henri the pigeon had a French accent because The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the U.S. from France. And I especially had no idea what was going on with the references to sweatshops and Tammany Hall. While still in elementary school (freshly indoctrinated by those bizarrely patriotic social studies classes), I just took it for granted that the Mousekewitz family would want to live in America because of course they do. It is really impressive though, that nearly every major character in An American Tail is an immigrant. That makes it a really special kind of American tale that seems particularly relevant right now.

As previously mentioned, the other big difference watching An American Tail as an adult is how much I cried. I don't even remember thinking this movie was particularly sad when I was a kid. On this most recent watch though, there were many tears. I made it through Fievel getting washed off the boat, even though his tiny little screams of "Papa!" were heartbreaking. However, when his family gets to the immigration office the clerk asks Papa Mousekewitz, "How many?" and with tears in his eyes he answers, "Five. Oh, I mean four." I lost it. There are few things more gut wrenching than a parent quietly weeping for their lost child, even if that parent is a cartoon mouse. I also cried during the scene where Fievel hears violin music playing on a phonograph and runs towards it, thinking it must be his dad. You would think that all this business about a young child being separated from his parents would have really got to me as a similarly young child, but it didn't. It is truly surprising how un-empathetic kids can be.

Moving past my emotional experience, I have got to devote a few words to the stunning animation in this film. As I mentioned earlier, An American Tail was directed by the legendary Don Bluth. If there's an animated movie from the 80's or 90's that you always thought was Disney, but really wasn't, it was probably directed by Don Bluth. This isn't a coincidence, as he actually worked as an animator at Disney for a number of years before leaving. Anyway, the pretty animation starts as soon as the opening credits, with some really lovely snowflakes and a super slow zoom into the Mousekewitz home. I quite enjoy really artistic, creative opening credits, and these ones effectively lull you into an appropriate sense of coziness that will shortly be disrupted by a violent Cossack/cat attack.

Then, of course, there are those unearthly pretty effects that are used when anything is sparkling or glowing, as the snowflakes do in the opening credits. Though I particularly associate this special effect with The Secret of NIMH, it's all over the place in An American Tail too. We mostly see it with sparks, fire, fireworks, and water droplets. If you haven't seen it, it's very distinctive because it looks particularly tangible and almost hyper-real. It's absolutely beautiful, and I would love to know how the animators did it. It almost reminds me of that optical printing glow that the light sabers have in the original Star Wars films, but it's a lot cleaner looking. All of the glows and sparkles are made to pop even more because the film's color palette is fairly dark, so when these bright things do suddenly show up the contrast really striking. This combination of color palettes and sparkles are probably best used right at the end of the film, when Fievel is reunited with his family and friends. They're so happy to see each other that they just fall into a puddle of water hugging and crying with joy. And despite being set in the undoubtedly filthy 19th century New York City, this is the most beautiful puddle of water you could ever imagine. Immediately before the reunion, the predominate color is dark blue and grey, but as soon as Fievel is reunited with his father everything is filtered through ethereal golden light and that puddle sparkles like its made of diamonds. It's such an artful use of color to convey emotion. It's also worth mentioning that there is a similarly realistic quality to the clouds and smoke in An American Tail. The smoke and the glowing objects are combined very well during the Giant Mouse of Minsk and fire scenes.

Overall, An American Tail is both a really poignant and very pretty kids' movie. I certainly didn't appreciate how good it was before watching it as an adult. With another decade or two of emotional development under my belt, it seems like a much darker and more serious story. That glowing, golden happy ending is well earned.