While emigrating to the United States, a young Russian mouse gets separated from his family and must relocate them while trying to survive in a new country.
A canine angel, Charlie, sneaks back to earth from heaven but ends up befriending an orphan girl who can speak to animals. In the process, Charlie learns that friendship is the most heavenly gift of all.
Captain New Eyes travels back in time and feeds dinosaurs his Brain Grain cereal, which makes them intelligent and nonviolent. They agree to go to the Middle Future (this era) in order to ... See full summary »
The last surviving child of the Russian Royal Family joins two con men to reunite with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, while the undead Rasputin seeks her death.
In order to defeat the Grand Duke of Owls, a young boy transformed into a cat teams up with a group of barnyard animals to find a rooster who can raise the sun.
Fievel is a young Russian mouse separated from his parents on the way to America, a land they think is without cats. When he arrives alone in the New World, he keeps up hope, searching for his family, making new friends, and running and dodging the cats he thought he'd be rid off.Written by
Michael Silva <silvamd@cleo.bc.edu>
The dvd and bluray jacket front cover shows Fievel's sister Tanya as she appears in the sequel. See more »
Goofs
A mouse on the boat to America tells a story involving a calico cat ("tortoiseshell"). Several times, he refers to the cat as "he" or "him". Unless suffering from an extremely rare genetic defect, all calico/tortoiseshell cats are female. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Mama Mousekewitz:
Tanya, Fievel! Will you stop that twirling, twirling! Uh, no. No more, that's it. Time for bed, come.
Papa Mousekewitz:
But Mama, it's Hanukkah.
Mama Mousekewitz:
For you, every night is Hanukkah. Papa? Enough already. They'll never get to sleep.
Papa Mousekewitz:
All right, all right.
See more »
Crazy Credits
The first half of the end credits feature period engravings of what New York City looked like in the 1880s. See more »
Alternate Versions
In addition to the altered voices, added dialogue, and extra sound effects, the 5.1 remix on the DVD and Blu-ray also has the end credits music edited differently. The transition from the score to the song "Somewhere Out There" is less seamless and comes later in the credits, and the violin solo near the end is completely removed. See more »
Not only is An American Tail easily one of the best animated features ever made, but it proves to be leaps beyond the efforts of recent Disney movies by refusing to be constricted to an all-too-familiar formula. This movie does not stay within the cozy, comfortable guidelines that Disney adheres to in order to make money. Instead, it tells a truly unique tale, one not borrowed from any other source, and one overflowing with artistic wonder and originality.
The characters you will see here are not stock, not pulled from the typical Disney hat. The story is not a chuckle-a-minute, lowbrow attempt to take the easy way out in pandering to children. The main character, Fievel, suffers real hardships and tragedy, and stares into the despair of his own soul before the movie is finished. This, of course, makes the ending that much more satisfying, an infinitely more significant and authentic moment than any cardboard cut-out Disney plot.
If you want to see what animation was meant to be as an art form, if you want to feel the power and emotion that can truly be reaped from this under-appreciated and over-commercialized medium, look no further than An American Tail.
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Not only is An American Tail easily one of the best animated features ever made, but it proves to be leaps beyond the efforts of recent Disney movies by refusing to be constricted to an all-too-familiar formula. This movie does not stay within the cozy, comfortable guidelines that Disney adheres to in order to make money. Instead, it tells a truly unique tale, one not borrowed from any other source, and one overflowing with artistic wonder and originality.
The characters you will see here are not stock, not pulled from the typical Disney hat. The story is not a chuckle-a-minute, lowbrow attempt to take the easy way out in pandering to children. The main character, Fievel, suffers real hardships and tragedy, and stares into the despair of his own soul before the movie is finished. This, of course, makes the ending that much more satisfying, an infinitely more significant and authentic moment than any cardboard cut-out Disney plot.
If you want to see what animation was meant to be as an art form, if you want to feel the power and emotion that can truly be reaped from this under-appreciated and over-commercialized medium, look no further than An American Tail.