An American Tail is a beautifully rendered animated flim that tells an overly familiar story in terms children can easily understand. Fievel Mousekewitz and his family of Russian-Jewish mice escape from their homeland in the late 1800s, boarding a boat headed toward America to evade the Czarist rule of the Russian cats. Fievel, however, is separated from his family upon his arrival in New York City, and he discovers to his horror that there are cats in America too (his father said there
weren't). Fievel meets his share of friendly and hostile mice, and he eventually befriends a cat as well. Former Disney animator Don Bluth co-produced and directed this often heartwarming yarn, the first animated feature presented by Steven Spielberg, and it has its charms despite a number of cliché situations. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
Cartoons with ambitions even this noble are as rare as Steven Spielberg films that lose money, but every character and every situation presented herein have been seen a thousand times before.
It may be that the truly American tale here is the spectacle of an artist squandering his awesome gifts on the way to becoming a Hollywood institution.
he movie has such vague ethnic grounds, however, that only a few children will understand or care that the Mousekewitzes are Jewish. And few of those are likely to be entertained by such a tragic, gloomy story.
The story is moving, and the animation includes some powerful images, although some of the early scenes depicting the suffering of the mice in Russia may be too frightening for younger viewers.
For all its state-of-the-art animation techniques, Spielberg's production remains resolutely conservative: visually it's virtually indistinguishable from Walt at his wimpiest.
Like other Spielberg-produced movies, this one pays homage to old movie traditions (live-action Westerns) and icons, but the film has been made mechanically, without any conviction or feeling.
A tale of immigration told through a cartoon world. This plays on a few Classic tales and re-watching the film at the age I am now you can really pick up on metaphors in relation to the human world. Despite all of the modern effects such as CGI, this film still works as a timeless piece of animation.
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