Welcome, welcome to another edition of Millennial Misremembers. I love to cover holiday content this time of year. While technically not a holiday film, An American Tail opens on the first night of Hanukkah. That counts enough in my book.
Steven Spielberg served as executive producer, and Don Bluth directed the film. With a story by David Kirschner and a script written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, An American Tail was released on November 21, 1986. It was the highest-grossing non-Disney animated movie at the time of its release.
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What I (mis)remember
I was obsessed with the song “Somewhere Out There.” I don’t remember if I had the American Tail soundtrack or the film on VHS. But I probably drove my family up the wall with my constant singing of this song. I’m not sure if I made the Jewish connection in my childhood, but looking back on it now, it’s not surprising that I was so drawn to this movie. As I’m learning now, I’ve always been pulled to anything Jewish.
Let’s rewatch!
An American Tail opens in 1885 in Shostka, Russia (modern-day Ukraine). The Mousekewitzes live in the home of the human Moskowitzes. Cute. Mama (Erica Yohn) warns Tanya (Amy Green/Alitzah/Betsy Cathcart) and Fievel (Phillip Glasser) to stop twirling and go to bed.
“But, Mama, it’s Hanukkah!” protests Papa (Nehemiah Persoff). The kids agree. They are very interested in getting presents. It’s here that I want to point out that Mama and Papa have “Russian/Yiddish” accents, while the children are decidedly, and incongruously, US American. Anyway, their gifts. Papa (and Mama!) gifts Tanya a new babushka and Fievel a hat that’s been in the family for many generations. It does not fit his tiny head. Then the kids settle in for a bedtime story.
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Papa tells them about the amazing land of America: Where you can say whatever you want, every home has a mouse hole, there are bread crumbs on all the floors, and most importantly, there are no cats. In other words, it’s the Golden Land.
Every time Papa says the word “cat,” Mama freaks out, worried they‘ll hear him. On cue, a pogrom begins. Cossack humans set fire to houses and Cossack cats attack mice.
Fievel tries to fight back. At one point, he runs into an empty (human-sized) boot. The Mousekewitzes’s home is destroyed. Papa repeats his line that in America, there are no cats.
Hamburg, Germany. The Mousekewitzes have made it to a ship bound for New York City. Oh, this is so cute. Fievel keeps asking questions about everything he sees. Papa, exasperated that his child won’t keep up the pace, responds, “Fievel, this is the last time I take you to America.”
Fievel’s curiosity is boundless. The more Papa teaches him, the less he’s sated. Case in point: Fievel learns there’s more than one type of fish, and Fievel wants to jump into the ocean.
Next, Papa launches into a song. It may be jaunty in tune, but the lyrics certainly are not. He is an orphan because cats. BUT! There are no cats in America. Mice from Italy and Ireland have verses about the awful cats in their own countries and how much better life will be in America, the land of no cats.
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As the journey continues, it becomes more perilous. One stormy night, curiosity nearly kills the mouse. Fievel goes on deck to see fish but gets dragged out to sea. He imagines the waves as a monster as it swallows him.
You know, this movie is really stressful.
Now his family thinks Fievel is dead. The Mousekewitzes arrive at Ellis Island. When they register as four instead of five, Papa isn’t the only one in tears.
Meanwhile, Fievel floats in a bottle toward the Statue of Liberty while a choir sings the sonnet etched upon her (“The New Colossus“). Lest anyone ever dare accuse An American Tail of subtly.
When Fievel lands, he meets Henri (Christopher Plummer), a French pigeon. Henri calls him his “Little Immigrant” and cleans him up. He also schools Fievel on the American Dream … “Hope for the best, work for the rest and never say never again!” Glasser does a lovely bit of acting here. When Henri tells Fievel to repeat after him, Glasser mimics the French accent.
Then, Henri sends Fievel off to immigration to find his family.
At immigration, we’re introduced to our next set of villains: Warren T. Rat (John Finnegan) and Digit (Will Ryan), a cockroach. These two apparently prey on the recently immigrated, and Fievel literally falls right into their lair. Warren tells Fievel he knows where the Mousekewitzes are and because he’s a child, he believes him.
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Hearing Fievel gleefully scream “Papa” upon opening a door only to be grabbed by a kidnapper who will force him into enslaved labor? How did this movie not traumatize me as a kid? Moe (Hal Smith) traps Fievel inside and tells him to get to work. Warren says, “See you later, don’t forget to send me your salary.”
Meanwhile, in their new home, Tanya tells Mama she has a feeling that her brother is still alive. Her mom replies that after a while, the feeling will go away.
At the sweatshop, Fievel is ready to GTFO and find his family. Inspired by the fairy tale of the mouse with long hair, he starts tying bedsheets together to climb out the window. One dude, Tony (Pat Musick), thinks it’s a good idea. He introduces himself and asks for Fievel’s name. He tells Fievel his name has got to go and rebrands him Fillie.
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Fievel runs away into the night. That turns into him being homeless for days upon days, looking for his family — and food. One day, he hears a violin and assumes it’s Papa. Unfortunately, he just falls into a gramophone. And begins sobbing.
He doesn’t get much of a respite because the humans of the house freak out upon seeing him. He quickly escapes again. Luckily, he runs into Tony. And because there’s apparently never not a time for casual homophobia, when Fievel grabs him into a hug from happiness, Tony claws him away and asks, “What? Are we engaged? Sheeesh.”
Only a few feet away from these two, Tanya begs Papa to just look for Fievel. Maybe if he played his violin … but Papa tells her no.
Then, Tony sees an Irish Lady Mouse, Bridget (Cathianne Blore), trying to get people to rally around the cause of cats being unfair. They have free speech in America — they can talk about cats. Tony gets googly eyes. They kiss. Fievel is all WTAF, Tony. So long, Tony.
Remember how there are no cats in America? Well, umm. About that … Fievel is soon being chased through the supposed cat-less streets of America by none other than a cat. The cat attack does bring Tony back to his senses, though. He realizes he needs to watch out for Fievel.
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Bridget says they ought to take Fievel to Honest John (Neil Ross) ’cause he knows every mouse in the city. Honest John is quite drunk. He also isn’t so honest. He keeps the names of dead mice in a register as “dead voters.” Hmm. Did the former president get humans confused with fictional mice?
Enter Gussie (Madeline Kahn), the city’s wealthiest mouse. She’s POd that the cats cannot differentiate between the classes. They will have a rally the next day to decide what to do about the mouse problem. Also, Honest John doesn’t know the Mousekewitzes.
Bridget brings Fievel home to her place and tells him a nice bedtime story about how cats killed her parents two years ago, but don’t worry, his family’s OK. Good night!
Cue: “Somewhere Out There!” 🥺
At the rally the next day, Gussie loudly screams about the cats. The lower-income mice ask her to stop. They say she can afford to shout, but they can’t. She tells them she may have more than they do, but she doesn’t have freedom from the cats either. And liberty is why they came to America.
Because it’s America, they can do something about the cats. After all, are they men? Or mice. LOL. Also, Fievel is behind her on stage while his family is in the crowd. But they can’t see.
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The issue is that no one has any idea about what to actually do about the cats, except for Fievel, that is. We’re not privy to it yet, nor do the Mousekewitzes see that Fievel is on stage.
Next, we see the mice E Pluribus Unuming through a museum at the pier and stealing a bunch of things, including dino bones and pocket watches. What are they gonna do?
But Fievel and Tony are running late. As they run, Fievel hears more violin, gets distracted and goes through the sewers to find his Papa. He gets chased by some gnarly bugs. Oh, Fievel.
Even worse, the music is coming from a group of cats, one of whom is Tiger (Dom DeLuise), the kind of character who thinks he’s playing Rummy when he’s playing Poker.
But just who is the violinist? Why it’s none other than Warren T. Rat. Except he’s not a rat — he’s a cat in disguise! Fievel bites him, and slapstick chaos begins. Honestly, this is the only part of the movie directed toward kids — until they catch Fievel.
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At the museum, Gussie lays out some of the plan, which involves some “nyah, nyah, nyah” taunting, the drowning of cats and a secret weapon.
Meanwhile, Fievel is crying in a cage, which Tiger cannot stand to hear. Tiger lost his family, too. He even likes mice and is a broccoli-loving pescatarian. He just wants to be his soft self. And Fievel’s friend.
The prisoner-escape alarm bell goes off, but it doesn’t matter; Fievel gets away. Unfortunately, that means the cats arrive at the mice’s trap earlier than planned. It’s not time yet for them to release their secret weapon.
The Warren T. Cat reveal buys them a little time, but it’s still too early for the drowning to occur … but then Warren sets fire to the mouse area. Now it’s time to release the secret weapon! It’s not releasing, so Fievel literally sets fire to its cords so it’ll release, once again putting himself in harm’s way.
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The secret weapon is the legendary Giant Mouse of Minsk (but actually fireworks). The cats all run toward the pier and into the water. Cue: “Now There Are No Cats in America.” The cats are headed off to Hong Kong, underscored by stereotypical music.
Uh-oh. The pier is about to BLOW and Fievel is nowhere to be found. Tanya hears Bridget and Tony calling for “Fillie Mousekewitz” and believes they must be calling for her brother. Her parents tell her it’s got to be someone else, but she’s insistent that if Immigration changed her name to Tilly, there’s a chance Fillie is her brother. She runs off.
When they catch up with Bridget and Tony, the Mousekewitzes finally realize that Fievel got to New York. But now he’s missing again.
Well, Fievel ends up in a place called Orphan Alley. The other orphans tell him that he should stop looking because, obviously, his family doesn’t care, or else they would have found him. Fievel has reached his breaking point. He bursts into tears and tells the others that they are right.
He’ll never find his family again, never, never. The scene pulls back to reveal hundreds of orphans in the rain.
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The following day, the whole crew rides Tiger through the city, searching for Fievel. His dad is playing the violin. They run past him, and Fievel barely hears them. I started crying again when Fievel whispers, “Papa, Papa, Papa,” and it gets progressively louder as his hope increases.
He and his parents embrace in the cutest way. Everyone is so happy:
- “I knew you were alive,” says Tanya.
- “America, what a place,” says Mama (ugh).
- “My Fievel. I thought I would never see you again,” says Papa.
Then, Papa gives Fievel his hat back. It fits now. He’s grown so much. The film ends with Henri and Chantal bringing the Mousekewitzes to see the Statue of Liberty. The kids notice that America extends beyond NYC. Henri tells them they’ll see it someday … in the sequel …
Does it live up to the nostalgia?
I’m trying to figure out what I loved about this movie as a kid. Not because I didn’t like it now (I did!) but because I’m relatively sure the social commentary would have gone over my head back then. And the rest of the movie is somber AF, though that’s not a bad thing per se.
I don’t know what the point of An American Tail is. If it’s to teach kids about an essential part of Jewish(-American) — and Irish and Italian — history then it’s not clear enough for young ones. If the goal is to tell a tale about a family that happens to be Jewish immigrants, then does it need to be so relentlessly dark? Actually, that’s true for the former, too.
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Also, where are the Black mice in all this if we’re looking for historical accuracy? If the Irish and Italian mice are there, shouldn’t they be there too? I’m probably overthinking this. But, I was left wondering if An American Tail is American propaganda, even if textually, it sort of proves the American Dream is a lie.
The animation and performances, especially Glasser’s and Persoff’s, carry the film. Despite my questions, An American Tail is worth a rewatch. It certainly got me in the feels. I don’t think crying while watching films is bad; media should make us feel. 🐭
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