An American Tail: Difference between revisions
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A collaboration between [[Don Bluth]] and [[Steven Spielberg]], ''An American Tail'' starts off on Hanukkah in 1885, opening in a Russian schtetl. The camera pans past the house belonging to the human Moskowitz family to reveal a tiny duplicate house inhabited by the Mousekewitz family. They are Jewish-Russian mice who are forced to escape persecution after [[You Can't Go Home Again|their village is destroyed in a pogrom]] [[Cats Are Mean|by Cossack cats]].
Believing in the American dream they head to [[New York City]] by boat because "[[Crowd Song|there are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese.]]" The hero, a little mouse named Fievel, is washed overboard in a storm, and his search for his family, who [[No One Could Survive That|believe he is dead]] and therefore [[Gave Up Too Soon|aren't looking for him]], forms the bulk of the film. Once arriving in America, all mice immediately discover that there are indeed cats in America. They begin living in a typical late 19th century immigrant manner: working in a sweatshop, living in horrible conditions, being extorted by gangs and living in constant fear of being eaten.<ref>
Such is the plot of the most popular animated film of the 1980s that doesn't involve a [[The Little Mermaid|singing crab]]. It was a surprise hit at the box office in 1986, and it became the highest grossing animated film of all time, much to Disney's sheer horror. It would keep this title until the debut of the ''next'' [[Don Bluth]] film, ''[[The Land Before Time]]''. One important thing to come of all this was that the film displayed that animation could still be profitable at a time when the industry was in a slump, and caused Disney to step up its game in face of the competition. So in a way, this very film triggered a chain reaction that brought about [[The Renaissance Age of Animation]].
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Tellingly, more people remember the song "[[Award Bait Song|Somewhere Out There]]" than, say, the immigrant struggle aspect.
Almost as well known is the [[Lighter and Softer]] [[Contested Sequel]], ''Fievel Goes West'', in which the Mousekewitz family leaves New York for the Wild West (made without Bluth's involvement, but with Spielberg still on board), but largely forgotten is the short-lived TV series in the same setting, and two additional [[Direct to Video|DTV]] sequels (''The Treasure of Manhattan Island'' and ''Mystery of the Night Monster'') that played hard and fast with the established continuity, and had no involvement from the original creators. Have we mentioned that [[Don Bluth]] films tend to suffer from [[Sequelitis|this sort of thing?]]
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* [[Nice Hat]]: Fievel is given one for Hannukah at the beginning. Because it's his [[Orphan's Plot Trinket|only link to his family]], many an [[Indy Hat Roll]] ensues. One of the first causes him to be swept off the ship.
** Funny thing is, the hat seems to vanish an reappear on occasion. It's a pretty important object to have so many continuity errors.
* [[No Cartoon Fish]]: The herring and "sewer shark" are drawn photo-
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Honest John is a pretty blatant parody of [[wikipedia:William M. Tweed|"Boss" Tweed]].
* [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]]: See [[Fake Russian]] in the Trivia tab.
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** Done within ''Fievel Goes West'' itself at the beginning where Fievel shoots a bunch of cats and gets a badge from Wylie Burp. A [[Dream Within a Dream]] if you think about it.
** Some people see Fievel's dreaming in the third movie as foreshadowing.
* [[Animation Bump]]: Say what you will about ''Fievel Goes West'', but you have to admit that the animation was of amazing quality, even at the time it was
* [[Ascended Extra]]: A few of the extras from ''Fievel Goes West'' went on to become recurring characters in ''Fievel's American Tails''.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Chula doesn't have the ax, but his personality fits the bill.
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* [[Shout-Out]]: To ''Gunsmoke'', with "Miss Kitty".
** The "Rawhide" theme is being sung by [[The Blues Brothers]].
** Also, many of the storefronts and signs in (the human-sized) Green River have the names of crew members on them, including both of the film's directors and several of the artists responsible for the background layouts. In addition, right before Fievel dispatches the villains, you can see a nameplate on the rear of the giant mousetrap (facing upside-down) which reads "Made in Acton, London"
** Cat R. Waul screams "Revenge!" as he is driven out of town on the train, similar to his character in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2sUcVkm9E the Dirty Fork sketch] in [[Monty Python's Flying Circus]].
** Another one involves a mouse mentioning various destinations (one while boarding, the other before narrowly escaping being eaten by Cat R. Waul) while closing each phrase with "...and Green River", likely an homage to [[Mel Blanc]]'s famous [[The Jack Benny Program|Jack Benny Show]] [[Catch Phrase]] of a train leaving for "...Anaheim, Azuza, and Cuc-amonga".
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* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: In ''The Treasure Of Manhattan Island'' as they reach the native village, Scuttlebutt becomes the target of an amorous, [[Big Beautiful Woman|huge female mouse]]. Later said mouse finds out that he's a bad guy and [[Beware the Nice Ones|promptly kick his ass]].
* [[American Dream]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed at length]] in ''The Treasure Of Manhattan Island'' though it is arguably a major theme in all of the movies...except maybe [[
* [[Animation Bump]]: The third movie, which was done by [[TMS Entertainment]], has surprisingly better animation than you'd think for a direct-to-video production. The same can't be said for ''Mystery of the Night Monster'' (handled by Tama Productions).
* [[Anywhere but Their Lips]]: Cholena makes it pretty clear that she doesn't share Tony's attraction to her, but by the end of the movie she cuts him some slack and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
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* [[Beneath the Earth]]: The subterranean tribe of Native American mice in ''The Treasure of Manhattan Island''.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|The ending of ''The Treasure of Manhattan Island'' is the only [[Bittersweet Ending]] in the series. Yes, the evil factory owners who've been exploiting the workers are put under control by Papa's labor union, but they haven't really been defeated, and [[Karma Houdini|they haven't really paid for all of the trouble they've caused either]]. And Cholena's Native American tribe still has to live underground because the European mice are still evil, racist and unable to co-exist with them.}}
* [[
* [[Broken Heel]]: Fievel gets his shirt caught on a rusty nail as he and Tony are fleeing a speeding train in the third movie.
* [[Bullet Seed]]: Fievel uses this against cops in ''The Treasure of Manhattan Island''.
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