xesygu'e: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
m r2.7.1) (Robot: Modifying pam:Grekya |
VirtualRash (casnu | selstika) No edit summary |
||
Linji 1
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
{{Refimprove|date=June 2008}}
{{Infobox film
| name = An American Tail
| image = AnAmericanTailPoster.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| writer = [[Judy Freudberg]]<br />[[Tony Geiss]]
| story = [[David Kirschner]]<br />Judy Freudberg<br />Tony Geiss
| music = [[James Horner]]
| starring = [[Phillip Glasser]]<br />[[Dom DeLuise]]<br />[[Nehemiah Persoff]]<br />Erica Yohn
| director = [[Don Bluth]]
| country = [[United States]]
| producer = Don Bluth<br />[[Gary Goldman]]<br />[[John Pomeroy]]
| studio = [[Amblin Entertainment]]<br />[[Sullivan Bluth Studios]]
| distributor = [[Universal Studios|Universal Pictures]]
| released = November 21, 1986
| runtime = 80 minutes
| gross = $84,542,002
| language = English
}}
'''''An American Tail''''' is a 1986 American [[animated film]] directed by [[Don Bluth]] and produced by [[Sullivan Bluth Studios]] and [[Amblin Entertainment]]. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from [[Russia]] to the [[United States]] for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must find a way to reunite with his family. The film was released on November 21, 1986.
==Plot==
In 1885 [[Shostka]], [[Russia]], the Mousekewitzes— a [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian-Jewish]] family of mice —decide to immigrate to the [[United States]] after an army of cruel cats that belong to the [[Cossacks]] (a reference to actual [[Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire|pogroms occurring in Russia at the time]]) destroy their village. During the trip overseas, the family's young son, Fievel, gets separated from the others and washes overboard in a storm. They arrive sadly in America, believing they've lost their son.
Fievel, however, floats to America in a bottle and, after a pep talk from a French pigeon named Henri, embarks on a quest to find his family. He is waylaid by [[Confidence trick|conman]] Warren T. Rat, who gains his trust and then sells him to a sweatshop. He escapes with Tony, a street-smart Italian mouse, and they join up with Bridget, an Irish mouse trying to rouse her fellow mice to stand up to cats. When a gang of some cats called the Mott Street Maulers attacks a mouse marketplace, the immigrant mice learn that the tales of a no-cat country is not true.
Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, a drunk (but reliable) politician who knows all the voting mice in New York City. But, as the Mousekewitzes have not yet registered to vote, he can't help Fievel find them. Meanwhile, his sister, Tanya, tells her gloomy parents she has a feeling that he is still alive, but they urged her that the feeling would soon go away.
Led by the rich and powerful Gussie Mausheimer, the mice hold a rally to decide what to do about the cats. Warren T. Rat is extorting them all for protection that he never provides. No one has any idea what to do about it, until Fievel whispers a plan to Gussie.
The mice take over an abandoned building on Chelsea Pier and begin constructing their plan. On the day of launch, Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren T.'s lair. He discovers that he is actually a cat in disguise and is also the leader of the Maulers. They capture Fievel, but a goofy, soft-hearted orange cat named Tiger takes a liking to him and sets him free.
Fievel races back to the pier with the cats in hot pursuit when Gussie orders the mice to release the secret weapon. A huge mechanical mouse, inspired by the bedtime tales Papa told to Fievel of the "Giant Mouse of Minsk", chases the cats down the pier and into the water. A tramp steamer bound for [[Hong Kong]] picks them up and carries them away.
During the battle, Fievel is once again separated from those he loves and falls into despair when a group of orphans tell him that he should have given up a long time ago. Papa Mouskewitz overhears Bridget and Tony calling out to Fievel, but is sure that there may be another "Fievel" somewhere, until he sees Mama picking up his son's hat. They team up for a final effort to find him and, in the end, Papa's violin playing leads Fievel back into the arms of his family. The journey ends with Henri taking everyone to see his newly completed project— the [[Statue of Liberty]], and the Mouskewitzes' new life in America begins.
==Cast==
[[Image:AnAmericanTailScreen.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Fievel Mousekewitz and Henri the pigeon, shortly after Fievel arrives in New York City.]]
* [[Phillip Glasser]] as Fievel Mousekewitz. While "Fievel" is the generally accepted spelling of his name, the opening credits spell it as "Feivel", the more common transliteration<ref>[http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Feivel Baby Name Feivel - Origin and Meaning of Feivel]</ref><ref>[http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=feivel Behind the Name: Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Feivel]</ref> of the Yiddish name (פֿײַװל ''Fayvl''). (Cf. [[Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz]] and [[Philip Berg|Feivel Gruberger]].) (The ending credits spell his name as "Fievel".) However, many English-speaking writers have come to adopt the spelling ''Fievel'' (with reversed i and first e) especially for this character; it was this spelling that was used on the film's poster, in promotional materials and tie-in merchandise, and in the title of the sequel ''[[An American Tail: Fievel Goes West]]''. He was named after Spielberg's maternal grandfather, Philip Posner, whose [[Yiddish]] name was Feivel. The scene in which he presses up against a window to look into a classroom filled with American "schoolmice" is based on a story Spielberg remembered about his grandfather, who told him that Jews were only able to listen to school lessons through open windows while sitting outside in the snow.<ref>Joseph McBride. ''[[Steven Spielberg]]: A Biography'', [[Simon & Schuster]] 1997, pages 20-21.</ref> His last name is a play on the Jewish-Russian last name "Moskowitz", the name of the human occupants of the house his family is living under in the beginning of the film.
*Amy Green as Tanya Mousekewitz (singing voice provided by Betsy Cathcart), Fievel's older sister. Optimistic, cheerful and obedient, she continued to believe that her brother was alive after he was washed off the ship en route to America. She was given an American name 'Tillie' at the [[immigration]] point at [[Castle Garden]].
*[[John P. Finnegan]] as Warren T. Rat, a cat disguised as a rat and the leader of the Mott Street Maulers, a gang of cats who terrorize the mice of New York City. He is accompanied nearly all the time by his accountant Digit, a small British-accented [[cockroach]].
*[[Nehemiah Persoff]] as Papa Mousekewitz, the head of the Mousekewitz family who plays the [[violin]] and tells stories to his children.
*Erica Yohn as Mama Mousekewitz, Fievel's mother. She appears to be the stricter of the two Mousekewitz parents and has a fear of flying.
*[[Pat Musick]] as Tony Toponi, a streetwise young mouse of [[Italy|Italian]] descent and with a "tough New Yorker" attitude.
*[[Dom DeLuise]] as Tiger, a very large, cowardly, long-haired orange cat who also happens to be vegetarian.
*[[Christopher Plummer]] as Henri, a pigeon of [[France|French]] descent, who is in New York City while building the [[Statue of Liberty]].
*Cathianne Blore as Bridget, an Irish activist and Tony's girlfriend.
*[[Neil Ross]] as Honest John, a local Irish-born mouse politician who knows every voting mouse in New York City. An ambulance-chasing drunkard who takes advantage of voters' concerns to increase his political prestige, he is a stereotype of the 19th-century [[Tammany Hall]] politicians.
*[[Madeline Kahn]] as Gussie Mausheimer, a German-born mouse considered to be the richest in New York City, who rallies the mice into fighting back against the cats.
*[[Will Ryan]] as Digit, Warren T.'s [[British people|British]] cockroach accountant who has a fondness for counting money, but is plagued by frequent electrical charges in his antennae whenever he gets nervous or excited.
*[[Hal Smith (actor)|Hal Smith]] as Moe, a fat rat who runs the sweatshop Fievel is sold to by Warren T.
==Production==
While all of the animal characters were animated from scratch, the human characters were animated using the [[rotoscope|rotoscoping]] technique, in which sequences were shot in live action and then traced onto animation cels. This provides a realistic look for human characters, and distinguishes the cartoonish animal characters from the more realistically animated humans. Rotoscoping is frequently employed in Don Bluth films, including ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' and ''[[Anastasia (1997 film)|Anastasia]]''.
=== Music ===
The musical score for the film was composed by [[James Horner]]. The song "[[Somewhere Out There (James Horner song)|Somewhere Out There]]", composed by Horner and written by [[Barry Mann]], won a [[Grammy Award]]. One scene incorporates the [[John Phillip Sousa]] march [[Stars and Stripes Forever]].
==Release==
===Theatrical===
At the time of its release, ''An American Tail'' became the highest grossing non-Disney produced animated feature, drawing over $47 million USD. It was also one of the first animated films to outdraw a Disney film, beating out ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' (also released in 1986 but four months earlier) by over $22 million USD. It would later be outgrossed by the next Bluth film, 1988's ''[[The Land Before Time]]'', which marginally outperformed ''[[Oliver and Company]]''. The record would quickly be shattered with the release of ''[[The Little Mermaid (1989 film)|The Little Mermaid]]'' three years later.
===Home media===
The film was released on VHS in the same year by [[CIC Video]], with a [[Spanish language|Spanish]] dubbed version separately released on VHS as ''Un cuento americano'' (''An American Tale'', dropping the pun inherent in the English title), and is now available on a DVD that contains the main English track, as well as dubbing for French and Spanish.
== Reception ==
''An American Tail'' has grossed up to $47 million in the United States and $84 million worldwide.
As of March 2012, review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reports that 68% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 25 reviews, certifying it "Fresh", with an average rating of 6.2/10. However, it holds a 33% "Rotten" score by the website's "top critics".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_tail/#top-critics-numbers |title=An American Tail |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |date= |accessdate=2012-07-05}}</ref>
The staff of ''[[Halliwell's Film Guide]]'' gave it one star out of four. "[This] expensive cartoon feature," they wrote, "[has] not much in the way of narrative interest or indeed humor."<ref name=halliwell>{{cite book|editor=Gritten, David|title=[[Halliwell's Film Guide]] 2008|chapter=An American Tail|page=37|isbn=0-00-726080-6|year=2007|accessdate=2010-06-16|location=[[Hammersmith]], London|publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave the film two stars out of four, calling it a "dark and gloomy story," adding that "only a few children will understand or care that the Mousekewitzes are Jewish." [[Vincent Canby]] of the ''[[New York Times]]'' gave the film two stars out of five, calling the film "witless if well-meaning."<ref>[http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DE0DA163EF932A15752C1A960948260&partner=Rotten Tomatoes]</ref> ''An American Tail'' and several other films directed by Bluth have since developed a cult following.<ref>{{cite web | title = 3:AM Cult Hero: Don Bluth |work = N/A | publisher = 3:AM Magazine | url = http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/3am-cult-hero-don-bluth/ | accessdate = April 2, 2012}}</ref>
;[[American Film Institute]] Lists
*[[AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs]]:
**Somewhere Out There - Nominated<ref>[http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/songs400.pdf AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees]</ref>
*[[AFI's 10 Top 10]] - Nominated Animated Film<ref>[http://www.afi.com/drop/ballot.pdf AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot]</ref>
==Sequels and spinoffs==
The film was followed by its theatrical sequel ''[[An American Tail: Fievel Goes West]]'' (1991), the television series ''[[Fievel's American Tails]]'', and two direct-to-video sequels: ''[[An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island]]'' and ''[[An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster]]'', none of which Don Bluth had any involvement with.
Fievel later served as the [[mascot]] for [[Steven Spielberg]]'s [[Amblimation]] animation studio, appearing in its [[production logo]]. Also, as reported on the official ''An American Tail'' website, Fievel has become the mascot for [[UNICEF]] as well. There is also a Fievel-themed playground at [[Universal Studios Florida]], featuring a large water slide and many over-sized objects such as books, glasses, cowboy boots, and more. It is the only such playground at any of [[NBC Universal]]'s theme parks.
== Suspected plagiarism ==
[[Art Spiegelman]] suspected Spielberg of plagiarism due to the fact the Jews are depicted as mice in ''An American Tail'' just as in Spiegelman's earlier ''[[Maus]]'', a metaphor Spiegelman had adopted from Nazi propaganda. Instead of pursuing copyright litigation, Spiegelman opted to beat the movie's release date by convincing his publishers to split ''Maus'' into two volumes and publish the first before he even finished the second.<ref>{{cite news | last = Billen | first = Andrew | title = The mouse with the sting in his tale | publisher = [[Times Online]] | date = December 2, 2003 | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1031327.ece | accessdate = 2009-05-19 | location=London}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.americantail.com/ The Official ''American Tail'' Site]
* {{IMDb title|id=0090633|title=An American Tail}}
* {{Rotten-tomatoes|id=american_tail|title=An American Tail}}
* {{mojo title|id=americantail|title=An American Tail}}
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/fievel.htm Fievel Mousekewitz] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [http://www.webcitation.org/66ftqjtvJ Archived] from the original on April 4, 2012.
* [http://www.cataroo.com/DBtail.html Detailed Info on ''An American Tail'']
{{An American Tail}}
{{Don Bluth}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Tail, An}}
[[Category:1986 films]]
[[Category:Amblin Entertainment films]]
[[Category:American animated films]]
[[Category:1980s adventure films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Don Bluth]]
[[Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1880s]]
[[Category:Films set in New York City]]
[[Category:Universal Pictures films]]
[[Category:Universal Pictures animated films]]
[[Category:Seafaring films]]
[[Category:Films about mice]]
[[zh-min-nan:An American Tail]]
[[
[[da:Rejsen til Amerika]]
[[de:Feivel, der Mauswanderer]]
[[
[[fr:Fievel et le Nouveau Monde]]
[[it:Fievel sbarca in America]]
[[ka:ამერიკული კუდი]]
[[nl:Een avontuur met een staartje]]
[[ja:アメリカ物語]]
[[pl:Amerykańska opowieść]]
[[
[[ru:Американский хвост]]
[[
[[sv:Resan till Amerika]]
[[th:แอนอเมริกันเทล]]
[[
| |||