5 out of 5

Directed by: Don Bluth

Guys: I can’t not view this movie through the glorious rose-tint of youthful-enthusiasm glasses.  Need I review this?

Let me rattle off some things I still find darling about this movie: Of course, the raw Bluth animated style, forever darker and more humanistic than his Disney peers; the genuinely sombre tone of the film – top-of-the-pops tracks aside – which was interestingly criticized at the time of release; the unspecific / specific nature of the movie, never once directly mentioning religion (also criticized); and maybe most influentially to me as kid, that Fievel isn’t a superhero, and his adventure isn’t overly moralized.  He is the whisper-in-the-ear of the plot mechanics that save the day, but he also spends most of the runtime accidentally stumbling into surprising interactions, weaving away from and nearer his family, and there isn’t some groan-worthy “something something don’t abandon your family” last line or anything, they’re just happy to be drawn back together.  This, I’d believe, is a big Bluth touch: a ‘naturalistic’ story (as natural as talking mice and cats and etcetera can be) that finds its own way to a conclusion, as opposed to wrapping a big, praise godandmomanddad bow on things.

It’s the late 1800s, and Russian mouse family the Mousekewitzes are taking the boat to America, where the streets are paved with cheese and there are no cats.  On the ride there (taking the same boat as humans, who co-exist with – but are unaware of the talkability of – our characters), a storm hits and young Fievel finds himself separated from his family.  He washes ashore and gets mixed up in the melting pot of New York, falling in with a group of protestors who are in need of a plan to rid the area of… cats.  Cats?  But there are no cats in America…?  Yes, one of several realities Fievel comes to accept, as he adjusts to living in the U.S. of A, unknowingly near to his family, who’d also survived the journey.

There are songs, and there’s some character short-hand, but the film still holds up years on thanks to Bluth’s trust in his audience’s intelligence, and I’d say it still stands head and tails above many, many contemporary films as well.  The lack of directly referencing Fievel’s Judaism that I mentioned above is, I feel, something that helps the movie transcend to something else.  The context is obvious; I somehow knew about it when I was a kid (although I was probably told by a parent), but the fact that it’s not explicit allows the film to not just be about Jews, or to not just be about history – although, as an adult, it was interesting seeing the different nationalities played up, when I’m pretty sure that youngster me just thought the characters had funny accents.

An American Tail is a big lesson in independent thinking and action for your coddled children, ye Frozen-liking fucks.  How I weep for your Bluthless lives.  The movie may or may not be as good as memory will always have it be, but actually yes, it is that good.  Time for a CGI remake…

(No.)

Blu-ray notes: It’s a budget blu-ray, with only a trailer and sing-along as extras, but the transfer is fantastic.  The animation has been somewhat oddly cleaned up in some scenes (you can see the lines where they left the action untouched), but overall, it looks glorious, and is an appreciable upgrade from my VHS copy.