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SCREEN: 'AMERICAN TAIL'

An American Tail
Directed by Don Bluth
Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family, Musical
G
1h 20m

SCREEN: 'AMERICAN TAIL'
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
November 21, 1986, Section C, Page 8Buy Reprints
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''AN AMERICAN TAIL'' is Don Bluth's second animated theatrical feature - after ''The Secret of N.I.M.H.'' (1982) - and the first such children's film to open with a pogrom and to end with an entire species being forcefully ''relocated.''

The time is 1885, and the place is Czarist Russia. After their clean but humble home is destroyed by marauding, anti-rodent cats, little Fievel Mousekewitz, his sister and their parents immigrate to America where they believe, as they sing more than once, that ''there are no cats and the streets are paved with cheese.''

''An American Tail,'' which opens today at Loew's Astor Plaza and other theaters, is a story of the immigration experience as seen by 7-year-old Fievel, named, we are told in the publicity material, for the emigre-grandfather of Steven Spielberg, who is one of the film's executive producers.

En route to the United States, Fievel is washed overboard and makes the rest of the journey in a bottle. Once ashore, he begins his desperate search for his lost family. In the process he meets Henri, a French pigeon working on the still copper-colored Statue of Liberty; a con artist named Warren T. Rat, who's willing to sell the Brooklyn Bridge at discount; Gussie Mausheimer, a wealthy, do-gooding society mouse; Tony Toponi, a kindhearted street-mouse of Italian extraction, and cats of every description who, with one exception, are even meaner and fatter than the ones back home.

''An American Tail'' has a seriously split personality. As he demonstrated in ''The Secret of N.I.M.H.,'' Mr. Bluth has rediscovered the beauties to be found in the so-called old-fashioned animation techniques used by Walt Disney in such classics as ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' and ''Bambi.''

''An American Tail'' looks good but the tale itself, as conceived by David Kirschner for the screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, is witless if well-meaning. It's mostly bland, though every now and then it rises to express its own brand of kiddie-bigotry. When, at the end, Fievel (now called Philly) and his pals devise a scheme to ship all cats to Hong Kong - in effect, to clean up New York -the trick is so humorlessly executed that one is likely to remember other attempts to force involuntary exile.

This may be to take ''An American Tail'' more seriously than was intended. If ''An American Tail'' were a funnier, less pious film, such thoughts would never arise. However, this is no exuberant ''Tom and Jerry'' contest. It's a movie that wears its ethnicity on its sleeve and has pretensions of being a sort of ''Silly Symphony'' epic.

The film's brief high points are those featuring the character of Gussie Mausheimer, whose voice is provided by Madeline Kahn repeating the Marlene Dietrich accent she used in ''Blazing Saddles,'' and Tiger, New York's only good cat, a character that seems to be modeled on Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion. Dom De Luise, who dubs Tiger's voice, even sounds like Lahr much of the time. HERE, KITTY, KITTY AN AMERICAN TAIL, directed by Don Bluth; screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, story by David Kirschner, Miss Freudberg and Mr. Geiss; created by Mr. Kirschner; film editor, Dan Molina; music by James Horner; produced by Mr. Bluth, John Pomeroy and Gary Goldman; presented by Steven Spielberg; released by Universal Pictures. At Loew's Astor Plaza, 44th Street and Broadway; New York Twin, Second Avenue and 66th Street; Movieland Eighth Street Triplex, at University Place, and other theaters. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is rated G. WITH THE VOICES OF:

Bridget...Cathianne Blore; Tiger...Dom De Luise; Warren T. Rat...John Finnegan; Feivel Mousekewitz...Phillip Glasser; Tanya Mousekewitz...Amy Green; Gussie Mausheimer...Madeline Kahn; Tony Toponi...Pat Musick; Papa Mousekewitz...Nehemiah Persoff; Henri...Christopher Plummer; Honest John...Neil Ross; Digit...Will Ryan; Mama Mousekewitz...Erica Yohn.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 8 of the National edition with the headline: SCREEN: 'AMERICAN TAIL'. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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