G, 80m, 1986

With the Voices Talents of Philip Glasser (Fievel Mousekewitz), Amy Green (Tanya Mousekewitz), Nehemiah Persoff (Papa Mousekewitz), Erica Yohn (Mama Mousekewitz), Dom DeLuise (Tiger), Pat Musick (Tony Toponi), John Finnegan (Warren T. Rat), Cathianne Blore (Bridget), Neil Ross (Honest John), Christopher Plummer (Henri), Madeline Kahn (Gussie Mausheimer) and Will Ryan (Digit). Directed by Don Bluth. Produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Jon Pomeroy. Screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss. Music by James Horner.

            The film opens in 1885 in Shostka, Russia. We are then introduced to the Mousekewitz family, who are celebrating Hanukkah (yes, the family is Jewish, and no the film never really references this again). Their celebration is interrupted when the Cossacks, along with their cats (who brings their cats on a raid? I can understand dogs, but cats?) attack the town, burning houses and killing all in their path. This leads the family to travel to Hamburg, Germany where they board a boat to travel to the United States. Following a musical sequence, a storm breaks out where characters from various countries sing about the woes of their countries and the optimism of which they view the United States. Fievel (Philip Glasser) is separated from his family. The rest of the film focuses on Fievel trying to reunite with his family.

The characters in this film run the gambit of being likeably funny characters, to being outright annoying and even offensive at times. Fievel, while likeable, suffers from what I call stupid fake hero syndrome – where he’ll suddenly get a burst of courage and do something extremely stupid, only to retreat after the courage fades. When the cats are attacking the town in Russia, Fievel runs out, beating a spoon against a pan trying to frighten the cats. At times, Fievel’s voice can be rather grating. I found it interesting that Fievel is dressed very similar to Mickey Mouse as he is portrayed in Fantasia. Both characters wear long, baggy red clothes, and both have blue hats that are important to them.Fievel also never goes through the proper process of coming to the United States. Therefore, Fievel is technically an undocumented immigrant. The rest of the Mousekewitz family is your standard good-natured family (although I noticed halfway through the movie that the baby Yasha mysteriously disappears and is never seen again). Tiger (Dom DeLuise) is your typical, good natured, bumbling, token nice cat. The fact that he’s in a gang though, conflicts with his established character. He openly states that he’s a vegetarian, and I can’t see the other cats being ok with this, as it seems the sole purpose of the gang is to eat and terrorize the mice. Characters like Digit (Will Ryan) and Gussie Mausheimer (Madeline Kahn) are just there for comedic relief, and often times come across as annoying. One character who is particularly offensive is the drunkard Irish politician Honest John (Neil Ross), and no, this Honest John has no resemblance to the Honest John In Disney’s Pinocchio. I understand that the character is meant to be a caricature of Tammany Hall politicians of that era, but he comes across as a negative stereotype of Irish people. I also fail to see what makes the other cats follow Warren T. Rat (John Finnegan). He’s one of the smallest cats in the gang (the cats aren’t shown to have any need of the protection money he gets from the mice). He’s not particularly menacing, and he’s never seen demonstrating any real force of power. I also fail to understand why someone who’s trying to con a group of people would use such an obvious fake name. In this situation, it’d be the same as if I was an Alien was trying to impersonate a human, and had the name Nicholas L. Human. The love side plot between Tony (Pat Musick) and Bridget (Cathianne Blore) serves little to nothing in the plot, and is just unbelievable and unnecessary. Now, this could have worked out better had the filmmakers had Bridget, who is from an aristocratic Irish born family, been forbidden from seeing Tony, who was from the lower classes. This would have added an excellent commentary on the nature of class prejudice, but instead the filmmakers decided to shoehorn a bland, forgettable, and unnecessary love story in the plot.

            The animation on this film is a mixed bag. While the character design of the animal and the human characters does look nice, at times the animation can get a little awkward. Throughout the movie, there are several scenes where a character, who is neither speaking nor being spoken to, suddenly freezes. Now it’s fine to have a character sit around not moving very much in your animated film because animating every character is difficult and expensive. What’s not ok is to have a character freeze up with the same look on their face, neither moving nor blinking. This gives them an almost petrified look. There are also multiple animation errors in the film, mainly involving Fievel and his hat. In one scene, Fievel is depicted wearing or holding his hat, in the next, the hat will be missing, and in the next he’ll have his hat again. Several characters change color tones throughout the film. I’d understand if this was intentional, showing a character that is sad or depressed as less colorful, but, there’s no consistency with the color tones, so it just ends up being distracting. Now this isn’t to say that the animation of this film is bad throughout the film. I particularly enjoyed the scenes involving song and dance number. My favorite scene would have to be the “Somewhere Out There” number.

            This was the second film that Don Bluth made, and while it’s not as good as his first film, The Secret of Nimh, it is certainly better than the films Bluth and his team would create later on, such as A Troll in Central Park and Thumbelina. It’s also painfully obvious that this film didn’t have a large budget, and this really shows in the animation. Younger viewers might find this film to be a tad too depressing, and at times scary (seriously what does Don Bluth have against cats?). In The Secret of Nimh and An American Tail some of the cats are drawn in a way that looks demonic. Sure the film has its flaws, but I found it to be a fun parable about a bunch of minority groups banding together to stop another group from taking away their freedom.