Cinema Craze: An American Tail (Bluth, 1986)

Director: Don Bluth

Producer: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman & John Pomeroy

Writers: Judy Freudberg & Tony Geiss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTQ0qTubGz8

American Tail (1986) Trailer Remastered HD

In a time when immigration remains a pressing and divisive issue in America, revisiting Don Bluth’s 1986 animated classic feels especially timely. The highest-grossing non-Disney animated film in history, it has largely slipped through the cracks of modern animation discourse. It’s a shame because what Bluth and his collaborators delivered is a visually rich, emotionally resonant story about a young Jewish mouse named Fievel, who becomes separated from his family during their voyage from Russia to America. Serving as a poignant allegory for the immigrant experience, An American Tail refuses to shy away from its darker moments, but doesn’t do the same for ones of warmth, humor, and music such the late James Horner’s score and songs like the Oscar-nominated “Somewhere Out There,” making Fievel’s journey as stirring today as it was nearly 40 years ago.