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king my comments bluth later commented that steven has not dominated the creative growth of tail at all there is an equal share of both of us in the picture nevertheless this was spielberg s first animated feature and it took some time for him to learn that adding a two minute scene would take dozens of people months of work in 1985 he stated at this point i m enlightened but i still can t believe it s so complicated 9 it was universal s third animated film and also the first animated feature film since pinocchio in outer space in 1965 and the first animated film that they co produced writing edit originally the concept consisted of an all animal world like disney s robin hood but bluth suggested featuring an animal world existing as a hidden society from the human world like his own nimh and disney s the rescuers after viewing the rescuers spielberg agreed emmy award winning writers judy freudberg and tony geiss known for their work on sesame street were brought in to expand the script when the initial script was complete it was extremely long and was heavily edited before its final release bluth felt uncomfortable with the main character s name thinking fievel was too foreign sounding and he felt audiences wouldn t remember it 10 spielberg disagreed the character was named after his maternal grandfather philip posner whose yiddish name was fievel the scene in which he presses up against a window to look into a classroom filled with american school mice is based on a story spielberg remembered about his grandfather who told him that jews were only able to listen to lessons through open windows while sitting outside in the snow 11 spielberg eventually won out though something of a compromise was reached by having tony refer to fievel as filly 10 spielberg also had some material cut that he felt was too intense for children including a scene bluth was developing revolving around wave monsters while the family was at sea 12 casting edit bluth described the process of voice casting as sometimes you can select a name voice i e a well known actor because it fits the essence of the character so well other times you need to seek an obscure voice close your eyes and just listen to it if it has the highs and lows in the deliverance of lines and it captures the focus of the character it allows the animators to get a true fix on the action 13 glasser fievel was discovered by accident when bluth and his crew overheard him auditioning for an oscar mayer commercial 13 green tanya mousekewitz was a young actress who had done some previous television series work and several commercials 13 persoff a respected actor in many films was chosen to play the part of papa mousekewitz mostly because he had a similar role as barbra streisand s father in yentl 13 yohn mama mousekewitz has appeared in many features but her work as a russian rom on a tv show attracted the attention of bluth and john pomeroy 13 finnegan won the role of warren t rat by reciting excerpts of shakespeare s hamlet in the voice of a brooklyn taxi driver this idea inspired the writers to make warren a pretentious illiterate who continually misquoted shakespeare 13 musick tony toponi based tony s voice on a friend she knew from grade school 13 deluise tiger had worked previously with bluth in the secret of nimh and deluise even added material to the script at various points during the song a duo he suggested they stop the music where the lyrics mention back scratch and have fievel actually scratch tiger s back 13 henri was originally to be voiced by comedian sid caesar and was conceived as scraggly and worn but later plummer was cast for the part and henri was drawn with a more dignified look bluth felt henri was an essential character to act as a voice for the statue welcoming fievel to the new world 10 kahn was chosen to play the part of gussie mausheimer with the hopes that she would use a voice similar to the one she used as a character in mel brooks blazing saddles with the character being written as german american for such 10 will ryan digit neil ross honest john cathianne blore bridget and hal smith moe are all voice actors well known in the animation industry 13 design edit in designing the look of the film and its characters bluth worked with amblin entertainment and the sears marketing department sears had a major marketing push on the main character he decided to make a stylistic shift from the more angular modern style of animation of the time to a style similar to disney animation from the 1940s where the characters have a softer and cuddlier feel this proved successful and at release many critics praised the old fashioned style of the film s look and feel 10 this was during a period when the market for nostalgia was particularly strong among baby boomers 14 who at this time were seeking products for their young children and only three years before the beginning of the disney renaissance for the studio bluth once worked for animation edit bluth preferred to storyboard an entire picture but it soon proved to be an enormous task larry leker was brought in to assist turning bluth s rough sketches into final storyboard panels bluth commented that he would then send them over to spielberg often i brought them over myself so that i could explain them steven would get very excited by what he saw and we d edit the boards right there adding more drawings or trimming some back a large crew of animators was pulled together from around the world using cel painters in ireland discussion arose about moving the entire production to ireland but spielberg balked at the idea of a story called an american tail being produced overseas 15 at this time bluth and his crew discovered that using a video printer greatly increased their productivity they could videotape an action then print out small black and white thermal images from the tape for reference for both human and animal characters a shorthand method similar to the rotoscoping technique called in fact xerography used since the earliest days of animation in which sequences are shot in live action and traced onto animation cels they also utilized the process of building models and photographing them particularly the ship at sea and the giant mouse of minsk 13 a technique also used in many disney films production difficulties edit during production amblin and universal expected to view the dailies and approve all major work on the film and various outside parties also requested changes here and there the production buckled under the excessive oversight and bluth felt that he was losing freedom of control over the production process as the release deadline approached pressure grew among the crew and numerous problems arose ranging from slower than expected cel painting in ireland to low footage output by some animators also the songwriters had written the score much later than originally desired suddenly scenes had to be dropped to save time and money and new shorter scenes had to be created to help pick up the story points lost in the process sometimes making the story line look jumbled notable cuts include the mousekewitzes journey across europe a scene in which they first meet tiger and he gets stuck up in a tree an upbeat song that fievel was planned to sing while imprisoned in the sweatshop and a scene that gave greater explanation of the changing of names at ellis island cuts are also responsible for baby yasha s apparent disappearance after the boat trip 16 the film was also plagued by union difficulties bluth had agreed to accept 6 5 million to get it produced which later grew to 9 million at a time when disney was spending around 12 million per film he knew it would be difficult but felt it was worth the sacrifice to work with spielberg on a major project with the agreement of his employees salaries were frozen for a year and half unlike the former bluth studios the new sullivan bluth studios were non union and when many workers attempted to withdraw from the union it sparked a battle between bluth and the union that continued through most of the production it was mostly this struggle that later compelled bluth to relocate to ireland which he felt offered a more supportive atmosphere 17 music edit main article an american tail soundtrack the soundtrack to an american tail consisted of an original score composed by james horner which was performed by the london symphony orchestra and the choir of king s college and four original songs composed by cynthia weil and barry mann in collaboration with horner 16 the song somewhere out there performed by linda ronstadt and james ingram it later went on to win two grammy awards for song of the year and best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television it would become one of the most popular songs from an animated feature since the 1950s 18 an official soundtrack containing 14 tracks from the film was first released on november 21 1986 by mca records and was made available on audio cassette vinyl record and cd 19 it was later released digitally by geffen records on february 5 2013 20 intrada records released an expanded edition on february 12 2019 21 reception edit box office edit the film has grossed up to 47 million in the united states and canada and 84 million worldwide 22 23 at the time of its domestic release it became the highest grossing animated feature for an initial release 24 and the highest grossing non disney produced animated feature it was also one of the first animated films to outdraw a disney one beating out the great mouse detective another traditionally animated film involving mice that was released in 1986 but four months earlier by over us 22 million but the great mouse detective was more successful with critics most notably gene siskel and roger ebert 25 it would later be outgrossed by bluth s next film the land before time although oliver company would make more at the box office critical response edit on the review aggregator website rotten tomatoes 76 of 86 critics reviews are positive with an average rating of 6 4 10 the website s consensus reads exquisitely animated an american tail is a sweet melancholy immigrants story 25 metacritic which uses a weighted average assigned the film a score of 38 out of 100 based on 7 critics indicating generally unfavorable reviews 26 27 critics gene siskel and roger ebert gave it two thumbs down on a november 22 1986 episode of their television program at the movies calling it the most downbeat children s movie since return to oz and that it was way too depressing for young audiences 28 both reviewers also criticized how it gave little mention that the main characters were jewish or that the attack on their home at the beginning was an antisemitic one they called it a jewish parable that doesn t want to declare itself and felt that it chickened out on its ethnic heritage 28 in his own review for the chicago sun times roger ebert gave it two stars out of four giving credit to the animation calling it full and detailed enhanced by computers and an improvement on so much recent animation that cuts corners but that the story was too dark and gloomy 29 the film s writing garnered a mixed response halliwell s film guide claimed it didn t have much in the way of narrative interest or indeed humor 30 vincent canby of the new york times called it witless if well meaning adding that its high points were scenes involving the characters gussie mausheimer and tiger 31 in his review for the chicago reader pat graham panned its flimsy characterizations but said that the overall quality of the animation baroquely executed if rather conventionally conceived makes it worth a look 32 common sense media gave it largely positive reviews commenting that this is a heartwarming animated tale about the experience of immigrants coming to america told from the perspective of an adorable young mouse an american tail should engage kids in an important part of u s history 33 rita kempley of the washington post called it a bright eyed tale of jewish triumphs that will find a place in many young hearts adding that it reiterates the happiness of homogeneity prepares the pups for both brotherhood and the free enterprise system and it s as pretty as a cascade of soap bubbles 34 roger harlburt reviewing for the sun sentinel also praised the character of fievel you ll discover in gentle fievel an endearing character that manages to be lovable without undue sentiment his eyes may tear up once in a while and his lower lip quiver but mostly he s ready to face the situation still the superb animation makes you believe fievel is a small boy lost in a big world 35 harlburt later summarized laced with action scenes and peppered with amusing dialogue the film moves along briskly little ones won t be bored original songs including never say never somewhere out there and we re a duo are also entertaining you ll marvel over the quality of plummer s singing voice and be convulsed by deluise s feline antics 35 accolades edit award category nominee s result ref academy awards best original song somewhere out there music by james horner and barry mann lyrics by cynthia weil nominated 36 ascap film and television music awards most performed songs from a motion picture won 37 bmi film tv awards most performed song from a film won 38 golden globe awards best original song nominated 39 grammy awards song of the year somewhere out there james horner barry mann and cynthia weil won 40 best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals somewhere out there linda ronstadt and james ingram nominated best album of original instrumental background score written for a motion picture or television james horner nominated best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television somewhere out there james horner barry mann and cynthia weil won saturn awards best fantasy film nominated 41 best music james horner nominated young artist awards best family motion picture animation won 42 best animation voice over group phillip glasser and amy green won american film institute recognition 2004 afi s 100 years 100 songs somewhere out there nominated 43 home media edit in september 1987 an american tail was first released on vhs and became one of mca home video s biggest sellers with sales of 1 4 million 44 it was later released on laserdisc in both regular 45 and cav play editions in november 1991 by mca universal home video in north america and cic video internationally 46 on august 11 1998 both the film and its sequel an american tail fievel goes west were digitally restored and re released onto vhs in a 2 pack box set with both videos having clamshell cases a dvd version was first made available on january 20 2004 by universal studios 47 which was presented in fullscreen aspect ratio only and contained a number of changes from earlier versions including re dubbing certain character s voices in the orphan alley scene the addition of new voices where...
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