**SPOILERS**
I saw AAT when i was young and recently watched it again. It was a favorite then and I still got a kick out of it and will probably watch it again. The animation and backgrounds work quite well, dim grimy dull, which make the few moments when things shine (the fireworks, the bottle floating, the waterfall and lighting when Fievel and the family are reunited) all the more powerful, overall the color is great.
Its good to see that IMDb is truly an International Database, and i love that i can read reviews by people who've identified that they are from such places as Pakistan, Jamaica, Argentina, and beyond. As an American Jew myself, the connections to this film are quite obvious and my more recent viewing really gave me a sense of the contribution Steven Spielberg has made in my life, and many other lives about Jews / Americans. I enjoy the opportunity to view other's readings of the film, to see how the messages in the film are viewed by people outside America.
The film has some obvious political undertones that a child will not necessarily pick up. This is a pretty cool thing / kinda sesame street like / a subtle education. While Fievel's family is Jewish, not all the mice in the film are, as we meet other immigrant mice who are carrying crosses, etc. What the mice have in common is immigrant status as well as being under the oppression of "the Cats" (don't say it too loud).
Who are the cats? Are the cats just the bullies in any given situation? While the Russian cats that drove Fievel's family from their home in Russia mirrored the Pogroms / Nazis / Jewish oppressors, Who were the oppressors on the American soil? (is it a direct reflection to a group of oppressors in American in the late 19th century?)
In light of current political situations this movie could have many implications / readings. Does America still seem to have that silver lining? Are people round the world still singing their own equivalents to "The Are No Cats In America?"
Contrast Fievel with Mickey "Mouse" himself, a wonderful comparison. Fievel is almost a real person whereas Mickey is more cartoony. Fievel is a child mouse. As children ourselves we can put ourselves in his shoes more easily, (which is why this is a children's movie) his fascination with "the fish," and always asking questions, his curiosity, which gets him in trouble, and his ability to dream and somehow stumble through it all still surviving (if not drunk and woosie, green-ish) from it all. (a little detail i enjoy is how, invariably he always winds up in some sort of "bubble" (the soap bubble, the bottle, the bed in watertower, etc.. where ever he goes he is protected in a bubble home, he is magically kept in this safety bubble, the bubble of being the main character in a major motion picture, of being the focus for millions of children.) ... another trait of Fievel's is his amazing ability to run up a stream of falling debris to which he uses quite often to escape sticky situations.
The collective effort of the mice to build the Mouse of Minsk is wonderful and the final product is huge and beautifully grotesque and awesome. I love how it rolls out, bursting through the door of the boarded up "museum of the weird." There is something in this, how the solution to the cat problem lies in the pieces of this abandoned museum. How all sorts of knicknacks, falderall, and whatnotknots could be gumbo-ed together to create this Mouse of Minsk monster (an analogy / metaphor to the very real-life America itself.)
There are also some extremely funny moments in this film, like when Tony Toponi, (Fievels friend and escapee from the sewing sweatshop) first sees and falls head over heels in love with Bridget (our Irish rabble rouser). She is all soapbox-ish and politics and talking about getting rid of the cats, and Tony freezes stiff and falls off the roof... (this falling off the roof i have watched, re-wound and watch again about 10,000 times) i don't know why but it just cracks me up the way his body remains stiff and sort of just slides / pops off the roof, and then how he is trying to repeat "cats" when Bridget sees him and he is the only mouse who has not yet run away, she is happy that they at least have each other, and then these hippy flowers come out of nowhere and it's like a sixties love-in all of a sudden.
Also the underground imagery in the sewer is quite accurate and really beautiful. (accurate in the sense of feeling one gets when crawling through a storm drain, which is the equivalent to the film, since it was managing water) (A sewer manages human waste and waste water, while the storm drain system manages excess Weather water...).... just beautiful (yeah in that grimy sooty way)
Another fun moment is when Fievel thinks he hears his father playing his violin, but it is only a gramophone, in which he climbs into, and then when looking into the void gets sad again because he doesn't see his father, then the lady changes the recording which is now this SUDDEN LOUD American boisterous BIG BAND song POMPING great American pride which causes Fievel to fall down into the void of the Phonography and is spat out onto the music which speeds up and slows down (which is of course how Hip-Hop (turntablism) was invented)-(which is also a metaphor for the very real America, the "melting pot" or rather the mixing, scratching, rapping pot.) ... a great little scene, which exemplifies how the mice have to deal with the human environment as well. The mice are real to the humans in the movie, (they see them as real live mice, something to throw a shoe at) somehow us in the audience are different, we are able to see the world at their level, to be able to hear their story.
Overall a fun classic movie which has some important messages about collective power, what freedom is and means from an American perspective. An Adventuresome "musical" with wonderful songs (and sad songs.) A little piece of my childhood as a young American... "America, what a place!" 8/10
I saw AAT when i was young and recently watched it again. It was a favorite then and I still got a kick out of it and will probably watch it again. The animation and backgrounds work quite well, dim grimy dull, which make the few moments when things shine (the fireworks, the bottle floating, the waterfall and lighting when Fievel and the family are reunited) all the more powerful, overall the color is great.
Its good to see that IMDb is truly an International Database, and i love that i can read reviews by people who've identified that they are from such places as Pakistan, Jamaica, Argentina, and beyond. As an American Jew myself, the connections to this film are quite obvious and my more recent viewing really gave me a sense of the contribution Steven Spielberg has made in my life, and many other lives about Jews / Americans. I enjoy the opportunity to view other's readings of the film, to see how the messages in the film are viewed by people outside America.
The film has some obvious political undertones that a child will not necessarily pick up. This is a pretty cool thing / kinda sesame street like / a subtle education. While Fievel's family is Jewish, not all the mice in the film are, as we meet other immigrant mice who are carrying crosses, etc. What the mice have in common is immigrant status as well as being under the oppression of "the Cats" (don't say it too loud).
Who are the cats? Are the cats just the bullies in any given situation? While the Russian cats that drove Fievel's family from their home in Russia mirrored the Pogroms / Nazis / Jewish oppressors, Who were the oppressors on the American soil? (is it a direct reflection to a group of oppressors in American in the late 19th century?)
In light of current political situations this movie could have many implications / readings. Does America still seem to have that silver lining? Are people round the world still singing their own equivalents to "The Are No Cats In America?"
Contrast Fievel with Mickey "Mouse" himself, a wonderful comparison. Fievel is almost a real person whereas Mickey is more cartoony. Fievel is a child mouse. As children ourselves we can put ourselves in his shoes more easily, (which is why this is a children's movie) his fascination with "the fish," and always asking questions, his curiosity, which gets him in trouble, and his ability to dream and somehow stumble through it all still surviving (if not drunk and woosie, green-ish) from it all. (a little detail i enjoy is how, invariably he always winds up in some sort of "bubble" (the soap bubble, the bottle, the bed in watertower, etc.. where ever he goes he is protected in a bubble home, he is magically kept in this safety bubble, the bubble of being the main character in a major motion picture, of being the focus for millions of children.) ... another trait of Fievel's is his amazing ability to run up a stream of falling debris to which he uses quite often to escape sticky situations.
The collective effort of the mice to build the Mouse of Minsk is wonderful and the final product is huge and beautifully grotesque and awesome. I love how it rolls out, bursting through the door of the boarded up "museum of the weird." There is something in this, how the solution to the cat problem lies in the pieces of this abandoned museum. How all sorts of knicknacks, falderall, and whatnotknots could be gumbo-ed together to create this Mouse of Minsk monster (an analogy / metaphor to the very real-life America itself.)
There are also some extremely funny moments in this film, like when Tony Toponi, (Fievels friend and escapee from the sewing sweatshop) first sees and falls head over heels in love with Bridget (our Irish rabble rouser). She is all soapbox-ish and politics and talking about getting rid of the cats, and Tony freezes stiff and falls off the roof... (this falling off the roof i have watched, re-wound and watch again about 10,000 times) i don't know why but it just cracks me up the way his body remains stiff and sort of just slides / pops off the roof, and then how he is trying to repeat "cats" when Bridget sees him and he is the only mouse who has not yet run away, she is happy that they at least have each other, and then these hippy flowers come out of nowhere and it's like a sixties love-in all of a sudden.
Also the underground imagery in the sewer is quite accurate and really beautiful. (accurate in the sense of feeling one gets when crawling through a storm drain, which is the equivalent to the film, since it was managing water) (A sewer manages human waste and waste water, while the storm drain system manages excess Weather water...).... just beautiful (yeah in that grimy sooty way)
Another fun moment is when Fievel thinks he hears his father playing his violin, but it is only a gramophone, in which he climbs into, and then when looking into the void gets sad again because he doesn't see his father, then the lady changes the recording which is now this SUDDEN LOUD American boisterous BIG BAND song POMPING great American pride which causes Fievel to fall down into the void of the Phonography and is spat out onto the music which speeds up and slows down (which is of course how Hip-Hop (turntablism) was invented)-(which is also a metaphor for the very real America, the "melting pot" or rather the mixing, scratching, rapping pot.) ... a great little scene, which exemplifies how the mice have to deal with the human environment as well. The mice are real to the humans in the movie, (they see them as real live mice, something to throw a shoe at) somehow us in the audience are different, we are able to see the world at their level, to be able to hear their story.
Overall a fun classic movie which has some important messages about collective power, what freedom is and means from an American perspective. An Adventuresome "musical" with wonderful songs (and sad songs.) A little piece of my childhood as a young American... "America, what a place!" 8/10