Product Details

• Actors: Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, Erica Yohn, Nehemiah Persoff, Amy Green
• Directors: Don Bluth
• Writers: David Kirschner, Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss
• Producers: Don Bluth, David Kirschner, Deborah Jelin Newmyer, Frank Marshall
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 6, 2001
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783228503
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,059 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Don Bluth's An American Tail is based on the story of a young Russian mouse who is separated from his family in America and who later heads with his reunited kin out to the American West. It's pleasant, though not spectacular, and has its greatest problems in story development. Steven Spielberg produced with an eye toward creating animation hits outside of Disney, and he and Bluth certainly took a big step in that direction here. Kids like it a lot, and adults will warm to the sound of various familiar voices, such as Dom DeLuise as Tiger and Madeline Kahn as Gussie Mausheimer. It's also the source of the pop single "Somewhere Out There." --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How NOT to release a great movie on DVD., February 23, 2011

By 

ManWithGoodTasteSays: "listen to Blur, people!" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: An American Tail (DVD)

How do you feel when you learn that one of your favorite films is to be released on DVD?

Of course, you feel very happy.

And what is your reaction when you finally got it? Well, there can be two:

1) This is great! A remastered version presented in widescreen! And all is just like I remember it, only better! And look at all those special features!

2) What... what is this?!

My reaction with An American Tail DVD was #2. Because what I got was a #2 job.

Here is a short and easy-to-follow guide for every studio out there, that is planning to release a movie on DVD:

1. Do not make unnecessary changes.
2. Do not make unnecessary edits.
3. If it was a theatrical feature, present it in widescreen.

Do you think Universal followed those easy steps?

Nope.

Here is an incomplete list of changes (without spoilers):

-New "humorous" sound effects were added to scenes where originally there weren't any. It's not funny.
-New voices were added to scenes without dialog (or any noise, for that matter).
-The alley mice's voices were re-dubbed. Why???
-The cover art was changes from a beautiful theatrical poster by Drew Struzan, only to be replaced with... something MUCH less appealing.

As I said, this small list of changes is incomplete. There is more.

It should be mentioned that there is also no widescreen. Enjoy your fullscreen! And do not forget to also enjoy the complete lack of any real special features to speak of!


An American Tail is a film that combines the talents of Steven Spielberg and Don Bluth. It was the first animated feature ever to out-compete Disney. It won several awards, including a Grammy for "best song". It was screened at the Jewish Film Festival in Atlanta in February 2011 to celebrate its 25 year anniversary. It was a film that grossed $84,000,000 worldwide (a record for animation at that time).


And THIS is how you treat such a film, Universal?! I cannot hear you, Universal!~!

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Slighly Altered "Tail", January 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: An American Tail (DVD)

Since I have already written a review back in spring of 2001 that touches on the brilliance of this animated treasure, this review will focus primarily on the newly released DVD of the film.

I for one, was certainly thrilled to learn that Universal was finally giving Fievel the coveted DVD treatment, and anticipated its release on the format each day since. Yes, features are scarce, and yes, the film is presented in full frame only, but the way I see it, having An American Tail on DVD at all is a milestone for me, since it is a title I have yearned for since the early days of the format. Do not get me wrong, I am a VERY strong supporter of original aspect ratio on home video, but An American Tail is not exactly a film that cries out for the anamorphic widescreen treatment. In this case, its omission does not really detract from the experience. But then again, maybe I am being slightly biased about this film, having seen it once as child, loved it, and becoming hooked on it ever since.

As far as the picture quality is concerned, aside from the image being full frame, I was actually rather impressed. I was not expecting the image to be quite so crisp and clear. There were a few more speckles of film dirt then I thought should have been there, but for a film nearing twenty years old, it was still a good deal better than I was expecting. Clarity was most definitely improved over the VHS versions, and colors were strong and nice-looking.

The sound is also pretty great. I listened to the DTS 5.1 soundtrack on my surround system, and it is, without a doubt, the best I have ever heard this film. However, those of you who have seen American Tail numerous times over (as I have) are bound to notice changes in some of the dialogue as compared to past video releases. In teh opening titles, for example, as we approach the Mousewitz home, laughter is now heard inside the humans' cottage where, on the VHS release, all that can be heard is James Horner's soundtrack. Also, new or never-before-heard of dialogue have been spliced into the film throughtout. Th emost noteable instances of this are during the scenes when Fievel is trapped in a birdcage, crying, just before he meets Tiger. Also, when the cats are being anchored up onto the ship headed for Hong Kong, Warren T. now utters an additional line from offscreen, which I will leave you to discover. Anyone who has seen the film a good many times is bound to notice these changes.

While this altered/re-dubbed dialogue does not neccesarily hurt the film, it is still fair to question why these changes were needed. Perhaps Universal felt the need to offer something new to DVD buyers who would be purchasing this film again? There is no sense in correcting something that was never broken to begin with. Be that as it may, the changes do not take away from one's enjoyment of the film, or certainly not mine, at least.

Bottom line, American Tail lovers who are not particularly picky about aspect ratio should find this DVD well worth acquring . Like I said, I am big on widescreen myself, but in this case, found the movie too irresistable to turn down, especially at its low list price. Full frame and re-recorded dialogue aside, An American Tail is still the classic that it was nearly 20 years ago. So buy it before you are stuck trying to find an out-of-print copy "somwhere out there."

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Classic Animated Film ..., April 21, 2005

By 

Melissa (Dallas Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An American Tail (DVD)

From director Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH) this beautiful animated film comes a "tail" like no other. This story is about a little mouse named Fievel taking a "once in a lifetime" journey to America from Russia to escape the cats. They think by going to America there are no cats and can have a better life for their families. Upon their travels poor little Fievel becomes seperated from his family while arriving in New York.

During his adventures he meets up with wonderful characters such as: Tiger (Dom DeLuise), Tony Toponi, Bridget, Honest John, Gussie Mausheimer (Madeline Kahn), Digit, Henri (Christopher Plummer) & more!

This film also had some wonderful feature and ground breaking award winning songs such as:

There Are No Cats in America
Never Say Never
Somewhere Out There
Somewhere Out There - James Ingram & Linda Ronstadt
Duo

Before Disney's beautiful Pixar films came to the big screen, there was the breathtakingly beautiful and realistic animation by Don Bluth and Steven Spielberg productions. It may be a little out dated for most, but it's truly a classic animated film with wonderful song's & colorful characters told in an original story.

The DVD: Is very sweet as well it has sing-a-long song's, cute triva games for the kids, and more!