The Cartoon

Oh my goodness! I was flipping through channels the other night and saw that An American Tail was on. A favorite of my childhood, I flipped to it. Remember Fievel, sweet little mouse child who gets separated from his "papa" and family as they immigrate to America? There is much singing and mouse dancing? An inspiring cartoon version of the Rodent-American Dream?! Amazing.

I settled in with a Hot Toddy

I watched for about two seconds and came to the conclusion that it is utterly depressing.

These poor Russian mice! Going to America after cats burned down their home. Who told them there were no cats in America? LIES! Fievel, Papa and the rest of the Mousekewitz family hop on a ship bound for America and while on the journey are caught in a storm. Fievel, while trying to hang onto a hat eighteen sizes too big for him, ends up falling off the boat and riding in an empty wine bottle to America.


"Is this America!?"
"No, it's New York."

Fievel's family think (reasonably) that he is dead and go to make a life in America where, unfortunately, there are cats.

Meanwhile, Fievel meets an optimistic singing pigeon who encourages him to "never say never"and keep hope that he'll find his family. Clearly the pigeon, who claims to be building the Statue of Liberty, is mentally ill. But that's alright.

While journeying to find his family, Fievel encounters a pretty dirty rat (ha, get it) who, with the help of a cockroach in his pocket, enslaves him to work in a mouse-sweatshop. Fievel escapes with fellow child-slave Tony Tiponi, wandering the streets of New York as "Poor Wandering One" from Pirates of Penzance plays in the background.

Somewhere else in New York, Fievel's sister tells her parents she feels like Fievel is still alive somewhere, but they basically tell her to give up hope and not to try to look for him. "You can't find what's not there."

Did I mention there are cats in America? There are.

Tony and Fievel meet Bridget (Tony and Bridget fall instantly in mouse-love) who takes them to see a politician to help find the Mousekewitzes, who are unfortunately not registered voters, as they are brand new Russian mouse-immigrants.

It's at this point that Fievel and his sister sing the star-crossed duet "Somewhere Out There" and dream of be reunited. It's a tear-jerker. Kind of a cross between "One Little Star" from Follow That Bird and the opening credits version of "Heartland" from Pure Country. Not for the weak of heart.

The storyline gets a little fuzzy here. The dirty rat from the beginning comes back and all the other mice rally against him, then somehow Fievel discovers that the dirty rat is actually a cat in a mouse costume?! Fievel saves the day by tricking the cats into getting onto a boat headed for Hong Kong.

Still unable to find his family, Feivel is told by other mouse-orphans to give up hope.

But wait - before you off-yourself from sheer animated depression - Fievel eventually hears his Papa's violin playing and the Mousekewitzes are reunited! It's perfect timing, since the mentally-ill pigeon from the beginning has finished the Statue of Liberty. The Mousekewitzes, Tony & Bridget all get to live the American Dream.

Regardless of how sad this was as an adult, my sister and I were talking about when we went to see it in the movie theater - the big snowflake in the opening credits was one of the coolest things we had ever seen.

On a side note, there was a mouse sighting in our office today. More disturbing than the actual sighting is the fact that it promptly became un-sighted and now mysteriously roams the office under the cover of carpet base and computer wiring.

I chose to believe it was just Fievel. Looking for his family. Because there are no cats on the 9th floor.