An American Tail: Critic Reviews

Witless if well-meaning.

A bright-eyed tale of Jewish triumphs that will find a place in many young hearts.

It may be that the truly American tale here is the spectacle of an artist squandering his awesome gifts on the way to becoming a Hollywood institution.

he movie has such vague ethnic grounds, however, that only a few children will understand or care that the Mousekewitzes are Jewish. And few of those are likely to be entertained by such a tragic, gloomy story.

The overall quality of the animation -- baroquely executed if rather conventionally conceived -- makes it worth a look

Cartoons with ambitions even this noble are as rare as Steven Spielberg films that lose money, but every character and every situation presented herein have been seen a thousand times before.

Adorable, heartwarming tale of immigrant mouse.

Its sappiness is unmissably sincere, and such aching, embarrassing sincerity is never an evil thing in a movie.

The story is moving, and the animation includes some powerful images, although some of the early scenes depicting the suffering of the mice in Russia may be too frightening for younger viewers.

There's nothing particularly special about An American Tail, save for Bluth's slick animation.

For all its state-of-the-art animation techniques, Spielberg's production remains resolutely conservative: visually it's virtually indistinguishable from Walt at his wimpiest.

Like other Spielberg-produced movies, this one pays homage to old movie traditions (live-action Westerns) and icons, but the film has been made mechanically, without any conviction or feeling.

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Can't resist any film with singing mice. Truly Bluth's best film.

Ethnic mice plus fascist cats in groundbreaking animation.

I liked it as a kid, and have liked it less and less every year since.

No Mickey, but a nice mouse.

A light and charming little animated adventure.