What's up with the 80s and mice. I mean, The Rescuers, The Great Mouse Detective... This movie. Though, come to think about it, Don Bluth worked on two of those movies and left the Disney Studio just as they were beginning to conceptualize Basil of Baker Street. So, Mr. Bluth: What's up with all the mice?
Nevertheless, it's not a bad film by any means, and is held as a classic by many who have seen it as children. Personally I saw it for the first time as an adult, and while I can see the pull, I can also notice all the flaws.
So what's the story? The family Mousekewitz are Russian-Jewish immigrants on their way to America where there are no cats, or so they have been told. But on the way there Fievel, their son, washes overboard and is believed to have drowned. Naturally our plucky main character simply washes to shore in a bottle, but they don't know that. And from there it's pretty much a story about how they get back together and end up in wacky hijinks while doing so.
It works, simply said. The allegory of cats and mice works really well to reflect the dreams of immigrants looking to start anew in America, the land of possibilities, only to find out that their new home is not terribly different from the place they left. The film is also pure gold on the technical level, with Bluth's signatory animation style lending itself really well to the small world of animals living in the lower quarters of our own. The songs are also very good, especially There Are No Cats in America, which is ridiculously catchy.
But then the problems. The story is pretty clunky. None of the various plot threads connect all that well, except in that Fievel just happens to influence all of them through forced writing. And Fievel himself is incredibly annoying. I can see the appeal of him, but to me he's easily the worst thing in this film.
Still, if you've liked other Don Bluth films, this one is definitely worth a watch. Not his best film, but it has a lot of good stuff in it.
Nevertheless, it's not a bad film by any means, and is held as a classic by many who have seen it as children. Personally I saw it for the first time as an adult, and while I can see the pull, I can also notice all the flaws.
So what's the story? The family Mousekewitz are Russian-Jewish immigrants on their way to America where there are no cats, or so they have been told. But on the way there Fievel, their son, washes overboard and is believed to have drowned. Naturally our plucky main character simply washes to shore in a bottle, but they don't know that. And from there it's pretty much a story about how they get back together and end up in wacky hijinks while doing so.
It works, simply said. The allegory of cats and mice works really well to reflect the dreams of immigrants looking to start anew in America, the land of possibilities, only to find out that their new home is not terribly different from the place they left. The film is also pure gold on the technical level, with Bluth's signatory animation style lending itself really well to the small world of animals living in the lower quarters of our own. The songs are also very good, especially There Are No Cats in America, which is ridiculously catchy.
But then the problems. The story is pretty clunky. None of the various plot threads connect all that well, except in that Fievel just happens to influence all of them through forced writing. And Fievel himself is incredibly annoying. I can see the appeal of him, but to me he's easily the worst thing in this film.
Still, if you've liked other Don Bluth films, this one is definitely worth a watch. Not his best film, but it has a lot of good stuff in it.