An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
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| An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster | |
 An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster |
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| Directed by | Larry Latham |
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| Produced by | Larry Latham |
| Written by | Len Uhley |
| Starring | Thomas Dekker Robert Hays Susan Boyd Candi Milo Lacey Chabert John Mariano Nehemiah Persoff |
| Music by | Michael Tavera |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios Home Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | December 9, 1999 (Germany) July 25, 2000 (USA) |
| Running time | 78 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island |
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster was the second direct-to-video sequel to An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and the 4th and last film in the An American Tail tetralogy, starring Thomas Alexander Dekker as the main character, the young Fievel Mousekewitz.
This film was first released on December 9, 1999, in Germany and in the U.S. it was released in 2000. The ending of this film shows Fievel falling asleep which may mark that there wouldn't be another American Tail film.
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[edit] Plot
Set in between the third film (Late 1880s) and second film (1892), Fievel, his friend Tony and his sister Tanya all get jobs at the local newspaper, where the audience is introduced to Nellie, who wants to be an important reporter, but only gets small assignments, as if she were a secretary to Reed, the newspaper's editor. Throughout the film, Tanya tries to win Reed's heart, while Tony tries to get noticed by Reed and promoted to a reporter. Like in the previous movies where a mouse installation is directly below its human installation counterpart, the newspaper offices the mice work in is directly underneath the newspaper offices the humans work in.
Nellie gets a chance when she is assigned to report mice who disappear overnight into holes that open up on their floor all over New York. Reed makes up a, as Nellie calls it, "so-called monster" that lives under Manhattan and takes mice away during the night to add more excitement to the otherwise unimportant story, intending to sell more papers. The night monster creates fears among the readers, as could be expected. Fievel begins having nightmares that cause him to lose sleep because of his fear of the monster; the film opens up with Fievel having a dream about being chased by what he thinks the monster looks like. And when through Tanya he is assigned the job of following Nellie and drawing up interperatations of what the monster looks like based on witness testimony, this makes his insomnia all the worse.
A particularly suspicious miniature french poodle named Madame Mousey who has started living among the mice about this time appears at every crime scene, claiming to be a fortune teller. The heroes finally decide to investigate her by means of the "dog council" that meets at Central Park. They also search down one of the holes, which leads directly to a group of cats hiding in the sewers. Also, all the mice that had disappeared are being held in wood cages there, to be sold off to other cats and eaten.
The night monster itself, a mechanic device with ghastly flashing pictures and a circular saw, is revealed in full when it attacks the mice newspaper office and printing press to prevent them from printing the truth, which they had just discovered. A great chase scene takes place throughout both the mouse and the human newspaper offices. Reed reveals that he was in love with Nellie all along, much to Tanya's intense dismay. When all the cats seem to be under control, the "dog council" appears just as they're regaining consciousness and chase them all away, taking Madame Mousey with them.
The last scene takes place at the beach, where the audience is told that the "dog council" had chosen for the french poodle (the mastermind behind the night monster) a punishment worse than prison: returning her to her owner. Mrs. Mousekewitz, Fievel's mother, surmises saying that now that the mystery has been cleared up, Fievel may finally go to sleep, only to turn around and find him already asleep on the beach towel.
[edit] Animation style
In comparison with the two theatrical features in the American Tail series, both direct-to-video releases falter in quality, including shading and animation quality, as typical for TV cartoons, while the most notable difference is that both video features made use of interlacing even in their PAL versions. On top of that, Fievel's fur color was desaturated even though the rest of the Mousekewitz family have kept their original fur color.
[edit] Characters
- Fievel Mousekewitz (voiced by Thomas Dekker): Fievel is the main character of the film. He constantly has nightmares of the night monster trying to get him. He joins Nellie to prove the night monster fake hoping that it will make him braver. In the end he helps get rid of the cats helping mousey with the machine and in the end falls asleep on the beach during the celebration.
- Tanya Mousekewitz (voiced by Lacey Chabert): Fievel's sister. She gets a job at the daily nibbler. It is hinted throughout the film that she had a crush on her boss Reed. She tried hard to impress him so he would like her as well. She was very upset when Reed and nellie decide to get married. At the celebration in the end of the film she was depressed about Mr. Reed and claimed," Now life had no meaning."
- Mama & Papa Mousekewitz (voiced by Jane Singer and Nehemiah Persoff): Fievel's parents. Mama in the beginning of the film tells Tanya to bring fievel to work with her so Nellie Brie could tell fievel that the night monster is fake so he can get some sleep. Papa, however, believed it was real.
- Yasha Mousekewitz (not voiced): Fievel's baby sister.
- Tiger (voiced by Dom DeLuise): The only cat friend of the Jewish-Russian mouse family. He had to go to the dog council in the end to tell them about mousey plot to get rid of the mice. At first they didn't like him and wanted to get him, when he tells them about the "crazy poodle" they start listening and come to the rescue. Tiger helped Tony in the beginning hand out the newspapers.
- Tony Toponi (voiced by Pat Musick): Fievel's best friend. Throughout the whole film Tony tries to impress Mr.Reed so he can be a news reporter. He even took a tip from Mousey at first not knowing that she was the one trying to get rid of the mice. He followed both Fievel and Nellie to the house mousey said to go in her tip. However, it was a trap and the night monster was about to get them until Tony cut the Chandelier and it hit the night monster. Nellie told ti=ony he would go far in the business.
Other Voices:
- Susan Boyd (Nellie Brie, a fictionalized mouse version of Nellie Bly). She is a famous reporter in the Daily nibbler. She didn't believe the night monster was real. She and Fievel throughout the whole film are going around finding clues about the night monster. She tells fievel to not let the fear win, that once you find the facts about something scary it helps make the fear go away.
- Robert Hays (Reed Dailey) The head chief of the Daily Nibbler. He and Nellie share a hate relationship. Nellie Knows that Reed secretly like her and that it upstes him terribly so he pretends to not like her at all. In the end her protects her from one of the cats Twitch and gets knocked out. In the end he confesses his love to her.
- Candi Milo (Madame Mousey, the meanest, witchiest miniature French poodle) She faked being a soothsayer to get money from the mice. She created the Manhattan monster to get rid of the rodents because, when she ran away from her owner the other dogs didn't want to be around a dog who looks similar to a rodent. She snapped and got cats to help her make a monster to wipe away all the rodents of new york. Lock them in crates and sell them to cats to be eaten. In the end Fievel knocks her out. At the end of the fight with the cats, Tiger and tony catch Mousey from escaping into the sewer, and the dog council sender her back to her owner. She claimed it was even worse than going to the city pound. She despises Nellie for doubting the beliefs of the night onster and underestimating her. She gave tony a fake clue to the night monster so Fievel and Nellie could go to and od house to be finished off. Her accent switches from french to a new york accent.
- John Mariano (Twitch, leader of the Outlaw Cats / Madame Mousey's manservant)Twitch despises Mousey and teased her about her problems with the other dogs. When they came back after a failed attempt to get rid of Nellie and fievel Twitched tries to get the cats to turn on Mousey because he believed they were better off without her and since they had Mousey's sewer maps, they had a way to get past the mice gate that protects them from the cats. In the final battle, Fievel tricks twitch to go on a printing press. He got rapped up in a newspaper and wasn't seen ever since.
- John Garry (Lone Woof) At first he refused to help Nellie and Fievel in the search to find the night monster's true Identity. They convince him to help. They showed him a faux rhinestone that belonged to a dogs collar that was found at the scene of the crime. He told them about looking for a sign from above, hinted a wanted dog poster showing Mousey.
[edit] Trivia
- The film's character, Nellie Brie is similar to Sawyer Cat from the Warner Bros. motion picture, Cats Don't Dance.
[edit] Soundtrack
"Get the Facts" Performed by Susan Boyd and Thomas Dekker
"Creature de la Nuit" Performed by Candi Milo
"Who Will" Performed by Susan Boyd, Thomas Dekker, Pat Musick and Dom DeLuise
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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