MovieChat Forums > An American Tail (1986) Discussion > What we all learned from this movie...

What we all learned from this movie...

posted 15 years ago by CosmosX9
9 replies | jump to latest

1.) There are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese.

2.) Mice CAN talk!

3.) They also know what America and immigration is.

[–] TheLittleSongbird 15 years ago

4) Never say never.

"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)

[–] FlyToTouchTheSky 15 years ago

5) Even under most adverse life circumstances in which you've lost your hat, it will magically reappear in the next second (or shot).
Notice: A hat seems to be a better and more stable financial investment than a house! (which could be added as lesson 5b)

6) Even female mice know how to flutter their eyelashes for dramatic effect and making men fall head over heels with them.

7) Everybody should have "The Giant Mouse of Minsk" at home, in case unwanted visitors are approaching (it probably works with everyone and not only with cats)!

[–] clacton0 15 years ago

8) Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight
Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight

MY Forum < http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/ >

[–] FlyToTouchTheSky 15 years ago

I've totally forgotten about lesson 8. Thanks for posting it, clacton! It is uplifting to see it in written form..kind of a "feel-good-lesson"! =)

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] astarisborn94 13 years ago

9. Never say never.

Anything can happen and there's always the chance you'll find something that you never thought would happen. Never give up on your hopes or dreams, no matter how unrealistic it is.
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Talking about my movie experience in here: http://astarisborn94.livejournal.com/

[–] ngobleus 13 years ago

10. Cats (especially ones owned by Cossacks) can be scary as hell from the perspective of mice.

[–] mammamia1216 13 years ago

and that carries over to THE SECRET OF NIMH as well. Did you all notice the cat there? He's practically demonic!

Lol, maybe Don Bluth is trying to express that he's more of a dog person?

I actually learned a LOT about history from this movie (no--I'm serious!) or what I already learned in history class was reinforced here.

1. Immigrants' names were changed when they were processed at Ellis Island ("but Papa, why did they change my name to Tilly?" or something like that. Incidentally, that scene also reminded me of the one from The Godfather Part II where Corleone in passing through Ellis Island and winds up with that name)

2. the whole thing about young immigrants being sent to factories/other types of workhouses and having their wages held by some manipulator (i.e. Warren T. Rat)

3. the same Warren T. Rat character manipulating immigrants into paying him for "protection"

4. the Honest John character who goes to funeral homes/morgues and registers the dead people to vote (apparently this was part of the whole Tammany Hall corruption)

5. if you're Irish, you're automatically an activist :P

and more, but that's all I can remember for now.
That textbook is like 1000 years old! It still refers to dementors as ringwraiths!

[–] ngobleus 12 years ago

Dragon didn't scare me all that much, for 2 reasons:

1) I saw American Tail before I saw NIMH. So Dragon didn't get the chance to be that 'first-scar-leaver'.

2) Dragon never has that devilish smile on his face (at least that I can remember) in the film, so the Cossack cats have him beat on that. To me, Dragon seemed like a worn-out, old man-style cat.

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