An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island

Last updated
An American Tail:
The Treasure of Manhattan Island
An American Tail The Treasure of Manhattan Island poster.jpg
Original VHS cover
Directed by Larry Latham
Written byLen Uhley
Based onCharacters
by David Kirschner
Produced byLarry Latham
Starring
Music by Michael Tavera
James Horner
(archive music)
Production
companies
Universal Family & Home Entertainment Production [1]
Universal Cartoon Studios
TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation
(Japanese Animation services)
Distributed by Universal Studios Home Video
Release dates
  • November 16, 1998 (1998-11-16)(United Kingdom)
  • February 15, 2000 (2000-02-15)(United States)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States [1]
LanguageEnglish

An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island (also known as An American Tail 3: The Treasure of Manhattan Island) is a 1998 American animated adventure film produced by Universal Cartoon Studios and directed by Larry Latham. It is the third film in the An American Tail series, the first to be released direct-to-video, and the first in the series to use digital ink and paint.

Contents

While retaining Dom DeLuise throughout the film series, the film reunites the voice cast of Nehemiah Persoff and Erica Yohn from both An American Tail (1986) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West , Pat Musick from An American Tail with the return of her character Tony Toponi, and introduces Elaine Bilstad, René Auberjonois, David Carradine, John Kassir, Ron Perlman, Tony Jay and Richard Karron. Fievel and Tanya Mousekewitz's voices were performed by Thomas Dekker and Lacey Chabert, replacing the previous voice actors Phillip Glasser, Amy Green from the 1986 film, and Cathy Cavadini from both Fievel Goes West and the TV series Fievel's American Tails .

The film premiered in the United Kingdom on November 16, 1998, and was released in the United States and Canada on February 15, 2000. The film explores the themes of labor exploitation, worker's rights, xenophobia and the effects of European colonialism.

This was Erica Yohn and Elaine Bilstad's final film appearances.

Plot

In New York City, sometime after the events of the first film and before the second one, Fievel and Tony discover that an ancient treasure lies underneath Manhattan when snooping around an abandoned subway and stumbling upon the remains of a dead mouse clutching a treasure map, deciding they must find it with the help of an archaeologist Tony knows: Dr. Dithering. Dithering deciphers the map and learns that it leads to a treasure left behind by the Lenape, New York's pre-colonial inhabitants and arranges and organizes an expedition to find this treasure, bringing brings Fievel, Tony, Tiger and his assistant Scuttlebutt. The group survives several traps only to discover that the "treasure" the map had referred to was actually a village of Lenape mice buried deep underground. The Lenape welcome the visitors from the surface and reveal that they had retreated to their hidden village upon witnessing the treatment of the human Lenape by the European colonists. The sachem, Chief Wulisso, decides to send his daughter Cholena, to the surface to see if they have "changed their ways."

Meanwhile, Fievel's father works at a cheese factory run by Mr. Grasping, Mr. Toplofty, and Mr. O'Bloat. The overworked, underpaid workers are beginning to grow resentful of their treatment at the factory, but they are intimidated into compliance by the NYPD, led by the brutal Chief McBrusque. Upon the expedition's return, Scuttlebutt (who is secretly on Grasping's payroll) reports the existence of the Lenape village to the factory owners, who see an opportunity to distract the workers from their grievances. Taking advantage of the anti-Native American sentiments among the populace, Grasping works the mice of New York into a frenzy and sends them out to capture Cholena and anyone aiding her. Fievel and Tony manage to save Cholena from the police, but Dr. Dithering is captured by the mob and taken to the butcher's shop for trial. Papa instructs Fievel, Tony, and Tanya to take Cholena back to her village while he and Tiger save Dithering.

At the butcher shop Dithering is sentenced to death, but he is saved by Tiger before the police mice can execute him. Papa appears before the crowd and makes them realize that the factory owners are using xenophobia to divide them. Seeing the crowd turning against them, the factory owners quickly make their escape and instruct McBrusque to wipe out the Lenape to prevent an alliance between them and the workers.

Upon returning Cholena to her home, Fievel tells the chief what is happening. McBrusque, Scuttlebutt, and the other police officers show up to the village, but the Chief, the Native Americans, Fievel and his friends drive them away. The chief gives them a gunpowder bomb to collapse the tunnel connecting the Native Americans to the outside world. But before they can do so, they are ambushed by the enraged McBrusque and Scuttlebutt who attempt to get revenge on the Mousekewitz children and Tony once and for all, but the two crooks are overpowered and Fievel manages to set off the bomb. This floods the tunnel, together with McBrusque and Scuttlebutt as they fall into the chasm to their deaths. Tony and Tanya managed to reach higher ground, but Fievel is seemingly carried off by the current.

When the water recedes Tanya and Tony desperately search through the mud to find him, before giving up. But just then, Fievel breaks through the surface, and all three share a muddy group hug, thankful that everyone survived. Papa forms a worker's union and Mr. Grasping, Mr. Toplofty, and Mr. O'Bloat are being forced to negotiate with the union to avoid a labor strike and the wrath of Tiger, who becomes the new police chief. Using a foldable telescope given from Dr. Dithering, Fievel finds Cholena and her father disappearing into a hidden door at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, which pleases him as he wishes for the best for them.

Voice cast

The Treasure of Manhattan Island is the final film Bilstad contributed to as it would be released posthumously in the United States. [2]

Production

Following a six year hiatus for the An American Tail series, Universal kicked off a $15 million marketing campaign to reignite interest in the franchise with re-releases of the first two films leading up to the release of An American Tail III with the fourth installment scheduled for the following June. The mandate for the series as dictated by then President of Universal Worldwide Home Entertainment, Louis Feola, was "...to create the same value and success for An American Tail as the studio did with the Land Before Time ". [3]

Animation

Japanese studio TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation was the overseas animation studio for the film.

Casting

New voices were handed out for Fievel and Tanya during production while some of the original characters retaining their original voices from the first film. Phillip Glasser was unable to recast as Fievel for this film due to voice changing by age, as Glasser was 19 at the time.[ citation needed ] Universal hired then-child actor Thomas Dekker as Fievel. Then-15-year-old Lacey Chabert was chosen as the voice for Tanya. The previous actress, Cathy Cavadini, could not participate in the role at the time due to being under the contract for Cartoon Network while casting for Blossom in The Powerpuff Girls . [4] Pat Musick returned to reprise her role as Tony, as the character returns since An American Tail in 1986.

Universal hired actors from the previous works to voice the characters that were made exclusively for this film. René Auberjonois (Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ), David Carradine (Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu ), Ron Perlman (Vincent in Beauty and the Beast ), and John Kassir (the Crypt-Keeper from the Tales from the Crypt franchise) are cast as Dr. Dithering, Chief Wulisso, Mr. Grasping, and Scuttlebutt, respectively.

Elaine Bilstad, a Native American actress, was chosen to voice for Cholena. Bilstad was previously given limited roles as one-time characters in Walker, Texas Ranger , Baywatch Nights , and as Catherine in the TV movie The Broken Chain . She even played White Snow, the indigenous version of Snow White in Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child . This was Bilstad's final role before she died of a heart problem on January 30, 1999,[ citation needed ] releasing the film posthumously in the United States. [2]

Technical issues

Despite restoring the continuity from the first film as mandated, [3] most of the original film's characters are written off from subsequent sequels due to casting issues or that by absences of the original actors, except returning Tony after being excluded from the Green River continuity without Musick's input in the early 1990s. Madeline Kahn did not return to reprise her role for Gussie Mausheimer nor returning her character in the films as she was busy casting for other films, such as A Bug's Life and Judy Berlin , before being diagnosed with cancer in late 1998. [5] Bridget, Tony's soulmate from the first film, remains absent in the later sequels in question as her actress, Cathianne Blore, was since battling cancer in the mid 1990s,[ citation needed ] discarding the importance to the franchise's continuity. [6] Her last work was Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness in 1994. Christopher Plummer did not return to reprise his role for Henri as he was busy casting for other films, such as The First Christmas and The Clown at Midnight . His character is only seen as a background cameo.

Songs

In addition to three original songs, archive music from the first two films are reused.

All tracks are written by Michael Tavera.

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."We Live in Manhattan"Chorus 
2."Friends of the Working Mouse" Ron Perlman, Tony Jay & Richard Karron  
3."Anywhere in Your Dreams"Leeza Miller & Thomas Dekker  

Release

Advertisement of the third film shown inside the cover of the 1998 reissues of An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West while being delayed. 1998 VHS Advertisement of An American Tail 3.jpeg
Advertisement of the third film shown inside the cover of the 1998 reissues of An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West while being delayed.

As early as March 17, 1998, The Treasure of Manhattan Island was advertised on the VHS release of The Chipmunk Adventure . It was then advertised on the VHS reissues of An American Tail and its sequel Fievel Goes West on August 11 the same year. However, the film's North American release date remained undisclosed until late December 1999, receiving the VHS release on February 15, 2000. [2] It was later released on DVD on January 20, 2004, with a sing-along version of "Anywhere In Your Dreams" as a bonus feature. It was later combined in a DVD set packaged with three other films on June 13, 2017. [7]

Overseas

The film premiered in the United Kingdom in November 1998. It was also released on April 6, 2001 in Italy, January 2, 2003 in Spain, February 9, 2003 in Australia, April 3, 2003 in Russia, June 19, 2003 in France, November 4, 2003 in Germany and April 4, 2006 in Japan.

Reception

Robert Pardi of TV Guide gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote: "Although the bright and bubbly animation lacks depth, these cute little vermin have just enough personality to make tykes unaware they're being spoonfed ethnic-harmony aphorisms". [8] Susan King of the Los Angeles Times wrote that young children under 10-years-old might find it entertaining. [9] Grace Montgomery of Common Sense Media felt that the politically sensitive elements depicted in the film are "out of place for An American Tail " and recommended that "your kids would be better off to stick with the original An American Tail and skip this one". [10]

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References

  1. 1 2 "An American Tail The Treasure of Manhattan Island (1998)". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on May 3, 2018. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
  2. 1 2 3 Fitzpatrick, Eileen (December 25, 1999). "'Mummy' Shoots Universal's Sales Over $1 Bil.; Retailers Win With Sight And Sound". Billboard . Vol. 111, no. 52.
  3. 1 2 "'American Tail' videos return to stores". Variety. 5 June 1998. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Catherine's listed achievements on her official website". catherinecavadini.com.
  5. ↑ Honan, William H. (December 4, 1999). "Madeline Kahn, Comedian Of Film Fame, Dies at 57". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  6. ↑ Cawley, John. "An American Tail". The Animated Films of Don Bluth. Cataroo.com. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  7. ↑ "An American Tail: 4 Movie Complete Collection". Amazon. 13 June 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  8. ↑ "An American Tail: The Treasure Of Manhattan Island". TV Guide . Retrieved 2017-10-01.
  9. ↑ King, Susan (2000-02-17). "Fievel's Big Adventure in Manhattan". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2017-10-01.
  10. ↑ "Scarier and darker than the past films". Common Sense Media . Retrieved 2017-10-01.
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