An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
| An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Larry Latham |
| Produced by | Larry Latham |
| Screenplay by | Len Uhley |
| Based on |
Characters by David Kirschner |
| Starring |
Thomas Alexander Dekker Robert Hays Susan Boyd Candi Milo Lacey Chabert John Mariano Nehemiah Persoff Jane Singer |
| Music by | Michael Tavera |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios Home Entertainment |
Release dates |
July 25, 2000 (USA) December 9, 1999 (Germany) |
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (also known as An American Tail IV: Fievel Meets the Night Monster, or An American Tail 4) is the second direct-to-video follow-up to An American Tail and the fourth and final film in the An American Tail series (the final chapter of An American Tail), starring Thomas Dekker as the young Fievel Mousekewitz. This film was animated in Japan by Tama Production Co. Ltd and it was released on December 9, 1999 in Germany and July 25, 2000 in the USA.
Plot
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 City. 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. 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 known as the infamous Outlaw 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, leaving Tanya intensely disheartened. 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 (who was the mastermind behind the night monster all along) a punishment worse than prison: returning her to her owner, Mrs. Abernathy. Mama 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 with Yasha his sister already asleep on the beach towel.
Cast
- Thomas Dekker as Fievel Mousekewitz
- Dom DeLuise as Tiger
- Susan Boyd as Nellie Brie
- Pat Musick as Tony Toponi/Mrs. Abernathy
- Candi Milo as Madame Mousey
- Robert Hays as Reed Daley
- Lacey Chabert as Tanya Mousekewitz
- Nehemiah Persoff as Papa Mousekewitz
- Jane Singer as Mama Mousekewitz
- John Mariano as Twitch
- Jeff Bennett as Slug
- Joe Lala as Bootlick
- Sherman Howard as Haggis
- John Garry as Lone Woof
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