Although Don Bluth’s directorial debut, The Secret of NIMH, didn’t do well financially, with a box office of $14.7 million against a budget of $7 million, it attracted the attention of Stephen Spielberg, who collaborated with Don Bluth and Universal to produce An American Tail. Despite production troubles, which included creative differences and Spielberg learning just how complicated animation actually is, the film, notably co-produced in Ireland, released in late 1986 and made $104.5 million on a budget of about $9 million, which made it the most successful non-Disney animated film at the time. Critics were mixed on the film at the time, but its popularity would increase over the years, namely from those who watched it as children and retained fond memories of it. We never watched it ourselves until over thirty years later, which gave us more a fresh perspective and the opinion that while the traditional animation is still impressive to this day, the story is a bit choppy.
