An American Tail: Deep Thoughts About Animated Mice, American Immigration in Pop Culture, and the Power of Storytelling
From Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast by Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado
May 12, 2026 · 51 min · Episode 136
About this episode
The episode discusses the animated film An American Tail and its themes of immigration and storytelling.
Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. We must have a wawwy. You know, a large gathering of mice for a reason. This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie returns to one of the classic movies of the animation storytelling boom of the 1980s: An American Tail. Animated by Don Bluth, the film follows young Fievel Mousekewitz, a Russian mouse immigrating to America to escape the pogroms (perpetrated by Cossack cats and humans in this world) who is separated ...
People in this episode
Host: Tracie Guy-Decker
Topics covered
- animated films
- immigration
- storytelling
- pop culture
- 1980s animation
Keywords
- An American Tail
- Fievel Mousekewitz
- animation
- immigration
- 1980s
- storytelling
- pop culture
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: An American Tail
Places: America, Russia
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