An American Tail - The Mystery of the Night Monster DVD | Family Adventure Movie | Perfect for Kids' Movie Night & Bedtime Stories

"The Mystery of the Night Monster" is an amazingly good/underrated film with a cheesy-sounding title. I found myself cheering on the awesome, soothsaying villain, the "creature de la nuit" poodle named Madame Moussée (or Mousey, of course, ha ha ha--but as we French speakers know, the name should truly be spelled Moussée and pronounced "moo-say.") For that matter, whoever did the closed captioning and words for the "Creature de la Nuit" sing-along song did not know a thing about the French language and made many blatant errors even in the English lyrics. The song begins, "I'm the creature," not "from the creature." The song goes, "clever, chic," not "very chic." She says, "Regarde," not "hang out," and the word means "look," as in "look at me." The captioned words "we're starving" are incorrect; the lyrics are "C'est moi who rules the street," not "ce-moi." Ce-moi makes no sense. C'est moi means "it's me," as in "I'm the one who rules the street." "Powerful yet petite," not "colorful."I think those were all the errors. Either way, I found her to be an incredibly fun character. The rest of the movie is humorous, charming, and overall well-done. Nellie, Reed, Fieval, Tanya, Tony, and Tiger blend together with other new characters and songs for a very fine movie. Unfortunately, I personally feel that Nellie, with her creepy lack of pupils, brazen attitude, and annoying voice, is arguably one of the most irritating animated characters ever. And I should point out that the morals of the movie aren't all good. Moussée is a miniature poodle who's been made miserable all her life by being treated as a pampered lapdog and compared to a mouse. She has the heart and soul of a wolf, however, yet everyone in the film--including the so-called heroes--judge her by appearances and show her no mercy or sympathy. Moussée escaped from her smothering owner and attempted to join the dog gang in the city park, but was rejected simply because of her size and background. Moussée, however, is more deserving of a place in the dog gang than any of them, who act tough because they are large breeds. There are, after all, smaller dogs (and smaller poodle varieties for that matter) than she. Moussée only became in charge of a band of cats and decided to use her intelligence and cunning to help them by spreading her misery to mice because her dream of joining the gang had been dashed. Yet in the end, when all is supposed to have been set right, the dog gang still rejects and intimidates Moussée, and she is returned to her former mistress and a life she doesn't belong in. What is the message here, that bigger is better, that judging people by their appearances and their backgrounds or lifestyles is acceptable or correct? Moussée is a true badarse villainess, but ideally the story would have turned out differently for her.Those dogs weren't just trying to protect her, or they'd have let her down gently. No, they enjoyed the chance to bully one of their smaller canine comrades. Once again, we create our own enemies. MY ending to this movie would involve Moussée breaking free again, eradicating some vermin (particularly a certain nosy someone with the initials N.B.), and starting her own dog pack, the strongest and most formidable in the area. If I were a dog I'd follow her. See what the jerks would do then. ;)The songs in this movie are extremely good; in particular, the showstoppingly incredible "Creature de la Nuit," thought I must say I've had "Get the Facts" and "Who Will?" stuck in my head on more than one occasion. I thought these songs were much better than the Oscar-winning "Somewhere out There" in the original, so I can't quite understand why some people believe that one was better, but it is just one opinion. So, excellent movie on the whole.