An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Directors:

Phil Nibbelink
Simon Wells

Writers:

David Kirschner (creator)
Charles Swenson (story)

Release Date:

22 November 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Western

Tagline:

Look out pardners, there's a new mouse in town!

Plot:

A family of Emigre mice decide to move out to the west, unaware that they are falling into a trap perpetrated by a smooth talking cat.

Plot Keywords:

Sequel | Train | Cat Versus Mouse | Record Player | Tumbleweed

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Phillip Glasser	...	Fievel (voice)
James Stewart	...	Wylie (voice)
Erica Yohn	...	Mama (voice)
Cathy Cavadini	...	Tanya (voice)
Nehemiah Persoff	...	Papa (voice)
Dom DeLuise	...	Tiger (voice)
Amy Irving	...	Miss Kitty (voice)
John Cleese	...	Cat R. Waul (voice)
Jon Lovitz	...	Chula (voice)
Jack Angel	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Mickie McGowan	...	Additional Voices (voice) (as Mickie Mc Gowan)
Fausto Bara	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Larry Moss	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Vanna Bonta	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Nigel Pegram	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Also Known As:

An American Tail II (International: English title) (informal title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Australia:G | UK:U | Portugal:M/6 | Netherlands:6 | Germany:6 | Finland:S | Iceland:L | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | USA:G

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The song "Dreams to Dream" is based on a theme used in An American Tail (1986). It is heard during Bridget's speech in the market, as well as at the end of the Orphan Alley sequence, as the camera pulls back on the orphaned mice sleeping in the rain.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Fievel rides the tumbleweed he goes past armadillos. Armadillos were not found very far north of Texas in the 1800s.

Quotes:

Cat R. Waul: Which would you rather have, the crouton or the entire caesar salad? Of course we're going to eat the mice, but only after we have exploited their labors. See, we are nice to the mice because it is intelligent to be so. If we act sweetly, they will come in droves. If we hiss, they will run and we will have to chase after them, an unnecessary expenditure of calories.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Escape 2000 (#8.5)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

The American Tail Overture

A worthy sequel to a great classic

Fievel, the cute little mouse from An American Tail, is going west for Fievel Goes West. This is one of very few sequels that really deserve the title of the original classics. Fievel Goes West may not have as many touching moments as the original, but that's because it's more of a fast-paced western comedy rather than a heartwarming, sometimes tragic tale (tail?) as An American Tail was.

A by-product of the comedic approach is the look of the movie. Instead of the dark, dull, forbidding color scheme of the first movie, the sequel is supposed to be bright, funny, and altogether welcoming. Thus, you get bright sunshine (sometimes a bit too bright from the characters' point of view) and varied color. The animation hasn't changed all too much, unlike The Land Before Time's sequels for video. The animation retains a bit of Don Bluth's touch, though still a bit different. Altogether, the animation is just about as good as it could be in 1991.

The film as a whole is a gem, but the one thing truly, wonderfully beautiful thing about Fievel Goes West is James Horner's immortal soundtrack. The songs are just as good as An American Tail, which is saying a lot; besides, you have a brutally edited reprise of "Somewhere Out There" from the first film, sung by Tanya. Speaking of Tanya, she's voiced by someone different, presumably to allow for her great singing. For proof, all you need to do is listen to "Dreams To Dream". Great though the aspiring singer is, the end credits rendition of the song by the crazy Lindstradt lady is beautiful.

In Fievel Goes West, our title protagonist is lost on the way to Green River, where he will supposedly find a new lease on life with his family and lots of other hopeful mice. But the dream is shattered when Fievel explores the train, and finds a bunch of cats and a huge spider, led by the smooth talking Cat R. Waul, plotting to befriend the mice before turning them into mouse-burgers by means of a mysterious "better mousetrap"! But Fievel is found out, and the spider knocks him off the train, leaving him hopelessly lost in the desert. I thought they might have made up something different, not the whole mouse-gets-lost-must-return-to-family routine. I couldn't help feeling they'd done that before. However, Dom DeLuise returns for a bigger part alongside the legendary canine sheriff Wylie Burp.

So, overall, what of this sequel? Well, it certainly does the original justice. Yes, it does lack the heart of the original, but having less heart than An American Tail does in no way mean being heartless. Don Bluth might not have had a hand in this, but Fievel Goes West lives up to Bluth's classic story of a little mouse called Fievel.

Animation-9/10; Story-7/10; Plot-7/10; Comedy-8.5/10 = Overall-8/10