An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)

Made a full six years after the wonderful 'An American Tail', gone is director Don Bluth and it shows. Oh boy, does it show. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Things are not all that well for the Mousekewitz family in New York. There are still cats, they still live in poverty and it's all looking rather bleak. In comes a cat called Cat R. Waul (get it? Oh boy, that's clever) who promises them a fresh new start in the West, the Wild Frontier. Lucky that young Fievel is already cowboyfever-stricken then. So, they set off for Green River, a border town somewhere (I believe it's supposed to be Wyoming, but I'm not really sure). Naturally, the cat has nefarious plans of letting the mice build his saloon there before luring them into a trap and turning them into mouseburgers. Will Fievel be able to stop the cats?

What do you think?

I have several issues with this one. Hang on.

The pacing of this film is ridiculous. Everything flies by at such a breakneck pace, it's hard to keep up at times. Once you get accustomed to characters being in one place, poof! They're somewhere else. I don't have issue with fast-paced films, but here, it really becomes annoying. You barely have time to get to know the new characters. Take sheriff Wylie Burp for example. He's voiced by legendary James Stewart, but his role is so small and insignificant, he might as well not have been here. He's supposed to teach Tiger how to be a sheriff, which automatically means turning him into a dog. Why? I don't know why and the film doesn't know why.

See, that's problem number two: way too many plotlines. Fievel loves the West and wants to be a sheriff, Wylie Burp doesn't care anymore, yet suddenly he's all up for stopping the cats, Cat R. Waul has his plans with the saloon, Fievel's sister Tanya wants to become a singer, Tiger is following his love interest ànd becomes a god for a tribe of Indian mice, ... It's a lot to cram into a film that is barely 80 minutes long. And that is why it's so incomprehensible and tiring. They went for well known actors and actresses to hide that fact. But even though people like James Stewart and John Cleese do a fine job with the lines they are given, ultimately, their talent feels hollowed out because they get so little to do.

Thirdly, gone is the fairly bleak and 'realistic' tone of the original. It had its comedy, for certain, but the base story was still one of hardship and emotion. Not so here. They half-assedly try to do the same but fail because this one is stuffed to the gills with Looney Tunes-like slapstick. Don't get me wrong: I adore Looney Tunes, but there the humour and slapstick fits. Here, it feels disjointed and just slapdash inserted, because they could without any fresh ideas. The same goes for the musical numbers, which is something Disney for example also does with their straight-to-video-sequels: don't write a comprehensive story, just fill it up with as many musical numbers as you can.

It's safe to say I honestly don't care for this one at all. The drop in overall quality to the first one is staggering and this one is neither engaging nor memorable. But I'm absolutely certain little children will absolutely love it to bits. But if you want a decent animated film, check out the original.