Un cuento americano: Fievel va al oeste

Well, this is one of those films that seems about a step-and-a-half away from being truly great. You have undeniable star power in John Cleese, James Stewart, and Don Bluth regular Dom deLuis. You have a handful of snappy tunes. You have bright colors and technically brilliant animation. Yet I watched it and came away from it thinking, "There was something wrong with this flick. What was it?" After due deliberations, the answer came to me: the writing.

The script is little more than a clothesline on which to hang a series of visual gags and opportunities for Cleese to give his character a few Pythonian scenes. It takes a promising premise for an entertaining sequel and burdens it with instantly forgettable songs (snappy though they were) and an insufferably cute protagonist. It's great for kids, don't get me wrong. If you're childless, however, save it for video and watch it for the quality of the animation. While astounding, it can't make up for the lack of story.

For whatever reason, The American Tail films were two of the films I was brought up on. I still own both of them on video and still watch them from time to time. In most ways, this sequel is worse than the original. The brief story of Feivel being separated and lost from his family again is really underplayed in comparison to the first one, which revolved purely around this plot. In Feivel Goes West it's almost as though the family are a bit blasé about losing their only son. It's also hard to top the musical score of the first one. There is a repeat singing of "Somewhere Out There" that is rudely cut short but without the whole song, it doesn't have the same warming effect. The feature song of this film, "Dreams to Dream" is very beautiful, however it and the other songs of FGW can't match up to those of AAT.

Despite these flaws, there is quite a lot more to enjoy in this film. If you're a fan of westerns as I am, you will enjoy an animated take on the theme, particularly the very enjoyably cartoonist showdown at the end. Secondly, the voice cast of FGW is far superior to that of AAT. Not content with Dom DeLuise as the loveable cat Tiger, they add to that cast for the sequel the likes of John Cleese, Amy Irving, Jon Lovitz and none other than the great James Stewart himself playing the sheriff of a one-horse western town. They're all impeccably cast and pull off a wonderful job.

All this said and done, is the sequel better or worse? I have to say I think it's completely equal. Still the same level of childish fun and heartwarming moments, wonderful voice talents and great musical score. Definitely worth showing your kids. ***1/2 / *****

I wasn't a huge fan of the original 'An American Tail', but with my curiosity for animated films, I took a look at the sequel, the film I'm reviewing now.

All the voice actors are back, the music, the animation looks pretty damn similar too, but one thing is gone, the director. Don Bluth was replaced by Simon Wells, in his directorial debut. As someone who finds Simon Wells' films to be enjoyable but not top notch (especially in the writing department), this is exactly what we get here.

Many people will complain that there are very few plot similarities to the original, this is true, the film's plot is nothing like the original, which I thought was a good thing in my opinion.

The characters I found to be much more memorable compared to the original, including the villain, played by John Cleese. Dom DeLuise returns as tiger and is much more funny and less annoying than in the original. Feivel the mouse continues to have a lack of a real character but I still thought he was an improvement to the original, possibly because of his maturing voice actor.

The film does not contain nearly the same dark elements as the original, but in my opinion, is more funnier and more fun. The songs are either catchy or not at all, the films signature song 'Dreams to Dream', is as good or possibly better as the original's 'Somewhere out there'. The score by James Horner is a treat, just like the original.

All real complaints come from the writing, there are small plot holes, a pointless subplot revolving around Feival's sister Tanya, and sometimes the plot seems a little too convenient.

Kids will probably like the film, fans of the original may or may not, I personally rate it lower than the original, but by not too much.

I enjoyed the original "American Tail" movie because of its appeal towards adults as well as children (it uses mice and cats as a metaphor for the Jews and Germans during WWII, with immigrants fleeing to the US). However the dark edge of the movie was a bit too much for me and I felt as a children's tale it was probably a bit too scary.

Don Bluth returned in '91 to film the sequel to his last hit, this one a satire of the westerns. Fievel the mischievous mouse returns as his parents are shipping off to Green River to escape the cats, led by Cat R. Wall (voiced by John Cleese).

Along the way a spider (voiced by Jon Lovitz) tries to kill Fievel and he falls off the train, into the desert, where he pines for his feline friend from the first film (voiced by Dom DeLuise).

Eventually Fievel finds his way out of the desert and finds a dog-sheriff (voiced by Jimmy Stewart) who decides to help train him so that he can fight off Cat R. Wall, who has moved out west to spread his reign of terror.

I enjoy this movie more than the first one because it's not as dark (something I just have a problem with in a kid's movie). The satire isn't as strong and the whole WWII edge is lost but it still retains the cats vs. mice, which is a nice element.

The animation in my opinion is more classical and the musical sequences are more lively. The voice talents are far more impressive and I love Jimmy Stewart and John Cleese in this movie - talk about great casting! Overall this is better than the original and it surprises me that more people don't actually know about it. As a nice little family adventure film it's pretty entertaining and in terms of animation it represents everything Don Bluth is known for.

This episodic sequel to "An American Tail" is worth seeing if for nothing more than to hear James Stewart's voice as Sheriff Wylie Burp. Stewart is my favorite actor of the past times, and it's always a delight to hear him. The rest of the movie is mediocre and forgettable at best. Some people thought it was an improvement over the first film, but I wonder why? Sure, the original was sentimental and predictable, but it had the classic song "Somewhere Out There" written by James Horner, and also a much better, straight-forward story. The second movie seems more of a Saturday-morning cartoon style western comedy. There's very little story or heart. I guess more people prefer the light-heartedness of this movie than the sentimentality of the first. Now I won't knock this movie for some who like it, but I wish the first film was more appreciated by people. See this only for James Stewart's voice. Note: I also liked the main character of Fievel better as an immigrant from the first movie.