An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

***An American Tail: Fievel Goes West*** (also known as ***An American Tail II: Fievel Goes West*** or ***An American Tail II***) is a 1991 animated western adventure comedy film produced by Amblimation and Sullivan Bluth Studios and released by Universal Pictures.

Set up as the sequel to *An American Tail*, the film follows the story of the Mousekewitzes, a family of Jewish-Ukrainian mice who emigrate to the Wild West. In it, Fievel is separated from his family as the train approaches the American Old West; the film chronicles him and Sheriff Wylie Burp teaching Tiger how to act like a dog.

While the animation medium was transitioning to computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Spielberg wanted almost all of the animation of Fievel Goes West to be hand-drawn, describing animation as "an arts-and-crafts business." He also wanted the animation to have a "live-action" feel. While the first film was directed by Don Bluth, direction was handled by Gary Goldman, Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells in their directorial debut for the sequel. Phillip Glasser, Dom DeLuise, Nehemiah Persoff, and Erica Yohn reprise their roles from the first film for Fievel Goes West. Tanya's original voice actor, Amy Green, was replaced by Cathy Cavadini, and new characters were voiced by John Cleese, Amy Irving, Jon Lovitz, and James Stewart in his final film role. James Horner returned as a composer and wrote the film's song "Dreams to Dream" which garnered a Golden Globe nomination.

Premiering at the Kennedy Center on November 17, 1991, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West began its American theatrical run on November 22. This was the same day Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) was distributed, making it the first time in history two animated films were released on one date instead of two separate ones. Fievel Goes West was promoted with an incredibly expensive amount of tie-ins and started in the top ten at the box office. The film performed modestly at the box office, only grossing $22 million domestically. Some film journalists and executives attributed having to compete with the Disney film. It received mixed critical reviews upon its release, with criticism pointed towards the story and extremely-fast pace, although the high-quality animation, humor, musical score, and voice acting received praise.

However, Fievel Goes West fared better when it came to home video sales, blasting to the top of the video charts when released on tape in March 1992; at the time, the film held the record for shortest theater-to-home-video transfer and it has since gained a large cult following. In addition to garnering more home media releases, TV airings, and video game adaptations later on; the film has made numerous 2010s retrospective best-of lists from online publications, especially best Netflix-available Western films. Fievel Goes West was followed by a CBS series named *Fievel's American Tails* and two NBC specials that took place before the second film: *An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island* (1998) and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (2000).

## Plot

In 1890, five years after immigrating to the United States of America, the impoverished Mousekewitz family discovers that conditions are not as ideal as they had hoped, as they find themselves still struggling against the attacks of mouse-hungry cats. Fievel spends his days thinking about the Wild West dog-sheriff Wylie Burp, while his older sister, Tanya, dreams of becoming a singer. Meanwhile, Tiger's girlfriend, Miss Kitty, leaves him to find a new life out west, remarking that perhaps she is looking for "a cat that's more like a dog".

Shortly after, the mouse community falls under another attack by the cats—-this time led by a British aristocratic cat named Cat R. Waul—-forcing the mice, including Fievel's family, to flee into the sewers. There, they come across a mouse in a cowboy outfit, who is fact a mouse marionette controlled by Cat R. Waul, who entices the mice into moving yet again to a better life out west. Tiger chases the train, trying to catch up with his friends, but is thrown off course by a pack of angry dogs. While on the train, Fievel wanders into the livestock car, where he overhears the cats revealing their plot to turn them into "mouse burgers". After being discovered, he tries to escape and warn everyone. However, Fievel is thrown from the train by Cat R. Waul's hench-spider, T.R. Chula, leaving him stranded in the middle of the desert. His family is devastated once again over his loss and arrive in Green River, Utah with heavy hearts.

Upon arrival at the 320-acre Wild West town named Green River, Utah, established 1870, T.R. Chula blocks up the water tower, drying up the river. Cat R. Waul approaches the mice and proposes to build a new saloon together, although intending to trick the mice into doing the bulk of the work and then eat them afterwards. Meanwhile, Fievel is wandering aimlessly through the desert, as is Tiger, who has found his way out west as well, and they pass each other. However, they each figure that the other is a mirage and continue on their separate ways. Tiger is captured by Native American mice and is hailed as a god. Fievel is picked up by a hawk, dropped over the Indian mice village and reunites with Tiger. Tiger chooses to stay in while Fievel catches a passing tumbleweed, which takes him to Green River. As soon as he makes his arrival, he quickly reunites with his family but fails to convince them of Cat R. Waul's plans to kill them. He later stumbles into the saloon where he overhears the cats' plan yet again before he is discovered once more by Cat R. Waul. However, before Cat R. Waul can eat Fievel to keep his plan from becoming undone, he hears Tanya singing and is enchanted by her voice.

He sends Tanya to Miss Kitty, who is now a saloon-girl cat, and she reveals that she came at Cat R. Waul's request. He tells Miss Kitty to put her on stage. With a little encouragement from Miss Kitty, she pulls off a performance for the cats. Meanwhile, Fievel is chased by T.R. Chula and briefly taken prisoner, but flees.

While Fievel walking out of town, he stops to talk with an elderly bloodhound sleeping outside the jail, discovering that he is actually Wylie Burp. Fievel convinces him to help and train Tiger as a lawman and as a dog. Tiger is reluctant at first, but relents at the suggestion that a new persona might win back Miss Kitty. They go back to Green River to fight the cats, who attempt to kill the mice at sunset during the opening of Cat R. Waul's saloon using a concealed giant mouse trap. Tiger, Wylie Burp and Fievel intervene and battle the cats, during which Miss Kitty and Tanya discover the trap. Tanya rushes to the mice and, using her singing (and knowing that Cat R. Waul will not allow the trap to be triggered if she is there), alerts them to the trap and warns them to flee. Seeing this, Cat R. Waul unveils a giant revolver, which he fires at the fleeing mice as a makeshift cannon, until Wylie Burp catapults Fievel to the gun, which the mouse quickly intercepts from and attempts to use against Cat R. Waul. When T.R. Chula threatens to kill Miss Kitty in an attempt to force Fievel to back down, however, an incensed Tiger rescues her and uses T.R. Chula's web as a lasso with him trapped on it to hurtle Cat R. Waul and his men out of town by having them piled on part of the trap, which the heroes use as a catapult. The cats fly into the air and land into a mailbag, which a passing train picks up and leaves.

Enamored by his new personality, Miss Kitty and Tiger are reunited. Tanya becomes a famous singer and the water tower flows with 1,000 gallons of water again, making Green River bloom with thousands of flowers. Fievel finds Wylie away from the party who hands him his sheriff badge. Fievel is unsure about taking it, but realizes that his journey is not over.

## Cast

* Phillip Glasser as Fievel Mousekewitz
* Cathy Cavadini as Tanya Mousekewitz
* Dom DeLuise as Tiger
* Amy Irving as Miss Kitty
* James Stewart as Wylie Burp
* John Cleese as Cat R. Waul
* Jon Lovitz as T.R. Chula
* Nehemiah Persoff as Papa Mousekewitz
* Erica Yohn as Mama Mousekewitz
* Patrick Pinney as One Eye
* Jack Angel as Frenchy
* David Tate as additional voices