Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!
Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
datautisticgamer-74853 As with yet another boring day without school or early activities, I made the decision to view a Blu-ray copy of this film that, as with its prequel, was brought to me as a gift from my loving brother. I made it my choice since I had An American Tail in mind from the previous day, and so viewing this today would make some of the continuity more memorable. So why do I think this movie is an improvement, if slightly?I found that the story was a tad more engaging in this film. Sure, it doesn't have the epic prospects of immigration or dealing with topics such as cultural appropriation, but I found no glaring writing errors or problems with continuity. It continues to offer some great action and able jokes (aside from Wylie's occasional crudity), and that's good enough for at least me. It does have Native stereotypes, continues to have abrupt cutaways, and has some rather questionable lines regarding a god vs. dog transformation, so while it's more polished, it continues to have some issues. Given the 5-year gap, the animation was overall upgraded, which is unfortunately more than can be said of many other animated movie sequels. It continues to make the action appear menacing and keep it cartoony enough to make the gags more than worthy of a few chuckles. The environments, owing to the more light-hearted nature of this film, are generally more vibrant. Sure, it isn't eye candy or overall blowout like in Beauty and the Beast, but it offers little distractions from what is meant to be seen. I feel like the characters are a bit of the same, though, since both Mama and Papa Mousekewitz don't have much importance other than being Fievel's social guides, Yasha is still not that meaningful aside from a visual diversion, and Fievel is still bold and at times foolish. I also felt like parts of the film focused way more on Tiger than on Fievel, but since they took time to develop his previously hollow character, I felt fine with Tiger being the de facto lead in the latter half. The new characters are less developed than they are just fun to witness, like Waul and Chula. Probably my choice for biggest improvement, however, would be the music. In the first An American Tail, I found the numbers somewhat tolerable, but mostly approaching gritting with how high the voices went. Here, I found Tanya's voice to be actually really beautiful, and the other songs were delightful to hear in general. Granted, they're still not that memorable, but they're easier to hear compared to the previous songs (including the previous version of Somewhere Out There).If you were a fan of the first movie, it's pretty much a coin flip. You'll either appreciate its new direction, slightly more polished writing, and better character development for Tiger, or you'll dislike its light-hearted turn and its removal of Bridget and Tony. For casual movie-goers, it could pretty much go the same way as well. Families will likely enjoy this movie more because of its humor, more vibrant animation, and catchy songs. Sure, its story isn't as fundamentally composite, but when the viewing experience is fun, it feels as though it doesn't need to be. It beats out many other animation sequels and even some films Don Bluth himself actually contributed to, so it makes a nice alternative for those who want to start a Bluth collection but are afraid of having to ask for the worst of his movies. If parents can get by the same drinking, smoking, and sporadic crudity, then the family could very well have a blast watching this movie.
Tommy Nelson Feivel Mouskewitz and his family (along with a thousand other mice) are moving to a new land, promised to them by a cat, where cats and mice work together and are equals. Feivel is attacked on the train to get there and gets lost in the desert, along with his cat friend Tiger, both not knowing each one is close. The animation on this film is really great, and the songs are even better than in the first American Tail movie. Many voices are provided by celebrities, including John Cleese, Dom Deluise, Amy Irving and the irreplaceable Jimmy Stewart. So I'd recommend you watch this, because this is one of the very few non-Disney animated films that turned out well, and had great music.My rating: *** out of ****. 74 mins. Rated G.
MovieAddict2016 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 of animation it represents everything Don Bluth is known for.
Akbar Shahzad (rapt0r_claw-1) 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