An American Tail/YMMV

An American Tail

• Animation Age Ghetto: Siskel and Ebert's complaint about the movie was that it was too dark and depressing for children to handle. They said much the same thing about pretty much every Don Bluth movie though. The box office money it made shows that kids and adults were watching it anyway.
• Awesome Music: Since Heartwarming Moment isn't an option - "Somewhere Out There". Enough said.
• Complete Monster: Warren T. Cat is the greedy leader of the Mott Street Maulers, holds the downtrodden mice of New York in a chokehold, forcing them to pay him off under the guise of "Warren T. Rat" while secretly having his cats pick off a mouse every once and a while to keep them terrified and under control. When Warren stumbles upon the innocent orphan Fievel Mousekewitz in his introductory scene, Warren manipulates him into his clutches and then tosses him to the hold of a cruel sweatshop for a quick fifty cents, sneering "you don't need a family anymore—you got a job!" When the mice finally stand up to Warren's manipulations, Warren simply decides to cut his losses and tries to burn them all alive with a sick laugh.
• Ear Worm:
  • THERE ARE NOOO CATS IN AMERICA AND THE STREETS ARE PAVED WITH CHEESE.
  • Soooome wheeere, oouut theeere...
• First Installment Wins: Though there was a stretch during the nineties where Fievel Goes West was equally well-known, due to being a decent film with a simple genre hook, and also a spin-off series to keep it in kids' minds. Since then it's slipped back below the original in terms of popularity.
• Heartwarming Moments: When Fievel finally finds his family. We dare you not to cry.
• Iconic Character, Forgotten Title:
  • The movie is sometimes mistakenly called "Fievel" - that the sequel does have Fievel's name in the title likely doesn't help.
  • Interestingly, in most other countries Fievel's name is in the title. Take Germany's Feivel Der Mauswanderer (Fievel The Mouse Wanderer) or Spain's Fievel Y El Nuevo Mundo (Fievel And The New World), for instance.
• Magnificent Bastard: Warren T Cat. He's a cat impersonating a rat.
• Memetic Mutation: The site FievelFilms.com, which features movie posters that have Fievel hilariously added to them.
• Misaimed Marketing: Infamously, if unintentionally (one would hope), done by McDonald's. One of their special promotions tied into the film's winter release was a special offer involving Fievel... Christmas stockings.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • The Giant Mouse of Minsk, once you get past the Nightmare Fuel.
  • Seeing the completed and shiny new Statue of Liberty is enough to bring tears to one's eyes.
• Narm Charm: Fievel and Tanya singing "Somewhere Out There", with their little mouse voices cracking when they hit the high notes. To some it might be annoying, but to others, it's so cuuute!
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Even without Parental Abandonment, the storm at sea, the Giant Mouse in action, and those freaking terrifying mean cats. Dear God, won't someone Think of the Children?
  • The Giant Mouse wasn't accidental in the story, it was made to scare off the cats after all.
  • There's a whole lot of Adult Fear too if you put yourself in Papa's position.
  • If you were even remotely afraid of insects the swarm of roaches in the sewer were pretty creepy...
    • Imagine them if you're Fievel's size, and the roaches are bigger than you are...*shudder*
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Tony has a female voice actress and is a rare male example of Furry Female Mane, so it's inevitable that there'd be a little Viewer Gender Confusion for some. Though then having such blatant Les Yay with Bridget would be pretty unheard of in an animated movie today let alone in 1986.
• The Woobie: Fievel. Your mileage probably won't vary much.
  • Jerkass Woobie: The three orphan bullies, if you stop and think about it.

Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails

• Angst? What Angst?: Fievel's parents really don't seem sad or concerned enough when Fievel falls off the train, and when they get to Green River they're more concerned about where they're going to be living than the whereabouts of their son. And when Fievel is reunited with them, they're happy, but they don't make a big deal out of it, as if it were some daily occurance. Considering they already declared him dead in the first film, you have to wonder what kind of parents they are.
• Awesome Music: The whole soundtrack to Fievel Goes West is great.
• Non Sequitur Scene:
  • Fievel gets sent away from the Indian mice, bouncing on a tumbleweed. While this happens, he is bouncing all the way back to the town while random critters sing the theme from Rawhide.
  • Don't forget Tiger dancing to "Puttin' on the Ritz" with a skeleton. Funny, but whaa--?.
• Contested Sequel:
  • Fans have debated the canon status of this film for quite some time. The third movie seems to imply that it was All Just a Dream, but it's vague enough that it can be interpreted as a mere shout-out.
  • A third group of fans also see it as non-canon, not because of the dream but because Don Bluth was not involved. These fans often forget that Steven Spielberg and David Kirschner had much more to do with creating the story than Bluth did, who for the most part just handled the animation side of things, Kirschner having come up with the initial idea of An American Tail. Bluth nonetheless was responsible for the first movie's gloomier atmosphere at least.
  • Aside from that, opinions are nearly evenly divided on whether Fievel Goes West was an Even Better Sequel or an embarrassment to all the first movie stood for. Or something in between.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Cat R. Waul to his fangirls, especially the ones who ship him with Tanya.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Tanya seems to be way more popular among the fandom than Fievel himself, as is Cat R. Waul. Being voiced by John Cleese helps.
• Girls Need Role Models: Tanya Mousekewitz fills the role in Fievel Goes West. She was almost definitely given her subplot to please the female demographic.
• Idiot Plot: Cat R. Waul being the Big Bad of the TV series means almost every episode requires every character except Fievel to fall for his latest scheme.
• Memetic Molester: From Fievel's American Tails, there's Dr. Travis T. Hippocrates, a traveling doctor who encourages Fievel to give strange candy to everyone in Green River (which ends up giving everyone hiccups, and he sells them a placebo "cure"). Fievel doesn't think twice about taking candy from a stranger. Later on when Fievel refuses to be a part of his scheme anymore, he grabs Fievel by the shoulders very suggestively and says "Fievel, my boy, I'm afraid that was the wrong answer.", and the scene fades to black.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The Fievel Goes West game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System wasn't too bad of a side-scroller, but it wasn't too impressive either. In the early 2000's Fievel even got a game on the Game Boy Advance, An American Tail: Fievel's Gold Rush, which seemed to take place after Fievel Goes West and played a lot like the Super Nintendo game (odd given that Universal had spent so much effort trying to convince everyone that the movie never happened). This trope is played far more straight with the random An American Tail game that came out for the PlayStation 2 in Europe (which actually plays disturbingly a lot like Superman 64).
• Sequel Displacement: When it first came out and for a few years after, though it's slowly gone away.
• Villain Decay:
  • Ughh...the TV series pretty much ruined Cat R. Waul and Chula. In Fievel's American Tails Waul becomes Laughably Evil and nothing more than an easily-defeated nuisance rather than the Big Bad.
  • Somewhat understandable, since the danger he posed in the movie was directly related to the fact that everyone trusted him, which no one in their right mind would after The Reveal. Then again, see Idiot Plot.

The Direct-to-Video Sequels

• Anvilicious: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and its constant reminders that the Europeans did some pretty awful things to the Native Americans. Granted, Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped, but it tends to go a little out of its way to do so at times.
• Contested Sequel: Though most fans agree that both films don't stand up to the first two movies, there is still disagreement over which of the direct-to-video movies is better than the other.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: One of Madame Mousey's henchcats, nicknamed "Twitch", seems to have a small following on Deviant ART.
• Fanon: There are fan theories which link the direct to video sequels to Fievel Goes West, and several different explanations for why Bridget didn't appear in the 3rd or 4th movies but is seen with Tony in the 2nd (which would have to have happened after the 3rd and 4th movie chronologically for them all to be canon).
• Fanon Discontinuity: For a lot of fans (especially if they really liked Fievel Goes West, due to the 3rd film proclaiming it to be All Just a Dream) these movies never happened. On the other hand, the 3rd film is remembered by fans of TMS Entertainment at least.
• Magnificent Bastard: Toplofty and Mr. Grasping
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Tends to be the opinion of most fans when it comes to the direct-to-video sequels (as well as those who dislike Fievel Goes West due to Bluth's lack of involvement). Then again, compared to other Bluth sequels they could have been a lot worse.
• Toy Ship: Fievel and Cholena have a few moments together, more than she and Tony do (their duet, "Anywhere in Your Dreams", being the example that stands out the most). For the most part they're the Fan-Preferred Couple of the film (also helped by fans who prefer Tony staying with Bridget).

---

Back to An American Tail