An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (also known as An American Tail II: Fievel
An American Tail: Fievel Goes
Goes West or An American Tail II) is a 1991 American animated comedy western
West
film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio and released by
Universal Pictures. It is the sequel to An American Tail, and the last installment in
the series to be released theatrically. Two direct-to-video sequels were released in
the late 1990s. A continuation,Fievel's American Tails, aired on CBS in 1992.

Don Bluth, the original film's director, had no involvement with this one. Instead, it
was directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells. 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 (again) as the train approaches the
American Old West; the film chronicles him and Sheriff Wylie Burp (voiced by
James Stewart in his final film) teaching Tiger how to act like a dog. It performed
modestly at the box office grossing $40 million and received mixed reviews from
critics.

Contents
Plot Theatrical release poster
Cast Directed by Phil Nibbelink
Production
Simon Wells
Release
Home media Produced by Steven Spielberg
Reception Robert Watts
Sequels and spinoffs Screenplay by Flint Dille
Soundtrack
Story by Charles Swenson
Track listing
Score cues left off the soundtrack Based on Characters
See also
by David Kirschner

References Starring Phillip Glasser

External links James Stewart
Erica Yohn
Cathy Cavadini
Plot
Nehemiah Persoff
A few years after immigrating to the United States in 1885, the impoverished Dom DeLuise
Mousekewitz family discovers that conditions are not as ideal as they had hoped, as
Amy Irving
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
John Cleese
his older sister, Tanya, dreams of becoming a singer. Meanwhile, Tiger's girlfriend, Jon Lovitz
Miss Kitty, leaves him to find a new life out west, remarking that perhaps she is Music by James Horner
looking for "a cat that's more like a dog."
Edited by Nick Fletcher
Production Amblin
company
Soon after, Cat R. Waul, (an aristocratic cat) forces the mice into the sewers, Entertainment
including the Mousekewitzes. Using a mouse marionette, Cat R. Waul entices the Amblimation
mice into moving yet again to a better life out west. Tiger chases the train, trying to
Distributed by Universal Pictures
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 Release date November 22, 1991
revealing their plot to turn them into "mouse burgers." After being discovered, he is
thrown from the train by Cat R.'s hench-spider, T.R. Chula, landing him in the Running time 74 minutes
middle of the desert. His family is devastated once again over his loss and arrive in Country United States
Green River, Utah with heavy hearts, though this time they are hopeful that Fievel
Language English
will still be alive.
Box office $40.8 million
Upon arrival at Green River, Chula blocks up the water tower, drying up the river.
Cat R. 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 mouse Indians and hailed as a god. Fievel is picked up by a hawk, dropped over the mouse Indian village
and reunites with Tiger. Tiger chooses to stay in while Fievel catches a passingtumbleweed, which takes him to Green River. As soon
as he makes his arrival, he quickly reunites with his family but is unable to convince them of Cat R.'s plans to kill them. However,
Cat R. 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.'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 Chula and briefly taken prisoner, but flees.

While walking out of town, Fievel 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 newpersona 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.'s saloon using a giant mouse trap. Tiger, Wylie and Fievel intervene and battle the cats. When
Chula threatens to kill Miss Kitty, however, Tiger rescues her and uses a pitchfork and Chula's web as a lasso with him trapped on it
to hurtle Cat R. and his underlings 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
9,000 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

Production
The film was the first production for Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, a collaboration of Universal Studios and Amblin
Entertainment, whose offices were located in London.[1] There, over 250 crew members worked on the project, which began in May
1989.[1] At the time, Amblimation was also developing We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Balto, and a screen adaptation of Andrew
Lloyd Webber's Cats which never saw completion.[1] Don Bluth, who had partnered with Steven Spielberg on both the original film
and The Land Before Time, was set to direct and have Sullivan Bluth Studios provide the animation;[2] owing to creative differences,
however, they parted ways.[1] With no Bluth in sight for the sequel, Spielberg instead relied on Phil Nibbelink, a former Disney
animator, and Simon Wells, the great-grandson of science-fiction author H. G. Wells, to direct the project.[1] The result was that the
film's animation style was distinctly different from that of its predecessor.

The Frankie Laine song "Rawhide" is played at the tumbleweed scene, although the version used is from The Blues Brothers. This
sequence was designed and laid-out by an uncredited Alan Friswell, a special effects expert and stop-motion animator who was
employed by the studio at the time, and is better-known for his work on the Virgin Interactive EntertainmentMythos computer game,
Magic and Mayhem (1998), his restoration work for the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation as well as his many model creations
and magazine articles for publications such asFortean Times, among others.

In addition to a new voice actress, the character of Tanya was heavily redesigned as well. Instead of her red babushka headdress and
blue and yellow dress, she wore a different colored dress and was given bangs and a ponytail and she was a couple inches taller than
Fievel. Tiger also underwent minor changes (such as removing the "M" from his shirt), as did baby Yasha and Fievel. In Fievel Goes
West, Tanya was voiced by Cathy Cavadini, who would later go on to voice Blossom in The Powerpuff Girls. According to Cavadini,
anya but left the project, so Cavadini replacedher.[3]
there was another woman initially planned to voice T

James Horner returned to write the score to the film, reusing old themes and introducing new ones.

Amy Irving, who voiced Miss Kitty in the film, was Spielberg's ex-wife. During production, he married Kate Capshaw who had
worked with him on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984.

Tony Toponi's role is limited as a background cameo in this film because of his voice actress, Pat Musick, voiced several characters
for dozen TV shows while the film was in production.[4] Tony was dropped from the short-lived TV series due to Musick's personal
reasons, as the character had yet to return until later in the infamous third installment, An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan
Island, in 1998.

John Lithgow and Martin Short were considered to play Cat R. Waul and T.R. Chula, but Jon Lovitz signed to play Chula and John
Cleese turned down the role asCogsworth in Disney's Beauty and the Beast to play Cat R. Waul.

Release
The film was released in the United States on November 22, 1991, exactly five years and one day after the release of the original one,
and the same day as Disney'sBeauty and the Beast.

Although it profited at the box office, the film grossed less than its predecessor; it opened in fourth place with $3,435,625 despite
being shown on nearly 1,700 theaters[5] and eventually made just over $22 million domestically, and $18 million overseas, for a total
of $40,766,041.[6] By contrast, the original film made $47.4 million in the U.S. in 1986, a record at the time for a non-Disney
animated one.,[7] and a further $36 million overseas, for a total of $84 million.

Home media
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West was released onto VHS and Laserdisc in 1992. The Laserdisc edition included a widescreen
letterbox release with the original theatrical aspect ratio. On August 11, 1998, both first American Tail and Fievel Goes West were
digitally restored and rereleased onto VHS in a limited edition boxed 2-pack set with both videos having clamshell VHS cases.

The film was released on DVD in 2004, a bare-bones release with only a few children's games as extras. Since has been included in
combination DVD sets with the first film and with other animated movies owned by Universal Studios.
The film was released on Blu-ray as a Walmart exclusive on April 4, 2017 (with a nationwide release on July 4, 2017). Prior to that
release, the film was re-released on DVD in January 2017. Unlike the previous home media releases, the film has a sequence edited,
like the infamous hidden doodle that was briefly seen during Tanya's version of "Dreams to Dream" was removed, thanks to the
controversy[8].

Reception
The film received mixed reviews from film critics. Halliwell's Film Guide gave it two stars out of four, with this comment:
"Enjoyable and high-spirited animated film that borrows plot and attitudes from classic Westerns."[9] Roger Ebert gave it two-and-a-
half stars out of four and wrote, "There is nothing really the matter with An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, except that it is not
inspired with an extra spark of imagination in addition to its competent entertainment qualities".[10] The New York Times wrote "The
film is really a bland, randomly connected series of adventures involving the Mouskewitz children, Tiger and Miss Kitty, a sultry
barroom chanteuse. While the quality of the animation is above average, the film's visualization of the American West is surprisingly
dull. The movie has little narrative drive or emotional resonance, and its final action sequences seem perfunctory and tacked on."[11]
45% of critics gave it a positive reception on Rotten Tomatoes.[12] Common Sense Media considered this sequel "mediocre" due to
the lack of positive role models and morals.[13]

Sequels and spinoffs

A direct sequel that serves as a TV series, Fievel's American Tails, was produced for television in 1992. Two direct-to-video sequels
were produced after the series: An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island, released in 1998, and An American Tail: The
Mystery of the Night Monster, released in 1999.

Fievel later served as themascot for Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, appearing in its production logo. There is also
a Fievel-themed playground at Universal Studios Florida, featuring a large water slide and many oversized objects such as books,
glasses, cowboy boots, and more. It is the only such playground at any ofNBC Universal's theme parks.

An LCD game based on the film was created byTiger Electronics in 1991.

A computer game based on the film was created in 1993.

A Super Nintendo Entertainment Systemvideo game of the same namewas released in 1994.

A Game Boy Advance video game based on the film calledAn American Tail: Fievel's Gold Rushwas released in 2002.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by James Horner and includes "Dreams to Dream", which was nominated for a Golden Globe award.
"Dreams to Dream" was based on a short instrumental piece from the original film.

Track listing
1. "Dreams to Dream (Finale Version)" – Linda Ronstadt
2. "American Tail Overture (Main Title)"
3. "Cat Rumble"
4. "Headin' Out West"
5. "Way Out West"
6. "Green River/Trek Through the Desert"
7. "Dreams to Dream (Tanya's Version)" – Cathy Cavadini
8. "Building a New Town"
9. "Sacred Mountain"
10. "Reminiscing"
11. "The Girl You Left Behind" – Cathy Cavadini
12. "In Training"*
13. "The Shoot-Out"
14. "A New Land/The Future"
(*a close parody of Aaron Copland's "Hoe-Down" theme, adapting the film'sleitmotifs)

Score cues left off the soundtrack

1. Tiger Chases the Train
2. Mouse Burger Plot
3. The Flying Aaaaah/Tiger's Chase Continues
4. Puttin' On the Ritz (Movie Version)
5. Two Old Friends Reunited
6. Rawhide - The Blues Brothers
7. Saloon Music
8. Wylie Burp/More Like a Dog
9. The Shoot-Out (Movie Version)
10. The River Returns/Celebration

See also
List of animated feature-length films

References
1. Beck, Jerry (2005). "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West". The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Reader Press.
pp. 18–19. ISBN 1-55652-591-5.
2. Sabulis, Tom (July 5, 1990). "The toon boom: Animation's big-screen comeback sends artists back to the drawing
boards". The Seattle Times. Knight Ridder Newspapers. p. F1.
3. "Cathy Cavadini at Lexington Comic & T oy Con 2018" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ltgw4Dzigo). Toxic-Pop.
April 5, 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
4. "List of Pat's roles" (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0615730/?ref_=nv_sr_1). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved
2017-10-01.
5. Weekend Box Office (November 22–24, 1991)(http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1991&wknd=47&p=.ht
m). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
6. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fievelgoeswest.htm)at Box Office
Mojo. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
7. An American Tail (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=americantail.htm)at Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May
26, 2007
8. "Hidden Doodle" (http://perezhilton.com/2014-02-20-penis-draw-doodle-american-tail-fievel-goes-west-animated-clas
sics-naughty-animation-hidden#.WP7uIdLyuM8). perezhilton.com. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
9. Gritten, David, ed. (2007). "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (**)". Halliwell's Film Guide 2008. Hammersmith,
London: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 37. ISBN 0-00-726080-6.
10. Ebert, Roger (November 22, 1991)."An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)" (http://www.rogerebert.com/review
s/an-american-tail-fievel-goes-west-1991). rogerebert.com. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
11. https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE4DB113FF931A15752C1A967958260
12. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_tail_fievel_goes_west/
13. "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/an-american-tail-fievel-g
oes-west). Common Sense Media. Retrieved October 10, 2017.

External links
 An American Tail: Fievel Goes West on IMDb
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West at AllMovie
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West at Rotten Tomatoes
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West at The Big Cartoon DataBase
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West at Keyframe: The Animation Resource
Stephen Holden. (November 22, 1991)."An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). Review/Film; Immigrant Mice
Face the Frontier". NY Times. Retrieved 2011-03-24.

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