An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Encyclopedia
- For the video game based on the film with the same name, see An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (video game)An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (video game)An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is a Super NES video game released in 1994.-Sunmmary:The game is about a cartoon mouse who must make his way to the Wild West based on the movie of the same name released back in 1991. The player must either fight or avoid cats and other obstacles as he strolls...
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is a 1991 American animated film
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
produced by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Amblimation
Amblimation
Amblimation was the animation production arm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and was active from 1989 until about 1997.The feature animation studio was located in London, England, UK...
animation studio and released by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. It is the sequel to An American Tail
An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios and Amblin Entertainment. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from Russia to America for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must...
, and the fourth installment in terms of the series' fictional chronology. It was later followed at the end of the 1990s by another two direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
midquels, both of which took place chronologically before this film. A continuation of this installment, Fievel's American Tails
Fievel's American Tails
Fievel's American Tails is an American/Canadian animated television series, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, Nelvana, and Universal Cartoon Studios. It aired for one season in 1992, and continued Fievel's adventures from the film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West...
, aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 1992.
Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
, the original film's director, had no involvement with this film. Instead, it was directed by Phil Nibbelink
Phil Nibbelink
Phil Nibbelink is an American animator and film director as well as comic book writer and illustrator.He is a former member of Walt Disney Animation Studios...
and Simon Wells
Simon Wells
Simon Wells is an English-American film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great grandson of famous author, H. G. Wells.Born in Cambridge, he attended De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design...
. Wells went on to do We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Balto
Balto (film)
Balto is a 1995 American animated comedy-drama film directed by Simon Wells and produced by Amblimation, and the first of the overall trilogy. The film is based on a true story about the dog of the same name who helped save children from the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 serum run to Nome...
, and The Time Machine
The Time Machine (2002 film)
The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction film loosely adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, and the 1960 film screenplay by David Duncan...
, while Phil went on to co-direct We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and direct his own independent features.
The film follows the story of a family of Jewish-Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n mice
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
who emigrate to the Wild West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
. In the film, Fievel Mousekewitz is separated from his family as the train approaches the American Old West; the film chronicles Fievel and Sheriff Wylie Burp (voiced by James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
in his final film) teaching Tiger how to act like a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
.
Plot
Several years after settling in to their new home in The Bronx, New York, the impoverished Mousekewitz family soon finds that conditions are not as ideal as they had hoped, as they find themselves still struggling against the attacks of mouse-hungry felines. Fievel spends his days thinking about the wild west dogDog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
-sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
Wylie Burp, while his sister, Tanya, dreams of becoming a singer. Meanwhile, Tiger's girlfriend
Girlfriend
Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-romantic friend that is closer than other friends....
Miss Kitty leaves him to find a new life out West, tired of the life of an alley cat, and remarking that perhaps she's looking for a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
that is "more like a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
."
Back in the alleys, a regal feline named Cat R. Waul devises a plan to deliver the mice into his clutches. He first launches a full-scale cat attack to drive all the mice to the sewers, specifically ordering his fellow cats to not eat any of them. Using a mouse-cowpoke marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
, he then entices the neighborhood mice, including the Mousekewitzs, into moving to a better life out west ("Way 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 west-bound train, Fievel wanders into the livestock car
Stock car (rail)
In railroad terminology, a stock car or cattle wagon is a type of rolling stock used for carrying livestock to market...
, where he overhears the cats revealing their plot to turn them into "mouse burgers." After being discovered, Fievel is thrown from the train by Cat R. Waul's hench-spider, T.R. Chula, landing the mouse in the middle of the desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
. The Mousekewitzes are heartbroken once again over the loss of Fievel and arrive at Green River with heavy hearts.
Upon arrival at Green River
Green River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
, the Mousekewitzs begin to find a suitable home, positive that their son Fievel would find them once again. Papa helps his family set up a home under an old water tower, explaining while other mice would scamper for a land to live in, a smart mouse would live closer to water in the dusty country. However, Chula soon blocks up the water tower, drying up the river. Cat R. Waul approaches the mice and proposes to build a better community where cats and mice can live together in peace. Meanwhile, Fievel is wandering aimlessly through the desert, as is Tiger, who has found his way out west as well, and the two pass each other. However, each one figures that the other is a mirage and they continue on their separate ways. Tiger is captured by mouse Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
and hailed as a god. Fievel is picked up by a hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
and dropped over the mouse Native American village when fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
scare and explode on the bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
, making his feathers pop out of his body
Body
With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...
and reunites with Tiger. Tiger chooses to stay in while Fievel catches a passing tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
A tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, disengages from the root and tumbles away in the wind. Usually, the tumbleweed is the entire plant apart from the roots, but in a few species it is a flower cluster. The tumbleweed habit is most common in steppe and desert...
, which takes him to Green River. As soon as Fievel makes his arrival, he quickly reunites with his family. He then tries to expose Cat R. Waul's true intentions. However, the mice inhabitants are already inspired by Cat R. Waul's visions and are convinced that the cats in Green River are good. Inside a saloon that is under construction, Fievel once more learns of the cats' real plan before he is discovered. He confronts Cat R. Waul and is almost eaten in the process. However, he happens to hear Tanya, Fievel's older sister, singing while working and is enchanted by her voice ("Dreams to Dream").
He sends Tanya to Miss Kitty, who's now a saloon-girl
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
cat, and she reveals that she didn't come out west by her own will, but at the request of Cat R. Waul - an action she now seems to regret. Cat R Waul tells Miss Kitty to put Tanya on stage. With a little encouragement from Miss Kitty, Tanya pulls off a great performance for the cats ("The Girl You Left Behind"). Meanwhile, Fievel is chased by Chula and briefly taken prisoner, but escapes. While walking out of town, Fievel stops to talk with an old hound
Hound
A hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. It can be contrasted with the gun dog, which assists hunters by identifying the location of prey, and with the retriever, which recovers shot quarry...
sleeping outside the jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
, discovering that the saturnine dog is in fact the legendary Wylie Burp he looked up to back in New York. Fievel convinces Wylie to help the mice's plight. Wylie asks him to find a dog for him to train, but he instead recruits Tiger to be trained 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. After an eventually successful training session to work on Tiger's skills, the trio go back to Green River to fight the cats, who had scheduled to kill the mice at sunset. At Green River, a giant mousetrap
Mousetrap
A mousetrap is a specialized type of animal trap designed primarily to catch mice; however, it may also trap other small animals. Mousetraps are usually set in an indoor location where there is a suspected infestation of rodents. There are various types of mousetrap, each with its own advantages...
has been disguised as bleachers for a ceremony honoring the opening of Cat R. Waul's saloon. But before the trap can be tripped, the three foil the plot using their wits and their slingshot
Slingshot
A slingshot, shanghai, flip, bean shooter or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the off hand, with two rubber strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket which holds the projectile...
s. Tanya and Ms. Kitty soon learn of Cat R. Waul's true intentions and gets the rest of the mice to get off the trap. But towards the end of the fight, Chula captures Ms. Kitty as hostage, threatening to drop her from the tower. Tiger is enraged and unleashes his "inner dog" to save Ms. Kitty and using a pitchfork
Pitchfork
A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...
and Chula's web as a lasso
Lasso
A lasso , also referred to as a lariat, riata, or reata , is a loop of rope that is designed to be thrown around a target and tighten when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the American cowboy. The word is also a verb; to lasso is to successfully throw the loop of rope around something...
with the spider trapped on it, to hurtle Cat R. Waul and his men out of town by having them all piled on part of the mousetrap, which the heroes use as a catapult. The cats fly into the air, then land into a bag with the words: U.S. Mail written on it. The train picks the bag up and leaves.
Enchanted by his new personality, Miss Kitty and Tiger become reunited. Tanya becomes a famous singer (although she also appears to be happy with the way she was before by the end) and the water tower flows with water again, making Green River bloom with flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s. Fievel finds Wylie Burp away from the party who hands Fievel his sheriff badge. Fievel is unsure about taking it, since he feels he is not a traditional hero, but Wylie reminds him that, if it weren't for Fievel, he'd still be a washed up dog. He realizes his journey is still not over, and that "if you ride yonder, head up, eyes steady, heart open, I think one day you'll find that you're the hero you've been looking for".
Cast
- Phillip GlasserPhillip GlasserPhillip Glasser is an American actor and producer. He is best known for the role of Fievel Mousekewitz in the animated films, An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, and the television series Fievel's American Tails.In the late 1990s he played the role of Eugene in NBC Saturday...
as Fievel MousekewitzFievel MousekewitzFievel Mousekewitz is the main character of the movies An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, the TV series "Fievel's American Tails", "An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island" and "An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster."... - James StewartJames StewartJames Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
as Wylie Burp - Dom DeLuiseDom DeLuiseDominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...
as Tiger - Cathy CavadiniCathy CavadiniCatherine Janet "Cathy" Cavadini is an American voice actress and singer. Most famous as the voice of Blossom on Cartoon Network's animated television series The Powerpuff Girls and Tanya Mousekewitz in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails. She is also the successor voice...
as Tanya Mousekewitz - John CleeseJohn CleeseJohn Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
as Cat R. Waul - Amy IrvingAmy IrvingAmy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
as Miss Kitty - Jon LovitzJon LovitzJonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
as Chula - Nehemiah PersoffNehemiah PersoffNehemiah Persoff is an American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate.Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929...
as Papa Mousekewitz - Erica YohnErica YohnErica Yohn is an American actress. She has had many small parts in American movies and television shows, including ER, Murphy Brown, Quantum Leap and Kojak. She has also had recurring roles on State of Grace, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Picket Fences.-External links:...
as Mama Mouskewitz
Production
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West was the first production for Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Amblimation
Amblimation
Amblimation was the animation production arm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and was active from 1989 until about 1997.The feature animation studio was located in London, England, UK...
animation studio, a collaboration of Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its...
, whose offices were located in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. There, over 250 crew members worked on the project, which began in May 1989. At the time, Amblimation was also developing We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (film)
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is a 1993 American animated film, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, distributed by Universal Pictures, and originally released to theaters on November 24, 1993 for the United States. It was rated G by the MPAA...
, and a screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
which never saw completion.
Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
, who had partnered with Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
on the original American Tail
An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios and Amblin Entertainment. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from Russia to America for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must...
and the first Land Before Time
The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time is a 1988 American animated adventure film directed and co-produced by Don Bluth , and executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall....
film, was set to direct; owing to creative differences, however, the two of them parted ways. With no Bluth in sight for the sequel, Spielberg instead relied on Phil Nibbelink, a former Disney animator, and Simon Wells, the grandson of science-fiction author H.G. Wells, to direct the project.
The Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...
song "Rawhide
Rawhide (song)
"Rawhide" is a Western song written by Ned Washington and composed by Dimitri Tiomkin in 1958. It was originally recorded by Frankie Laine...
" is played at the tumbleweed scene of this film, although the version used is from The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (film)
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...
. 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 Entertainment Mythos
Mythos (computer game)
Mythos is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that was originally under development by Flagship Studios Seattle, a subdivision of Flagship Studios, a video game company composed largely of ex-Blizzard North employees who were lead producers of the Diablo series...
computer game, Magic and Mayhem
Magic and Mayhem
Magic & Mayhem, also known as Duel: The Mage Wars , The Art of Magic , Mana: Der Weg der schwarzen Macht , Duelo de hechiceros , Art of Magic: La Guerra dei Maghi and Arcanes , is a fantasy/mythology-themed real-time strategy game designed by Julian Gollop and developed by Mythos Games...
(1998), as well as his many model creations and magazine articles for publications such as Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...
, among others.
In addition to a new voice actress, the character of Tanya was heavily redesigned as well. Tiger had minor changes including the "M" was removed from his shirt, as does Yasha (the baby) and Fievel looks slightly different.
James Horner returned to write the score to the movie, reusing old themes and introducing new ones.
Release
Fievel Goes West was released in the United States on November 22, 1991 — the same day as Disney's Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
. Beauty was the better-received universally, grossing over $110 million and eventually becoming a Best Picture nominee
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
at the Oscars.
Commercially, West grossed less than its predecessor; it opened in fourth place with $3,435,625 despite being shown on nearly 1,700 theaters and eventually made just over $22 million domestically, and $40 million worldwide, for a total of $65,435,625. By contrast, the original Tail made $47.4 million in the U.S. in 1986, a record at the time for non-Disney animated feature., and a further $36 million worldwide, for a total of $84 million.
Reception
Critical reception was generally mixed. It has a "rotten" rating of 40% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. The staff of Halliwell's Film Guide gave Fievel Goes West two stars out of four, with this comment: "Enjoyable and high-spirited animated film that borrows plot and attitudes from classic Westerns." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film 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."
Sequels and spinoffs
The sequel followed An American TailAn American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios and Amblin Entertainment. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from Russia to America for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must...
and was followed by the television series Fievel's American Tails
Fievel's American Tails
Fievel's American Tails is an American/Canadian animated television series, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, Nelvana, and Universal Cartoon Studios. It aired for one season in 1992, and continued Fievel's adventures from the film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West...
, and two direct-to-video sequels: An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island
An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island
An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island, titled in the film as An American Tail III: The Treasure of Manhattan Island was the first direct-to-video and third film in the An American Tail series. This film was first released in the UK in 1998. It was released by Universal Studios Home...
and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster was the second direct-to-video sequel to An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and the 4th and last film in the An American Tail tetralogy, starring Thomas Alexander Dekker as the main character, the young Fievel Mousekewitz. This film...
(which take place before Fievel Goes West). Treasure of Manhattan Island begins with Fievel talking about a dream about moving out west, which suggests a retcon but could be foreshadowing as well.
In an all-too-brief shot during the Cat raid on the mice slums, Tony and Bridget are briefly seen careening into a sewer on a rollerskate with their son. This seems to suggest that Bridget and Tony had married by now and have a child together. Additionally, the two can be seen moving into an abandoned teapot, shortly after the mice arrive in the west. If so, it may be negated by the lack of any such children or the sequels after it.
Fievel later served as the mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
for Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Amblimation
Amblimation
Amblimation was the animation production arm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and was active from 1989 until about 1997.The feature animation studio was located in London, England, UK...
animation studio, appearing in its production logo
Production logo
A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, vanity logo or vogo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Vanity logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie , or at the end of a television program or TV movie...
. There is also a Fievel-themed playground at Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...
, featuring a large water slide and many over-sized objects such as books, glasses, cowboy boots, and more. It is the only such playground at any of NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
's theme parks.
A computer game based on the movie was created in 1994.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by James HornerJames Horner
James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...
and includes Dreams to Dream
Dreams to Dream
Dreams to Dream is a song by James Horner and Will Jennings, based on a short instrumental piece from An American Tail , appearing in the 1991 animated film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West...
, which was nominated for a Golden Globe award. The song "Dreams to Dream" was based on a short instrumental piece from An American Tail.
The soundtrack quotes many classic western scores, from The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
to Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
's Rodeo: Hoe Down. It also quotes several fiddle tunes including The 8th Of January.
Track listing
- "Dreams to Dream (Finale Version)" - Linda RonstadtLinda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
- "American Tail Overture (Main Title)"
- "Cat Rumble"
- "Headin' Out West"
- "Way Out West"
- "Green River/Trek Through the Desert"
- "Dreams to Dream (Tanya's Version)" - Cathy CavadiniCathy CavadiniCatherine Janet "Cathy" Cavadini is an American voice actress and singer. Most famous as the voice of Blossom on Cartoon Network's animated television series The Powerpuff Girls and Tanya Mousekewitz in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails. She is also the successor voice...
- "Building a New Town"
- "Sacred Mountain"
- "Reminiscing"
- "The Girl You Left Behind" - Cathy CavadiniCathy CavadiniCatherine Janet "Cathy" Cavadini is an American voice actress and singer. Most famous as the voice of Blossom on Cartoon Network's animated television series The Powerpuff Girls and Tanya Mousekewitz in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails. She is also the successor voice...
- "In Training"
- "The Shoot-Out"
- "A New Land/The Future"
Score cues left off the soundtrack
- Tiger Chases the Train
- Mouse Burger Plot
- The Flying Aaaaah/Tiger’s Chase Continues
- Puttin’ On the Ritz (Movie Version)
- Two Old Friends Reunited
- RawhideRawhide (song)"Rawhide" is a Western song written by Ned Washington and composed by Dimitri Tiomkin in 1958. It was originally recorded by Frankie Laine...
- The Blues BrothersThe Blues BrothersThe Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live... - Saloon Music
- Wylie Burp/More Like a Dog
- The Shoot-Out (Movie Version)
- The River Returns/Celebration
- "Hoe-down" by Aaron Copland
External links
- An American Tail: Fievel Goes West at Keyframe: The Animation Resource