How do you follow a classic animated movie like Don Bluth's "An American Tail?" Duh: with a sequel! Don Bluth ultimately didn't have a part in the sequel however, much like "All Dogs Go To Heaven 2." Aside from Steven Spielberg's return as producer, the existance of "An American Tail - Fievel Goes West" feels like an obvious cash-grab on familiar family-friendly characters. And it is. "Fievel Goes West" is definitely a product of the 1990's, for better or for worse. It was the time of the Disney renaissance, and of companies and directors like Don Bluth, Warner Bros, and Dreamworks all competing for a slice of the cartoon kingdom. American 2D animation was produced at a non-stop pace, and like the others, "Fievel Goes West" enjoys colorful designs and super-smooth animation not often see today. The "go west" motive also felt right for the time, alongside other classic American dreams like "going to Hollywood," "saving the rainforest" or "Australia." But even though I don't consider the movie special, or essential, I admit I had a VHS tape of the movie growing up as a kid. And I rather enjoyed it, and still do today. It still captures a lot of the same magic as other "mice as people" movies, like the original "An American Tail," and Disney's "The Rescuers" and "The Rescuers Down Under." And like "Down Under," it is one of those rare sequels that is actually more fun than the original. The story might be less ambitious, but it can be infectiously charming.Fievel is still a little mouse growing up in New York City with his immigrant family, who have realized their dream of the "land of opportunity" might have been misguided in the USA. The entire mouse community gets attacked, a staged event to convince them to head out West to the new and untamed lands of the other side of the country. The plan was staged by an aristocratic cat named Cat R. Waul, who wants to use the mice as free labor to help "build a perfect town," and THEN eat them as "mouse burgers." Two goals for the price of one, but it requires time, and Fievel accidently overhears the plan. Unable to convince the mice of the truth, he eventually relies on Wylie Burp, a local dog sherif and hero who has grown too old for the job, and Tiger, the friendly vegetarian cat from the first movie. It ends with a big shootout, mostly with slingshots instead of real guns. Isn't that cute?
Really, the story only serves as an excuse for songs and jokes to occur, and as an excuse to use a cowboy setting. Some events seem purely for the sake of setting up a musical number, typically sung by a chorus of cartoon voices in a way that's entertaining, but difficult to understand the lyrics. The movie is short at barely an hour and fifteen minutes, but it doesn't feel short at all... not quite overstaying its welcome, this reminds me how dry the seemingly busy plot is.Aside from being moderately fun, the merit comes from the animation and voice acting. The character designs are distinct, and as expected, there are plenty of clever integrations of human objects and a tiny mouse world. The animation feels smooth, although the camera tends to use sweeping motions a bit too much around amazed facial expressions, the type of trick that helps with viewers of short attention spans. A couple consistency problems also remind one that this isn't quite a Disney movie.The voice cast is surprisingly strong, with the return of Dom DeLuise as the oafish alley cat Tiger, John Cleese and Jon Lovitz as the villains, and classic actor James Stewart with a special performance as the aging dog Sherif. They don't get much range, but get a lot of fun jokes, and Stewart in particular gets a touching final speech at the end. The music is cinematic and engaging, but could easily have been reused from a dozen other existing animated films from that decade. And vocal songs are enjoyable, but forgettable, save for the most memorable use of the song "Rawhide."There are probably better animated films to choose from, but almost everything from the 90's is better than it ought to be. There will always be a few caveats. The girls in the movie, for example, are regulated to being pretty singers on a stage while the boys play cowboy. Like most of Don Bluth's (and Speilberg's) movies, lip-syncing is so exagerrated with expression that one couldn't take it seriously if they tried. Universal Entertainment's Bluray release of "Fievel Goes West" doesn't even have a menu, simply playing the movie on a loop, making it clear how "important" the movie is to the distribution company. But young kids loved it back then, and will still love it now, and adults shouldn't be particularly annoyed with it.