I spent the past weekend watching all of "The Land Before Time" sequels and this film in the mix. (I'm still trying to find 'The Mystery of the Night Monster'.
I've seen plenty of decent work done on the 'Balto' and 'TLBT' video sequels, even if some stories weren't as good as their predecessors. But this sequel had no redeeming or interesting qualities. The only bit that caught my interest was learning about the pneumatic subway but other than that this sequel was really hard to get into and is probably the worse offender as far as continuity. It seems that the writers had completely forgotten that Tony Toponi had a love interest in the original film (Bridgette) that he married and had a baby with in 'Fievel Goes West'. Perhaps they had a brief separation thus allowing him to seek other love interests in the 3rd and 4th films. Aside from that Tanya is portrayed in the most annoying matter ever! She's actually less mature and more bratty than she was in the original. Though in 'Fievel Goes West' she did have a complete character do-over where she grew up to be a self absorbed teenager. In this film however she's not self absorbed, she's just whiny. Same goes for Papa Mouskewitz.
The themes and story of the film are more targeted at preschoolers. Had this been a sequel taking place when Fievel and his family were already out west much of the film would still make sense, but it's really hard to buy into the idea of Native American mice living in the tunnels of New York City and then having to deal with all the pro-Native American themes that come along with it.
In the end it seems like none of the characters...not even Fievel himself plays any role of real importance significance. At least in The Land Before Time sequels, the themes and characters are constant and remain significant. But none of the characters in American Tail are in their true character nor stay true to continuity. They don't even try for matching animation in this film. This is the worse of the Don Bluth video sequels (even Secret of Nimh 2 was more interesting) and not worth your time unless you're really bored.
I've seen plenty of decent work done on the 'Balto' and 'TLBT' video sequels, even if some stories weren't as good as their predecessors. But this sequel had no redeeming or interesting qualities. The only bit that caught my interest was learning about the pneumatic subway but other than that this sequel was really hard to get into and is probably the worse offender as far as continuity. It seems that the writers had completely forgotten that Tony Toponi had a love interest in the original film (Bridgette) that he married and had a baby with in 'Fievel Goes West'. Perhaps they had a brief separation thus allowing him to seek other love interests in the 3rd and 4th films. Aside from that Tanya is portrayed in the most annoying matter ever! She's actually less mature and more bratty than she was in the original. Though in 'Fievel Goes West' she did have a complete character do-over where she grew up to be a self absorbed teenager. In this film however she's not self absorbed, she's just whiny. Same goes for Papa Mouskewitz.
The themes and story of the film are more targeted at preschoolers. Had this been a sequel taking place when Fievel and his family were already out west much of the film would still make sense, but it's really hard to buy into the idea of Native American mice living in the tunnels of New York City and then having to deal with all the pro-Native American themes that come along with it.
In the end it seems like none of the characters...not even Fievel himself plays any role of real importance significance. At least in The Land Before Time sequels, the themes and characters are constant and remain significant. But none of the characters in American Tail are in their true character nor stay true to continuity. They don't even try for matching animation in this film. This is the worse of the Don Bluth video sequels (even Secret of Nimh 2 was more interesting) and not worth your time unless you're really bored.