Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Fievel's American Tails"

Why has it taken me this long to look at something made by Don Bluth? I don't know. It probably stems from the fact that most of his stuff has already been looked at by other reviewers. There's only so much you can say about stuff like Rock-a-Doodle or A Troll In Central Park that hasn't been said already. I do plan on reviewing Titan AE at some point, though.

Anyway, Don Bluth. He's one of those animators you can't help but like no matter how much crap has his name on it. Why? Because for every bad movie he made, he made a good movie as well. If you asked somebody to name an animated movie released in the 1980s that wasn't made by Disney, chances are they'd name something that Don was involved in - The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, what have you. His work, while still relatively obscure nowadays, has a fan following because Don knew what does and what doesn't make an animated film work.

Don is such a respected figure online that I was honestly shocked to find out a lot of animators really, really didn't like working with him. I'd never heard any indication that he's an unpleasant person or anything, but there are several animators who clearly had some sort of axe to grind with Don. Here's what Steve Moore (whose work includes Olive the Other Reindeer, several of Illumination's films, and A Goofy Movie) said about him:

"In the '90s, you couldn't say hello to a former Bluth artist without them going off on a tirade about the studio and how they were screwed by it. This is not an exaggeration. While in their presence, try as you might to steer the conversation to anything but work, a Bluthie would pull out that axe and grind away. Say 'Hey how about them Dodgers?' and they'd reply, 'I'm gonna cut off Bluth's head and [CENSORED] down his neck!!' So what was Don Bluth's crime? Bluth sold himself as the second coming of Walt. Gary Goldman liked to lay this [CENSORED] on too. They played the role of animation saviors and asked artists to work long hours for [CENSORED] wages for the love of the medium. They would be part of a great and lasting legacy and young artists lapped it up. Years later, after following their messiahs to Ireland to animate trolls, they realized they'd been had. And like leaving a cult, it did not end well at all. I can't count how many friends went through that studio and left with a bad head."

…dang.

But what's that? You need more proof that several people in the animation industry have a bone to pick with Don? Well, here's what Ken Cope (an animator who worked with Don on The Secret of NIMH and with Disney on Beauty and the Beast) claimed:

"The difference between Ralph Bakshi and Don Bluth is that Bakshi was an independent iconoclast, while the other was a predator who burned through artists like any other disposable commodity, in order to live out his Walt Disney successor fantasies."

Need more still? Take a listen to what Robin Steele (who worked as a storyboard artist on episodes of Garfield and Friends and The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat) had to say about Don:

"He hijacked the Irish animation industry, opening Phoenix in Dublin. Somehow, he got back-handed legislation passed in the late 1980's to the effect that if you left one animation studio (e.g., Murakami/Wolf), you couldn't be hired at another for two years. It was an obvious threat to the people who'd signed on with Phoenix (Sullivan/Bluth) to stick with the program or perish — but conversely, also prevented a lot of good artists from making the most of careers they had worked and trained hard for. Art, meet commerce."

One more quote. Toniko Pantoja (who's done some work for DreamWorks on films like Trolls and How To Train Your Dragon 3) wasn't quite as hard on Don as the other three animators I've mentioned, but I guess he still warrants a mention (incidentally, this made a lot of people on Twitter mad, which should give you an idea of just how respected Don is):

"What's funny is that when I was still attending Cal Arts, Don Bluth was always considered a joke for cheesy outdated overflowy animation. When his name is mentioned among other classmates or teachers, it starts with a roll of eyes, a sigh, then a rant. There's a lot of reasons really. Some of them aren't just his animation style, which I'd get into why sometime. He also has a lot of history with people he's worked with, some being former mentors of mine. That's not to say he isn't appreciated for what he's done though."

It's so jarring to see such a respected figure online get so much flack from his peers. I mean, it's not like EVERYONE hates Don Bluth. An animator named Jonathan Lyons, who worked with Don on Rock-a-Doodle, said on Twitter that "I worked for Don Bluth. He's a very nice guy." As for me, I personally have nothing against Don, I just find all of this bile from animators thrown his way pretty shocking.

Anyhow, one area that Don surprisingly didn't dip his feet into was cartoon shows for television. I guess he was too focused on movies to try his hand at a television show. That isn't to say there's never been a cartoon show based on his characters - after all, there was a Land Before Time show at some point in the 2000s. But in the 1990s, there was another show based on a Don Bluth film. And that show was Fievel's American Tails.

First of all, to my knowledge Don Bluth himself had no actual involvement with this show (which in hindsight makes this post's big, long introduction about Don Bluth kind of pointless, but eh). It was, however, the creation of David Kirschner, who was the executive producer and writer of An American Tail. Instead of An American Tail, it was based on the recently-released sequel, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. So instead of taking place in New York, the show had Fievel and his friends going on adventures in the western town of Green River, having to deal with the plans of the evil Cat R. Waul.

The show aired on CBS for one season in 1992, and since then has basically gained a reputation for being one of the crummiest cartoon shows based on an animated movie ever made. Another reviewer, the Hardcore Kid, looked at one episode of the show based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, complete with a "Headless Horsecat". I'll be looking at another episode, one that I personally feel that of the thirteen episodes made has the most potential to make jokes out of. That episode is "A Case of the Hiccups".

Yes, this episode focuses on... hiccups. Riveting!

By the way, I should mention that I haven't actually seen An American Tail in years, and I don't think I've ever watched Fievel Goes West in full. Does that matter?

You can tell this character is shady because he's wearing an abnormally large hat. All shady
characters in westerns wear abnormally large hats.

Okay, so the episode begins with a chubby mouse arriving in town on a stagecoach. He unfurls a banner reading "TRAVIS T. HIPPOCRATES: PROVEYOR OF MIRACLE WONDERS AND CURES". He might as well have just added "AND TOTALLY ALSO NOT A SNAKE OIL SALESMOUSE" to that banner while he was at it.

Nearby, inside the general store, Fievel (voiced by Phillip Glasser once again) is reading a comic book about a cowboy named Montana Mouse, who he idiolizes. This should give you a good idea as to what Fievel's main character trait in this show is: he's obsessed with cowboys, and it seems to be driving Mama Mouskewitz  (Susan Silo) bananas. Didn't Fievel become a gunslinger and save the day in Fievel Goes West? With that in mind, you'd think Mama would be a bit more tolerant of his cowboy obsession...

So is Travis just really short (even for a mouse), or is Mama just really tall?

Travis T. Hippocrates shows up and flatters Fievel and Mama, then once Mama heads out to finish her errands tells Fievel that he could use a great cowboy (or would that be cowMOUSE? Nah, probably not... that sounds more like a rejected Wuzzle to me) like him in his business. And Fievel, who's apparently now an idiot, is hooked.

Didn't Fievel's parents teach him about stranger danger? I'm pretty sure "don't talk to strangers" is something kids learn pretty early on. And just to make things even more uncomfortable, Travis gives Fievel a bag of free candy and tells him to give it to everyone in town. Seriously, "if a stranger tries to lure you over with candy, run like heck" is something most parents teach their kids!

Maybe it's time for a Sonic Sez...

Travis also makes it very clear that he wants every mouse in town but Fievel to eat the candy. Now that TOTALLY isn't suspicious, is it?

What next, is Travis gonna convince Fievel to come with him to a place called "Pleasure Island"?

So Fievel gives candy to the stereotypical French baker in town, then comes across my personal favorite character from An American Tail, Tiger. Alas, Tiger has been Flanderized into a massive idiot. Not Yakkity Yak levels of idiot, but still an idiot nonetheless. On the bright side, they got Dom DeLuise back to voice him.

You ever notice that Tiger looks a bit like the Lorax? Orange fur, yellow mustache, kinda
chubby...

Next Fievel gives some candy to his sister Tanya (Cathy Cavadini) and two other mouse kids at play, one of which is Australian, talks about dingoes and wallabies, and is named Jack (as in Kangaroo... that's a teaser for a later review). There are a lot of Ethnic stereotypes in Green Valley, aren't there?

He also looks like the mouse from Once Upon a Forest.

Papa Mouskewitz (Lloyd Battista) seems to be the only sane one in this episode, as he seems concerned that, y'know, a total stranger is having Fievel give out candy to everyone in town. But Mama is all "Oh, he's such a charming and trustworthy fellow!", which seems to convince Papa. So much for him being the same one.

Then Tanya gets the hiccups. Gee, I wonder if this has anything to do with that candy Fievel gave her earlier...

"Papa, just once, can't we have something other than cheese for dinner?"

"Nyet, Tanya! We are cartoon mice, and cartoon mice always eat cheese for every meal!
It's just common knowledge!"

Tanya's hiccups prevent her from going to school the next day... wait, does having the hiccups really mean you don't have to go to school? Maybe rules for mouse schools are different than those for human schools... and wouldn't you know it? One of Fievel's classmates has the hiccups too.

And here's an example of just how clumsy the animation is. Here's what the classmate looks like:

And after she hiccups, we cut to the rest of the class laughing at her. Notice anything?

Yeah, that very same classmate (well, half of her, anyway) is on the left. I guess SpongeBob is right - we DO all have to laugh at ourselves sometimes...

Then the fat mole teacher starts hiccupping as well. Wait a minute, Fievel didn't give HIM any of the candy! Or maybe he just gave it to him off-screen? Even so, wouldn't it make more sense if that stereotypical Australian mouse started hiccupping instead, since we actually saw Fievel give HIM the candy?

After school, Fievel runs into Tiger again, who - to paraphrase the Strangeloves - wants candy (boy, remember when Aaron Carter's version of that song was everywhere? Good times...). But Fievel says the candy is only for mice. Upon returning home, he decides that surely Dr. Travis will be able to help Tanya with her hiccups. Yeah, he still apparently hasn't put two and two together and figured out that the candy is the reason for the hiccups. Methinks Fievel is a bit of a dope.

Meanwhile, in another plot...

"Y'know, boss, this show isn't half-bad..."

"You're right, Chula. It's ALL bad!"

"D'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH-HO-HO-HO-HO!"

I'm not one hundred percent sure why the writers felt the need to include Cat R. Waul in this episode, seeing how we already have a bad guy in the form of the obvious con artist Travis T. Hippocrates. I guess their mindset was that since he's the show's main antagonist, they had to include him in every single episode?

Well, anyway, Cat R. Waul (voiced not by John Cleese like in the film but rather by Gerrit Graham) and his hench-spider T.R. Chula (voiced not by Jon Lovitz like in the film but rather by Dan Castellaneta, so as a result he sounds a lot like Krusty the Clown) overhear Tanya's hiccups and decide that it would be a great idea to eat her and Fievel.

I'd be freaked out too if I suddenly ran into a spider that was around the same size as me. Even
if that spider had a mustache and sounded like a character from The Simpsons.

So how do Fievel and Tanya get away from Cat R. Waul? Easy - he gets a door slammed on him. That was remarkably easy, wasn't it?

They make it to Dr. Travis, and he says that he just so happens to have a tonic that can cure the hiccups. Zhe odds, vhat are zhey? However, it's not quite ready yet... which gives Fievel and Tanya plenty of time to help Dr. Travis by spreading the word about the cure.

This guy reminds me a lot of the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Thus, Fievel goes back to the general store to tell the shopkeeper... who also has the hiccups, even though we never saw Fievel give HIM any of the candy either. They couldn't have at least thrown in a montage of Fievel giving candy to everyone in town? Oh, and just to make things even more complicated, Chula overheard everything because he was hiding in a nearby pickle barrel.

…what the heck was he doing in there? Did he know Fievel was going to be there? Is bathing in pickle brine just a regular thing that he does?

"Don't knock it. It's good for my complexion!"

Fievel then runs into Tiger again, who's still all "I want candy!" and then Fievel just leaves the bag of candy with Tiger as he walks away. For some reason. Which gives Tiger the perfect opportunity to have a piece. And then seven more pieces.

It's a good thing Fievel told everyone in town about the cure, because everyone in town except him and Yasha has the hiccups now. And that includes Tiger, who in addition to the eight pieces he had already polished the whole bag off.

How exactly DID Dr. Travis make candy that gives people hiccups, anyhow? What did he put in it?

"Holy crap, there are people out there watching us right now!"

So Fievel finally puts two and two together and realizes that candy + digestive system = hiccups, and goes to confront Dr. Travis. And what is Dr. Travis' reasoning for doing it? Well...

But does Dr. Travis at least have a cure? Well, apparently the hiccups just go away on their own... but as far as the folks of Green River know, the only cure is the placebo that he's whipped up. And he tells Fievel not to tell anyone or else they'll think he's in cahoots with Dr. Travis. "I won't do it!" Fievel exclaims. Dr. Travis' response is to grab Fievel and say, "Fievel, my boy, I'm afraid that was the wrong answer..."

See, this is why you should teach your kids never to talk to strangers. Especially when those strangers have candy.

This screencap looks even worse out of context.

Dr. Travis traps Fievel in a glass jar and then goes to sell his fake hiccup cure to all the mice in town. But the little gathering is suddenly interrupted by Cat R. Waul, who says that they're all welcome to join him for dinner... HIS dinner, that is, mwah-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

"I have officially become a vampire! And not one of those friendly chocolate-eating ones
like in the cereal commercials!"

As the mice scatter for their lives, only for Cat R. Waul and Chula to trap them all, Dr. Travis escapes back into his wagon and frees Fievel, declaring that it's every mouse for himself. Fievel insists that they have to save the others, but Dr. Travis is too much of a coward to go save them. So it's all up to Fievel.

Fortunately, Cat R. Waul has decided that instead of eating the mice, he's going to auction them all off to another cat who makes the highest bid. Apparently he's not that hungry after all.

"I have an announcement! They're doing a sequel to The Secret of NIMH!"

"HOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

"But it's going to be a direct-to-video sequel and star Mrs. Brisby's son while she only has
a handful of lines!"

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"But Eric Idle is in it!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

"And he's voicing Mrs. Brisby's other son, who's been brainwashed into being evil and wants
to take over Thorn Valley!"

"...WHAT?"

But then Dr. Travis decides not to be such a coward and shows up to warn the cats against eating hiccupping mice, lest they get the hiccups as well... unless, of course, they buy some of his patented anti-hiccup lozenges. Cat R. Waul tells the other cats to ignore him and makes a horrible pun... and then hands out the lozenges to the other cats anyway. But Dr. Travis' distracting the cats allows Fievel to save the trapped mice.

Now, I'll give you one guess what's going to happen next. Will it be that...

A) The lozenges are actually the same candy Dr. Travis tricked the rest of the mice into eating, resulting in the cats getting hiccups?

B) The lozenges are actually the same candy Dr. Travis tricked the rest of the mice into eating, resulting in the cats getting hiccups?

OR C) The lozenges are actually the same candy Dr. Travis tricked the rest of the mice into eating, resulting in the cats getting hiccups?

For those of you who picked A, B, or C, congratulations! You guessed correctly! You get nothing!

And then Tiger shows up, assumes the cats are having a party, and starts dancing. I assume that
this is supposed to be humorous.

As he hops aboard a train out of town, Dr. Travis tells Fievel that he's turned over a new leaf. Or has he? He tries to give one of the hiccup-causing candies to a flute-playing mouse on the train, only to realize that Fievel swiped the bag from him. Fin.

What's the Verdict?

Yeah, this is definitely not the greatest installment of the American Tail franchise. I will say that the voice actors all do a fine job with the script they've been given (Gerrit Graham is actually a pretty good replacement for John Cleese in particular). Aside from that, though, the show suffers from mediocre animation, unfunny jokes, weak plots, and an overall lack of interest. The whole episode runs on the fact that everybody in Green River is apparently a massive idiot - it really takes Fievel until the third act to realize the candy is what's causing the hiccups? Don't get me wrong, it's hardly the worst show based on an animated film that I've ever seen, but I really don't think it's worth your time. You'd be better off re-watching the movies again. But, if you want to watch this show for yourself, you can find it on Universal's streaming service Peacock.

Amusingly, according to the third American Tail, the events of Fievel Goes West and this series were all just a dream. That makes it much easier for fans of the film ignore the series.