American Tail was slow, dark and depressing. This sequel movie though, while not as emotional, was so much more entertaining for me. It was fun to watch. The movie starts out in the Bronx, the Mousekewitz family find that conditions are not as ideal as they had hoped, as they are still struggling with life. They always being attacks by cats. After one such attack, the Mousekewitz family decide to try their luck out west. While on the west-bound train, Fievel (Phillip Glasser) wanders into the livestock cart to find out a gang of cats lead by Cat R. Waul (John Cleese) is planning something evil for them. Cat R. Waul is a devious but ingenious feline criminal. He pretended to be the champion of a brave new world where cats and mice would co-exist while secretly plotting to use them as slave labor. Then finally killed them off after they outlived their usefulness to him in building a town in the Old West call Green River. After being discovered, Fievel is thrown from the train by Cat R. Waul's hench spider, T.R. Chula (Jon Lovitz), landing the mouse in the middle of the desert. On the way to Green River, he meets up with old friend Tiger the Cat (Don DeLuise) and somebody that might him on the way, Sheriff Wylie Burp (James Stewart). This movie would mark the last movie for James Stewart, and somewhat a tribute to him for such Western roles as the How the West was won, and The Man who shot Liberty Valance. I like all the western tribute in the film, from having The Searcher's Monument Valley type background to naming one of their new characters Miss Kitty as a Gunsmoke show reference. Still, the mocking of Native American with the Indian mice is just ridiculous stupid and wrong. Now the three of them must become western law men, and try to rescue the town mice before it's too late. Surprising, not a lot of people know this, but Don Bluth was not involved in this film as Spielberg and him had a falling out on the direction of the film. Still it's nice to see it is possible to make a sequel to a Don Bluth movie without completely screwing the original over. I have extremely fond memories of this movie from my childhood, but growing up, I notice some faults. I think some moments in the movie are too fast paced like the animators didn't really always see ahead of how it would look like. Like when Tiger hides in the sign, he jumps down and lands on the ground a second after the dog disappears, which is insane. The animation isn't that great, but it's better than most sequel animations. Don't get me started on the other American Tails films after this. The colors are bright. The special effects are nice, the train action was intense. The film plot doesn't get you very emotionally invested in what's happening, especially compared to the first movie. It's pretty so so. While the original is more like an artwork movie, this one is closer to being a cartoon movie. It's a notch down, but still worth all the praises. I adored the singing of the film better than the original. There wasn't that annoying child voice singing in the film, but more beautiful quality singing adult sounding voice. I loved watching the Dreams to Dream sequence with Fievel's sister Tanya. They sure sexed up Tanya's image a lot from the first movie and probably turned a legion of males into furries. James Horner's score is breath taking as well. It's give you that huge Western feel to the film. I forgotten just how funny this movie was for me as a kid. Nothing beats the lazy eye sequence. Don Deluise is just funny as hell, anything he says in the film just makes me laugh. I'm glad they could bring the original cast back for the most part but whole thing, the plot, the characters, etc. seemed a lot more childish. Somehow I've always enjoyed this one more than its predecessor. I can easily admit the first movie is the superior one, but this one always did a better job of putting a smile on my face
