Old School Lane Casual Chats: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia look back on the American Tail franchise continuing with the second film Fievel Goes West released in 1991. Taking place a few years later, Fievel has a dream of wanting to be a gunslinging cowboy akin to his hero Sheriff Wylie Burp. However, he still lives in New York City with his family and being constantly being attacked by cats led by Cat R. Waul. With their home destroyed and ending up at the sewer, they witness a cowboy mouse from Green River, Utah talking about how great the Wild West is and how cats and mice are friends over there. Convinced that the life of opportunity is at the West, they leave New York to move to Utah. When Fievel realizes that Cat R. Waul is behind convincing the mice to move to Green River to gain their trust and would make them into mice burgers later on, he is thrown off the train and left to fend for himself. Meanwhile, Tiger tries to catch up with Fievel and his family, but is being chased by dogs left and right and would wind up in the desert where a group of Native American mice think he's a god. When Fievel enter into Green River, he tells his family on the conversation he heard from Cat R. Waul, but no one believes him. He meets his hero Sheriff Burp, but he's over the hill and too tired to fight the cats. But he offers to train a dog everything he knows to do it instead. Fievel asks Tiger for help and has less than a day to become a hero otherwise all the mice are turned into burgers.When the film premiered in theaters, it only made $40 million dollars out of its $16 million budget with mixed reviews from critics and fans. It also didn't help much that it came out the same year as Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Does the film hold up over 35 years later?