As with yet another boring day without school or early activities, I made the decision to view a Blu-ray copy of this film that, as with its prequel, was brought to me as a gift from my loving brother. I made it my choice since I had An American Tail in mind from the previous day, and so viewing this today would make some of the continuity more memorable. So why do I think this movie is an improvement, if slightly?
I found that the story was a tad more engaging in this film. Sure, it doesn't have the epic prospects of immigration or dealing with topics such as cultural appropriation, but I found no glaring writing errors or problems with continuity. It continues to offer some great action and passable jokes (aside from Wylie's occasional crudity), and that's good enough for at least me. It does have Native stereotypes, continues to have abrupt cutaways, and has some rather questionable lines regarding a god vs. dog transformation, so while it's more polished, it continues to have some issues. Given the 5-year gap, the animation was overall upgraded, which is unfortunately more than can be said of many other animated movie sequels. It continues to make the action appear menacing and keep it cartoony enough to make the gags more than worthy of a few chuckles. The environments, owing to the more light-hearted nature of this film, are generally more vibrant. Sure, it isn't eye candy or overall blowout like in Beauty and the Beast, but it offers little distractions from what is meant to be seen. I feel like the characters are a bit of the same, though, since both Mama and Papa Mousekewitz don't have much importance other than being Fievel's social guides, Yasha is still not that meaningful aside from a visual diversion, and Fievel is still bold and at times foolish. I also felt like parts of the film focused way more on Tiger than on Fievel, but since they took time to develop his previously hollow character, I felt fine with Tiger being the de facto lead in the latter half. The new characters are less developed than they are just fun to witness, like Waul and Chula. Probably my choice for biggest improvement, however, would be the music. In the first An American Tail, I found the numbers somewhat tolerable, but mostly approaching gritting with how high the voices went. Here, I found Tanya's voice to be actually really beautiful, and the other songs were delightful to hear in general. Granted, they're still not that memorable, but they're easier to hear compared to the previous songs (including the previous version of Somewhere Out There).
If you were a fan of the first movie, it's pretty much a coin flip. You'll either appreciate its new direction, slightly more polished writing, and better character development for Tiger, or you'll dislike its light-hearted turn and its removal of Bridget and Tony. For casual movie-goers, it could pretty much go the same way as well. Families will likely enjoy this movie more because of its humor, more vibrant animation, and catchy songs. Sure, its story isn't as fundamentally composite, but when the viewing experience is fun, it feels as though it doesn't need to be. It beats out many other animation sequels and even some films Don Bluth himself actually contributed to, so it makes a nice alternative for those who want to start a Bluth collection but are afraid of having to ask for the worst of his movies. If parents can get by the same drinking, smoking, and sporadic crudity, then the family could very well have a blast watching this movie.
I found that the story was a tad more engaging in this film. Sure, it doesn't have the epic prospects of immigration or dealing with topics such as cultural appropriation, but I found no glaring writing errors or problems with continuity. It continues to offer some great action and passable jokes (aside from Wylie's occasional crudity), and that's good enough for at least me. It does have Native stereotypes, continues to have abrupt cutaways, and has some rather questionable lines regarding a god vs. dog transformation, so while it's more polished, it continues to have some issues. Given the 5-year gap, the animation was overall upgraded, which is unfortunately more than can be said of many other animated movie sequels. It continues to make the action appear menacing and keep it cartoony enough to make the gags more than worthy of a few chuckles. The environments, owing to the more light-hearted nature of this film, are generally more vibrant. Sure, it isn't eye candy or overall blowout like in Beauty and the Beast, but it offers little distractions from what is meant to be seen. I feel like the characters are a bit of the same, though, since both Mama and Papa Mousekewitz don't have much importance other than being Fievel's social guides, Yasha is still not that meaningful aside from a visual diversion, and Fievel is still bold and at times foolish. I also felt like parts of the film focused way more on Tiger than on Fievel, but since they took time to develop his previously hollow character, I felt fine with Tiger being the de facto lead in the latter half. The new characters are less developed than they are just fun to witness, like Waul and Chula. Probably my choice for biggest improvement, however, would be the music. In the first An American Tail, I found the numbers somewhat tolerable, but mostly approaching gritting with how high the voices went. Here, I found Tanya's voice to be actually really beautiful, and the other songs were delightful to hear in general. Granted, they're still not that memorable, but they're easier to hear compared to the previous songs (including the previous version of Somewhere Out There).
If you were a fan of the first movie, it's pretty much a coin flip. You'll either appreciate its new direction, slightly more polished writing, and better character development for Tiger, or you'll dislike its light-hearted turn and its removal of Bridget and Tony. For casual movie-goers, it could pretty much go the same way as well. Families will likely enjoy this movie more because of its humor, more vibrant animation, and catchy songs. Sure, its story isn't as fundamentally composite, but when the viewing experience is fun, it feels as though it doesn't need to be. It beats out many other animation sequels and even some films Don Bluth himself actually contributed to, so it makes a nice alternative for those who want to start a Bluth collection but are afraid of having to ask for the worst of his movies. If parents can get by the same drinking, smoking, and sporadic crudity, then the family could very well have a blast watching this movie.