MarzGurl Discusses An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island

(Clips from the movie are shown)

MarzGurl (vo): An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island is a direct-to-video sequel to the American Tail franchise released in 1998,* with, again, no involvement from Don Bluth. This is six years after the Fievel's American Tails series was on TV. We have a new voice actor for Fievel, but guess who's back?

*NOTE: Released in 2000 in the U.S.

Tiger: Wow, you must be rich. (slurps up ice cream and burps) Oh, uh, pardon me, ha.

MarzGurl (vo): That's right, Dom DeLuise just can't stay away from the role of Tiger. The animation is obviously that of a direct-to-video movie, but really, it's pretty likely that this movie shared many of the same animators as some of the great TV shows from the 90s; you know, anything involved with Amblin such as Tiny Toons, Animaniacs and Freakazoid. In a lot of instances, the animation looks strikingly similar, though as far as I can tell, Warner Bros. Animation had nothing to do with this particular movie. As far as direct-to-video fare is concerned, this movie isn't completely awful.

Mice: (singing) We live in Manhattan, we work all night and day

MarzGurl (vo): However, as far as An American Tail sequel is concerned, it really shouldn't exist. It basically starts off with this completely damning line.

Fievel: I dreamed we moved out West, and I became a famous gunslinger!

Tanya: Ha, like that could happen.

Fievel: Well, it seemed real to me.

MarzGurl (vo): No, no, bad movie! You, as a direct-to-video sequel, do NOT wield the power to retcon the official movie theater sequel! Now, some may argue that this movie actually takes place before Fievel Goes West, or bet this is really just some kind of foreshadowing, insinuating Fievel Goes West could still happen. I think not, wannabe believers; if that's true, then how come Fievel doesn't know what to do in the West once he gets there? I mean, he dreamed the whole thing, didn't he? So, he must know what's going to happen, right? No, stop being fanboys! Your precious American Tail franchise just tried to retcon itself, and yes, it's stupid! The kids wake up their dad, who's incredibly tired from working at several different jobs to make ends meet or get rich or something of the sort. Part of the theme of the movie seems to rely on the idea of working hard for the American Dream. I suppose that's cool, but I guess the studio really didn't think they could make a whole kids movie around that concept. So early on, we're re-introduced to Tony from the first movie. It turns out he has a job, too. Oh boy, everybody in this movie grew up, faced the real world, and got work. Well, not quite. Tony tells Fievel about a cool abandoned subway system he stumbled upon. Good old Tiger is his usual self and is scared of going down into the subway, so he offers to stand guard while the mice go down.

Tony: What are you, afraid?

Tiger: Who, me? (chuckles) No, I just think it would be better if I stand guard up here and uh, uh, I protect your flank.

MarzGurl (vo): But things get scary when Tiger gets brave enough to wander inside and he sets off a series of events that lead to the mice kids falling through a hole in the old tracks, where they end up in a room full of mice skeletons and some kind of a treasure map. Actually, all things considered, Tiger isn't really nearly as rubbery and ridiculous as he was at the very least in the previous movie; I'm pretty thankful for that. Anyway, Tony takes Fievel and the map to his friend, Dr. Dithering, who's voiced by Rene Auberjonois, whom you're likely to have heard in a number of other vocal roles over the years. He helps the kids to discover that this map is an artifact from the Delaware tribe of Native Americans, otherwise known as the Lenape, which I gotta hand it to them, that would indeed might have been the likely tribe residing in that part of North America before the major industrialization of Manhattan. But Tony can't stick around, as he has work to do at the factory. Ironically enough, it's the same factory that Fievel's dad works at the same time. The factory is run by three bigwig slave labor styled mice, Mr. Grasping, Toplofty, and O' Bloat. It almost feels crazy for some of these voices to be here, like Ron Perlman as the voice of Mr. Grasping.

Mr. Grasping: What have we here, Mr. O' Bloat?

MarzGurl (vo): Or Tony Jay as the voice of Toplofty.

Mr. Toplofty: Oh, indeed. It sets a bad example.

MarzGurl (vo): Didn't you have better characters to voice for, like Megabyte, or Frollo, or Shere Khan or something? Either way, these guys are actually the ones classing up the movie, even if the three of them together sort of combine to make one big sweatshop labor bad guy. Actually, they seem to have the cops in their back pocket; in fact, there's a surprisingly brutal police beating at this point in the movie, too. Well, Tony's late, so he doesn't get paid for the week.

Tony: So much for getting rich.

MarzGurl (vo): Getting rich? You get paid in cheese, I can't imagine how currency like that actually works. Getting paid in food sounds like an awful idea. But then, if their currency is cheese, then why is it that, at the beginning of the movie, we saw Tony pay for ice cream with a whole penny, and where the hell does that ice cream vendor put money like that? Anyway, it turns out that the treasure map takes our heroes to the Native Americans' so called "greatest treasure", and down they go, with the doctor's personal assistant, Scuttlebutt, tagging along. What nobody knows is that Scuttlebutt actually reports back to our three bad dudes, so expect some traitorous activity later. After tripping every possible trap in the tunnel, and I do mean, every trap, because once they trip one, they don't just stop and try to be careful, no, they instead keep running through every single obstacle on their path...

(A clip is shown of Fievel and Tony running and avoiding getting hit by swinging wooden mallets, while Tiger is running on a conveyor belt with metal claws)

MarzGurl (vo): They end up caught by the last remaining members of the Lenape tribe. This is where the movie tries to shame you, the white man, for your history of crimes against the indigenous people of America!

Chief Wulisso: Our ancestors watched as the European humans came in their boats, bring them disease, gunpowder, (hissing) cats!

Tiger: I feel so ashamed!

Chief Wulisso: And they watched as the Europeans mistreated the Lenape. Killed many, scattered the rest. Our ancestors did not wait for the European mice to do the same to them. Instead, they found refuge here underground, safe, hidden from the world.

MarzGurl (vo): Sheesh, it's true, I don't like what happened to the Native Americans, and I know it was the white man's fault and all, but Christ, man, I wasn't even there! Stop making me feel so bad, like there was anything I could possibly do about it! The chief brings forth his daughter, Cholena to give the visitors a tour of their underground establishment. Tony is immediately taken by her beauty, I guess. Made me wonder though, what the heck happened to his last girlfriend (Bridget)? You remember her, right? Well, the Indian princess shows Fievel that their greatest treasure is...their heritage. Eh, not that cool. But then, the chief decides to send his daughter back up to the surface with her new friends to see if the pale faces have changed their ugly ways yet. The short version: no, they haven't. The long version: Scuttlebutt obviously betrays everybody, and the three bad dudes incite a riot, looking for the savage spy in their midst. So the kids take Cholena home while Mama and Papa and Tiger fend off the blind mob, but not without crooked cops chasing them all the way back down. Luckily, they're able to avoid the traps this time while the cops walk right into them. Now in a movie like this, you might expect that it ends with everybody getting along. Interestingly enough, that's not the case. The chief decides that it's still not yet time for his tribe to meet up with everyone on the surface, so to protect his tribe, he comes up with an ingenious plan.

Tony: Uh, chief? Exactly how do you plan to seal the tunnel?

Chief Wulisso: Show me the map. (Fievel hands him the map and Chief Wulisso points to an area on it) There. There is a great underground river here, close to the tunnel.

Fievel: Yeah, I remember.

Chief Wulisso: Once you find it again, you must destroy the wall that separates one from the other.

MarzGurl (vo): Whoa, wait, this sounds like a good plan in theory, yet also, in theory, this shouldn't just block off the tunnel, it should flood the tunnel, thereby flooding into the underground sanctuary for the tribe. Why was this a good idea? Well, whatever, it works. The tribe is once again cut off from the surface...or are they?

(Fievel looks through a telescope and sees the chief and Cholena entering a tunnel at the base of a statue)

MarzGurl (vo): You know, maybe this movie should've been the direct sequel to the original American Tail; it actually wasn't nearly as horribly written as one might expect for a direct-to-video release. It certainly wasn't as terrible as Timmy to the Rescue, and the animation was good enough that it made it to TV a couple of times. It's just a shame that they felt they need to retcon the previous movie. Why did the dream comment have to be made at all? Couldn't we have just assumed that this takes place before Fievel Goes West? Unfortunately, that one comment completely kills that possibility. Really, it isn't nearly as heartfelt as the first American Tail movie, quite obviously, but as a standalone piece, it's tolerable. Now if only Universal had decided to stop right there. Unfortunately, they didn't.

(The credits are shown while the song Anywhere in Your Dreams is playing)