MarzGurl Discusses Fievel's American Tails

(Clips from the cartoon are shown)

MarzGurl (vo): The images you're seeing right now aren't from a movie, they're from a short-lived animated TV series called Fievel's American Tails. This TV series aired in 1992 and only lasted for thirteen episodes. Since it ended as quickly as it did, as you can imagine, it didn't exactly do so hot.

(The covers for the VHS releases of Fievel's American Tails are shown)

MarzGurl (vo): It's never been released on DVD and only eight of the episodes were ever released on VHS. As you can imagine, this makes the series especially hard to come by now; in fact, I only managed to scrounge up eleven of the thirteen episodes, though apparently, if you search Youtube for it, you can find said missing episodes dubbed over into German.

(More clips are shown)

MarzGurl (vo): It's a shame I don't speak German.

Mr. Schimmel: (clears throat) Does this look like a library, Mr. Mousekewitz?

MarzGurl (vo): As you can see from the imagery here, Fievel's American Tails is based around the idea of the last American Tail movie, Fievel Goes West, though I'm not really sure what point it takes place, because Cat R. Waul and Chula are still wandering around the place, Ms. Kitty hasn't actually moved into Green River, and Tiger, at one point, has to pretend he's a sheriff, never mind the fact that he pretty much became a sheriff in the last movie. In fact, as far as I can tell, Sheriff Wylie Burp is nowhere to be found, not to mention Fievel's baby sister (Yasha) was in the first movie, nowhere to be found in the second, and now suddenly, she's back in this TV series, so I guess we'll just assume this takes place in a slightly alternate dimension than the previous movies, though Phillip Glasser and Dom Deluise do make their returns as Fievel and Tiger.

Tiger: Hiya, I mean, byeya, I mean, uh, uh, seeya, uh, hi, hey, Fieve, what's going on?

Fievel: Sorry, Tiger, I can't play anymore, I gotta babysit.

MarzGurl (vo): But Chula, who was once Jon Lovitz, is now voiced by Dan Castellaneta, best known for his role as Homer Simpson, but sounding more like his role of Megavolt from Darkwing Duck.

Chula: Here, mousey, mousey, mousey, here, mousey.

MarzGurl (vo): The series isn't particularly special, it's your typical Saturday morning fare with really mediocre storytelling and pacing. In some cases, there will be a slightly action-y scene, like a chase or something, and there will be no dialogue and no sound effects for quite some time, just the show's instrumental backing. It tends to make the experience not quite so thrilling.

(A clip is shown of Fievel running from Cat R. Waul and some cat bandits. As Cat R. Waul gets closer, Fievel sees a woodpile ahead and jumps under it to hide.)

MarzGurl (vo): There's a few really awful stereotypings with really poorly accented impersonations. Dan Castellaneta also does an alright job with the new character of Mr. Schimmel.

Mr. Schimmel: A cat is a cat, and a cat is never a good influence on a young child!

MarzGurl (vo): But then there's this family of Australian mice that the show introduces and their accents are atrocious, not to mention they just can't stop talking about just how Australian they are!

Cyrus: G'day, mates, you're just in time to test my latest edition to your new treehouse, check!

MarzGurl (vo): So what even happens in the show? Not a lot. You get thrilling adventures of Fievel having to babysit his younger sister and failing at it, or Fievel having to go to class, or (sarcastically) oh, gosh, Aunt Sophie's coming to visit, keeping Fievel from going to the rodeo or playing with Tiger, how awful! See, really, the series is so bland that I'm not terribly surprised that it only lasted a single season, and the one time they reused the song, "Dreams to Dream" from Fievel Goes West, it really isn't notable enough to make the series worth the hunt.

Tanya: (singing; off-screen) Dreams to dream, in the dark-

(Fievel, dressed up as a mushroom, sees this and falls over in exasperation)

Fievel: Oh, brother!

MarzGurl (vo): Frankly, my recommendation is just to give the TV series a pass. The VHS tapes are worth little more than as collectibles items for the extreme American Tail fan, and really, I can't condone selling two episodes of the TV series for fifty bucks. Do yourself a favor and just stick to the movies.

(Credits are shown)