WMG / An American Tail

Fievel takes after Papa.

It's very likely because Papa always has tells these stories, and Fievel's always the adventurous and curious type. And there's also the hat that Papa gives to Fievel at the beginning of the first movie.

Henri the pigeon was working with Warren and in charge of recruiting immigrants to work in his sweatshops.

Why else would Fievel be dropped off right at Warren's office instead of being dropped off at Immigration?

• This makes America seem like even more of a Crapsack World when Fievel's betrayed by the one person who gave him hope in the first place.
• If it wasn't Henri himself secretly working for Warren then maybe it was just the female pigeon he sent to take Fievel to Castle Garden.

Henri is a pimp.

Pretty self-explanatory. After all he's the only male living with a large group of female pigeons. Though for a pimp he's pretty good around kids.

Fievel Goes West took place after Treasure of Manhattan Island and Mystery of the Night Monster.

Fievel and Tanya look oldest in Fievel Goes West, and so it makes sense. Fievel saying that he dreamed he moved out west and became a famous gunslinger could be foreshadowing. The only piece missing in this theory is Bridget being gone. Yasha still being a baby in all of them is also a bit of a problem.

• Yasha looks her oldest in "Fievel Goes West" so this could still work. You could also say concerning Bridget that her and Tony's relationship was a bit rocky after the first film, temporarily separate during "Treasure of Manhattan Island". and they get back together and eventually married later on before "Fievel Goes West". This might fit with another WMG involving Mystery of the Night Monster. Or, she's just off-camera with her baby, another WMG covered below.

Warren is a size-changing shape-shifter.

How else can he be smaller than the rat who runs the sweatshop but as large as the other cats later on?

It must have something to do with that psychedelic mirror Fievel and Tiger sing "A Duo" in front of that temporarily made them the same size. That's the magic mirror Warren was using to aid his rat disguise.

Fievel's hat has supernatural properties.

It's like the One Ring; it has a mind of its own. At least it's protective of its wearer. It helped Fievel miraculously survive being swept overboard; and, in the end, Tony found his hat because the hat wanted to be found.

In Fievel goes West, it's able to morph into a cowboy hat because of its magical properties.

• According to an old DOS game, Fievel's hat does have special properties.

Tanya has the voice of a siren and the power to tame any cat with her voice.

Just as Fievel has his supernatural hat, Tanya's voice has supernatural properties.

• Which would, fittingly, explain its glass-shattering and hypnotic powers. So basically, she's Siryn?

Cat R. Waul was moving in on the Mott Street Maulers' turf in their absence because they weren't there to stop him this time

• Waul might have tried his scheme of sending mice West to their doom before but had run into trouble with Warren's gang, who had an invested interest in the mice staying in New York. With Warren and the Mott Street Maulers gone, Waul saw his opportunity to edge in on Warren's former territory and take his mice away. Perhaps the two villains were former rivals.

Bridget and Tony are taking a break in their relationship during the 3rd and 4th movies, which take place before the 2nd one.

• Maybe Bridget wanted to go back to Ireland for a time and fight for mouse civil rights there, coming back to America later and reuniting with Tony.

Bridget is still there in the 3rd and 4th movies, we just don't see her because she's at home with their new baby.

• This is why Tony is so desperate to get rich in both movies; he needs a job to feed his family. And yes, this does imply he's swooning over Cholena while still with Bridget. Remember, this is a guy who fell completely in love with a girl after seeing her through the corner of his eye while walking by a knothole for two seconds! Not the kind of guy you could trust to be completely faithful, unfortunately.
• In the third movie when Tony says that he has responsibilities now and he can't just go wherever he wants whenever he wants and Fievel gives him a knowing "Ohhh". That could be explained by this.
  • Actually, he was referring to his new job. Bridget and their baby is in no way alluded to. Hell, Tony almost seems to live with Fievel he hangs around him so much.
• That could also explain why Tony was so freaked out in the fourth movie after the monster started grabbing everyone, maybe the monster took Bridget and the baby. The cats do say that the new mice are "Italian food" and after Tony hears them say that he tries to attack the cats without thinking it through.

The songs from the Fievel and Friends album are cut songs that didn't make it into the movies.

• It should be noted that the first movie definitely did have one or two songs cut from it.
  • Apparently Jossed by one of the creators, Mark Ross, in the comments of this video. The songs were just made to promote Fievel Goes West, and weren't meant for the movies.

Cat R. Waul and Madame Mousey share the same owner.

They're both owned by a somewhat obese rich woman who likes to smother her pets to the point where her own pets hate her. She's The Faceless in Fievel Goes West, but we see her face in Mystery of the Night Monster, so they could very well be one and the same. Luckily for Madame Mousey we never see her owner put her through Marshmallow Hell like she does to Waul, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen offscreen.

• Nope. Cat R. Waul's owner is a plus-sized woman and we do see her face, but briefly. Mousey's owner, on the other hand, is creepy looking.

Treasure of Manhattan Island and Mystery of the Night Monster were All Just a Dream

After the events of Fievel Goes West, Fievel had a dream where he didn't move out west and he became both a mouse-rights activist for Native American mice and an artist for a newspaper.

Tanya: Ha! Like that could happen.

• If you think about it, the third movie begins with Fievel having recently woken up from a dream, and the fourth movie ends with Fievel falling asleep at the beach. It all being a dream (or maybe two dreams) would explain the inconsistencies of Bridget being missing, and their being back in New York and the like. Fievel acts rather out of character in the fourth movie, being plagued by fear whereas he's brave in the other movies. Perhaps the fourth movie was a nightmare, and the third was just a weird dream.

Tony Topponi is really a female and is a Butch Lesbian Sweet Polly Oliver

• Well, that could explain why Tony (Toni?) is voiced by a woman. But where did the baby that appears in the sequel come from?

Mama and Papa hired a babysitter for Yasha during the second half of the first movie.

Sure the baby disappears for the second half, but would you really want to bring a baby aboard the Giant Mouse of Minsk, and then to search for Fievel through the city on the back of a cat, and finally flying on the back of a pigeon to see the Statue of Liberty?

Since in the AAT universe there's a mouse version of every human, it follows that there's a mouse version of you out there somewhere.

We all just have our Weirdness Censor turned up too high to notice them. Your mouse version, right now, is using a tiny laptop and browsing CheesyTropes.org (the mouse version of this site) as we speak.

• I'm thinking there might be a Steven Mousekewitz, based off of Steven Spielberg, who is the grandson of Fievel Spielberg, the person where Fievel got his name from.

The sequels and Fievel's American Tails are Alternate Universes.

In Futurama, there was an Alternate Universe where the Planet Express crew were all dressed as cowboys, so both the universes for Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails should be this. Also, throw The Treasure of Manhattan Island in there since Fievel claiming he dreamt that lead to a Broken Base. And while you're at it, Mystery of the Night Monster should also be an Alternate Universe since Fievel's eyes are brown instead of blue in this one.

• In that case, Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails are probably two separate but somewhat similar universes, due to the canonical errors in the show.

Baby Yasha died in the first movie, and soon after Mama and Papa had another baby also named Yasha who appears in the sequels.

• Infant mortality was rampant in those days, its possible the original Yasha died in New York, explaining why she's absent from the second half of the first movie. To cope with the grief, Papa and Mama had another baby and gave her the same name, thus explaining why Yasha seems to still be a baby in Fievel Goes West even though Fievel and Tanya have grown older (and a different-looking baby at that). This likely gives them more incentive to move west, with bad memories in New York.

Tiger and Miss Kitty are the grandparents of Sawyer from Cats Don't Dance

• Sawyer resembles Miss Kitty in some ways, and they're both singers, maybe it's the family trade.

Sniffles from Looney Tunes is a descendant of Fievel

.

There WERE no cats in America.

• The problem is, they followed the mice there.
  • Pretty accurate, since before the Europeans came the only cats in North America really were mountain lions and bobcats. European mice probably arrived via stowing away on colonial ships before house cats did.

An American Tail is a sort-of sequel to Fiddler on the Roof

• At the end of Fiddler on the Roof, the Jewish family is forced to move to America, which is where Fievel comes in.
• It's not a sequel, it's an homage. Papa Mousekevitz has the same personality and musical talents as Tevye.

The conductor mouse was originally intended to be voiced by Mel Blanc

• The conductor mouse's "Green River" lines have already been suggested as a Shout-Out to Blanc's role on the Jack Benny Show (specifically, to Blanc's "Train leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azuza and Cuc-amonga"). Considering most animated films have roughly a 2-3 year production timeline, it's possible that the character may have been designed with Blanc as the intended voice actor; with the lines possibly written as a tribute after Mel's July 1989 death.

The reason for the DTV sequels

• This is just a theory, but perhaps when the writers were thinking of "inbetweenquels" as I shall refer to the DTV sequels, they made these to show that not all mice or dogs are good people (probably on purpose) and it's not just cats that can be evil. Just a theory.

The dream Fievel has in the third movie is of Fievel's American Tails, not Fievel Goes West.

• This would explain how inconsistent and occasionally bizarre each episode is, and why the show doesn't follow canon very well. The dreams would be somewhat prophetic of what would later occur in Fievel Goes West, but there are indications in the second movie that Green River and possibly Cat R. Waul were things he already knew a lot about before moving there (Waul briefly appears in his daydream at the start of the movie, for example).

Mice are basically just smaller versions of humans, who coincide with humans

• They have their clothes, their countries, their religions, etc. only they're smaller.

The cossack cats had a good reason to take out mice from Russia.

Mice bring diseases. Even though the mice are good here, shouldn't we forget that cats were specifically domesticated to kill mice?

The dream that Fievel had in the third movie was him Dreaming of Things to Come and the third and fourth movies were midquels to the second film.

This is mostly a way to re-rail the second movie as canon.

Fievel is a time lord.

His hat is his TARDIS.

Fievel drowned on the boat, and the side characters are trying to help him get to heaven.

The Italian mouse on the boat sings about how a cat killed his brother Tony, and the Irish mouse sings about a cat killing his beloved lady. Fievel meets an Italian mouse named Tony and a female Irish mouse in New York City. This is because Fievel died on the boat when he tried to go see the fish, and his family died shortly afterwards. His parents were able to get to heaven, but Fievel had to undergo trials to meet his family in heaven because he died as a result of his own selfishness. Everything that happened up until the end, where Fievel is reunited with his family was part of the trials and not actually real. Tony, Bridget, and Tiger had already gone to heaven because of their innate goodness, but helped Fievel along his path to get there. The cats are demons trying to drag Fievel to hell.