An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster

It's a satisfactory animated film aimed at younger viewers. It has the joy and amusement to attract youngsters if they enjoyed the American Tale movie. This sequel is alright. There is no song like "Somewhere Out There" from the original movie. Fievel is back and he is joined with Nellie Brie (Nellie Bly), the famous journalist, on an adventure to discover the night monster mystery.

While this film is not as teeth gratingly bad as "The Treasure of Manhattan Island", this straight to video story hopefully marks the end of the Fieval franchise. Without the luxurious artwork or star vocals of the cinema films, the blandness of the regulars is all too obvious. There's a small respite for older viewers in the newspaper office scenes because they are based on films such as "His Girl Friday" but the wit isn't sharp enough to cut mozzorella. Oh yes, most of the characters are named after cheeses (ho ho!) As with all video sequels to cartoons, the songs are hopeless pastiches of the Disney formula and I was forgetting them mid-song. The mystery of the title manages to be sub Scooby Doo in its simplicity. In short, only watch this film if its a choice between this or its predecessor.

I don't like that they changed Fievel's character into being afraid and not willing to risk his life for this movie. Tony's girlfriend is still nonexistent since the previous movie. Fievel Goes West is still a dream. The animation feels like an 90s animated tv show as you expect from a low budget straight to video sequel. Every new character and stuff that happened from the previous movie now never existed. There is one scene with Chinatown, there's a Chinese mice family that's offensive from their looks and the way they speak, wear, and the music during that scene, and Tony also said, "Fortune Cookie crumbles!!", during him talking about what happen in Chinatown. The villain's motivation was explained for less than 10 seconds. The overall plot is basic and one of the weakest in these movies.

There are some errors with the animation like a character disappearing for a frame, or a character stuck in position, or talking without their mouths moving, during the very beginning of the movie, there was a shot of the outside panning down, and there is a visible white line scrolling up in the shot during the panning on the whole left side of the screen, bad design.

There are some positives like the song "Who Will", it kind of slaps without the lyrics especially the final part of it. The message of facing your fears is not bad for kids. Nellie Brie is the most epic journalist in any kids' media ever. At least the villains did some evil things. It's an alright finale to a film series. I wasn't frustrated watching this movie, but I wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for quality.

A monster is terrorising the city. Fievel and Nellie Brie, a brilliant news reporter, set out to discover the truth. Tiger and Tony lend a paw.

I loved the villain, a psychotic poodle named Madame Mousey and also the banter between Nellie and her boss, Reed. Tiger has good moments too. The characterisation is what makes this sequel a success. The previous one, Treasure of Manhattan, fell down on this.

I like the songs in this film. You can't hum them afterwards but that doesn't mean they're necessarily bad.

Don't let the third film put you off. There's a lot of enjoyment to be had here for young and old.

8/10

So are there any redeeming qualities? The voice acting is pretty good with what they have, the villainess Madame Mousey was an enjoyable character(Cat R.Waul is my favourite American Tail villain though) and the film moves quickly. However, An American Tail:The Mystery of the Night Monster is not good at all for a sequel I feel, and I also feel it is the worst of the American Tail franchise,the best of course being the original. There are several reasons why I found this so.

One was the very simplistic story, that not only took a while to get going but was very predictable as well. Secondly, the songs are completely disposable, none of them memorable in any way. Thirdly, the script is incredibly juvenile and make you grit your teeth in its sheer banality. Fourthly, the animation is not good, at all, instead it is very flat with choppy editing. Fifthly, the characters don't have their likability any more, Fieval is now more annoying in alternative to sweet, and Tiger is no longer funny despite the fact that the late Dom DeLuise voices him. Sixthly, the ending is a real let-down, very rushed I felt.

Overall, not absolutely awful, but forgettable and charmless. 3/10 for the voice acting and villainess. Bethany Cox