An American Tail: Fievel goes West

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Almost five years after An American Tail comes the sequel Fievel goes West, also the composition of James Horner. The first already portrayed thematic and emotional quality of Horner, and the second brings a bit more fun to it all. While the first score maintained a more serious nature (except for the songs), there is much more personality and entertainment to be found in the second, a bit of Casper meets Willow and The Land before Time joins The Rocketeer. All has to do with the wild wild west, the time where the adventure really started and Horner brings a excellent main theme to the foreground, first discovered in its fullest capacity in 'Headin' Out West'. This also means that Horner continues to build his music on a much fuller speed and pace, making the score only more enjoyable and for my taste, the better of the two American Tail's in general.

The album itself captures your attention quickly to not only the score portion, but also the main song, performed again by Linda Ronstadt. Again this is high quality of both performance and music, Horner really has a knack for these kind of things. The children version, performed by one of the characters in the movie is equally enchanting, and isn't shattered because the young star can't sing appropriately and secondly because it doesn't become childish. A plus point for the album in general. The main plus point for An American Tail: Fievel goes West is that it contains much more Horner score then the first, and just 4 songs. The real Horner quality lies in the fact that he has the double set of themes ready to guide his music with. He incorporates the 'Duo' music with his emotional theme, the 'Somewhere out There' theme and he awaits you with two new others, the one of the song 'Dreams to Dream' and the western one, and the most enjoyable of them all. Meaning there is more variety, a much fuller sound in general and a lot more to discover. One of the main highlights portraying the thematic quantity has to be 'Building a New Town', one of Horner's gifts to mingle so much themes into a fitting design.

The real entertainment awaits you with 'In Training' and 'The Shoot - Out', those use wacky western cowboy music (for those who want to know used in the trailer of The Cowboy Way) and 'A New Land / The Future' is one of the best suites of Horner's career so far, all bring a portion of magic and fun. The two sing a long songs 'Way out West' and 'The Girl you left Behind' don't sound poor and both offer a thematic theme to jolly hear again. Where An American Tail sounded perhaps a bit childish for singing along with it, it is the driving tempo of the music that makes it the entertaining ditty. Connections can be made to a lot of scores, but I found it a bit too hard to recognize it all, after hearing all of those others in the now famous re used list of Horner. Let's pick out Casper, The Land before Time, Cocoon, The Rocketeer, An American Tail and various others. But to be fair, if you count on those trademarks you will not discover the pure fun of Fievel goes West, the pleasure for hearing the one theme after the other. This is nowhere near as good as the classics of Horner, but it has entertaining moments and enjoyable themes, making it more the pleasurable listen then the first.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Dreams To Dream: Linda Ronstadt + (4.42) Excellent Track

2. American Tail Overture * (7.09)

3. Cat Rumble * (7.29)

4. Headin' Out West * (2.36) Excellent Track

5. Way Out West + (1.47)

6. Green River / Trek Trough The Desert * (5.44)

7. Dreams To Dream + (2.34) Excellent Track

8. Building A New Town * (2.44) Excellent Track

9. Sacred Mountain * (2.22)

10. Reminiscing * (2.13)

11. The Girl You Left Behind + (1.42)

12. In Training * (1.50) Excellent Track

13. The Shoot - Out * (5.29)

14. A New Land / The Future * (8.17) Excellent Track

* Soundtrack composed by James Horner

+ Music by James Horner, Lyrics by Will Jennings

Total Length: 56.40

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: James Horner ===