An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island

I love the first American Tail, it is for me one of the better Don Bluth movies. The first sequel, Fieval Goes West was an example of a sequel worth watching, and one of the better direct-to-video sequels I've seen, even with the flaws it had. This one had some good moments, such as a decent story and a strong voice cast, but it doesn't work as well as it should. The animation wasn't as good as it could have been, I accept it was trying to be more traditional, but the flat colours and wonky character features let it down. I also didn't care for the songs, one is good and serves as the highlight of the film but the other two are eminently forgettable. The incidental music was okay, if lacking the haunting and poignant tone of the first film. While the idea of the story was great, it felt rushed due to the short duration of the film and could've been better thought out. There were parts that felt like an extended TV episode That said, the characters particularly Tiger are bearable, the film teaches some brave lessons on tolerance and decent citizenship and the voice cast is strong. Overall, decent, has its moments but doesn't quite work. It could be worse you could be watching the Secret of NIMH sequel, that was awful. 4/10 Bethany Cox