An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island

[claude]

Director Larry Latham believed it was a decision of upper management to nullify An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) as a dream reference so people would be "free" to reconstruct any mythology in order. This decision was later changed for An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999) after Universal Studios considered this sequel as an exploitation film, eliminating every character and most locations that debuted in this movie from being reused in the next one.

[javier]

In "Fievel Goes West" and "Fievel's American Tails," Tanya is voiced by Cathy Cavadini, while in this movie, she is voiced by Lacey Chabert. These actresses have co-starred in Babes in Toyland (1997).

[jeffrey]

The name "Looper" in the end credits is a common word for additional voices (not the name of a character), as actor, Dave Mallow, did the voices of the background/minor characters. Strangely his name is not listed in the credits.

[carla]

This installment was initially set to be released around Fall 1998, but due to the release of [Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World](/category/6558/Pocahontas-ii-journey-to-a-new-world) (1998), as some of it key elements share similar traits like in Pocahontas (1995), it was postponed for nearly two years.

[kenneth]

Due to Phillip Glasser growing up and having his voice change, he did not reprise Fievel for this film, as well as the next film, An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999). Instead he was voiced by Thomas Dekker, who was also the current voice of Littlefoot, the Child Protagonist of The Land Before Time series at the time.

[sophie]

Despite Tony's return in the series, his girlfriend, Bridget, was unable to be featured in this movie due to her actress, Cathianne Blore, was in bad health while battling cancer during the production of this movie, as the staff couldn't find a replacement voice for the character, causing her to be written out both direct-to-video sequels, completely having Tony appearing without her but to motivate his time with his friend, Fievel.

[camila]

Tiger was hired as a Police Chief at the end of the film. This is dropped from An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999) due to legal troubles with this movie, as neither of the original characters discussed about the event that happened in this movie onto the next one.

[wesley]

When An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island (1998) is first marketed after nearly the two year hiatus, content limitations and censorship were made for the home media cover. On the VHS cover, the logo is placed on a buckskin, but on the DVD cover, the gold plated background replaces the buckskin for the logo. The character in the film, Cholena, is given a rather cream colored fur to oppose the original reddish color from being displayed, which reflect the skin color of an actual Native American maiden, while most other characters in the film (namely every villains, Tankho, and Dr. Dithering) are not shown on the cover. However, Chief Wulisso and some of the Lenape mice did appear on the back of the 2000 VHS cover, but were dropped from the 2004 DVD cover. Universal Studios have yet to give out further information about the film's concept in detail due to legal troubles Universal suffered after the completion.

[alyssa]

There is a dialogue limitation in the sequence where McBrusque threatens to burn Fievel with the torch. Due to Thomas Dekker was only 9-10 years old at the time, the writer decided to have the villain saying to Dekker's characters "Didn't your mother tell you not to play with fires? You might get burned.", as a threatening dialogue would be unsettling to be said to such a young actor.

[jesse]

This film was first advertised on the VHS re-release of The Chipmunk Adventure (1987) back in 1998, then it was promoted in the 1998 VHS reissue of An American Tail (1986) as the advertisement is printed on the back of the VHS cover, but was consequently put in nearly two years hiatus due to legal troubles with the project.

[phyllis]

This is Elaine Bilstad's final character role as she died of heart failure a year after this film's completion and voicing Cholena.

[ken]

Tony Toponi, from An American Tail (1986), returns as a principal cast in this film and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999), which he was known as a fan favorite, but without Bridget. Tony's role was limited as a background cameo in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and was absent in Fievel's American Tails (1992) because of Pat Musick's acting difficulties during those periods.

[aaron]

Fievel was attended to fall for Cholena in this movie, but because of Thomas Dekker was only 9-10 years old at the time as he was too young for any focused relationship, the staff did not allow him to have his character to be romantically involved, which explains Cholena called Fievel her "friend" to Papa Mousekewitz. However, it is quietly implied that Fievel did bond with Cholena as the two young mice are seen holding hands near the end of the song "Anywhere In Your Dreams".

[fred]

Due to the politically and racially sensitive elements involved, this movie was refused to air on Freeform. Similar to Freeform's banning of this film, the Native American tribe mice on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) are cut from the channel's reruns of the film.

[clayton]

Bridget's absence is largely theorized as the character is seldom mentioned in this movie, but possibly referenced from Fievel's expression each time Tony romantically pursues Cholena, as he detects infidelity due to no official departure between Tony and Bridget. This is because of the staff felt that Thomas Dekker, who was 9-10 years old at the time, was too young to have Fievel mention Tony's situations but to allow the young mouse's expression do the talking. Lacey Chabert, who voiced Tanya, was slightly older than Dekker, but the writer for this chapter prefer not to have Tanya mention that concept but to do the same as Fievel. This dialogue constraint, along with Tony's frequent flirtation with Cholena (ignoring Fievel's disapproval) and Tony being kissed on the cheek by Cholena (apparently as a non-romantic thank you kiss), was known to have misled people to believe that Tony and Bridget departed. This concept was removed from the next chapter not only due to Dekker's age, but viewing Tony pursuing other female mice without an official departure from Bridget as an unwanted character derailment and a canonical mistake.