The Fearless Four



The Fearless Four (Die Furchtlosen Vier) is a German animated film about four Funny Animals that all have one thing in common: they want to sing, but can't for whatever reason (they're supposed to be working at something else for Fred and Buster; for Gwen, her family wants to kill her and for Tortellini, it's because he's a fairly worthless husband). The film follows, in order, the easygoing bloodhound Buster, the woeful donkey Fred, the graceful Siamese cat Gwendolyn and the self-assured rooster Tortellini. Originally intending to go to Paris to seek fame, Buster and Fred, and Tortellini and Gwen later, wind up going in just the wrong direction--to Bremen. They only realize their mistake when they get lost in the forest and come upon an owl, who tells them they are, in fact, nowhere near Paris. She does however, point them in the direction of Bremen, the nearest city.

Setting up as street performers the next day, they attract the attention of a few people, and regardless of the apparent ordnance against street performers, get scouted by a Mix Max Sausages (the Bland-Name Product manufacturer that has apparently taken over Germany) manager, who refers them to the corporate head, who in turn agrees to sign them on. The Fearless Four (as they have dubbed themselves) agree to sign a contract, with only slight vocal reservations. It is perhaps worth noting that the caricature of one of the music managers is a stereotypical girly man, with a ponytail and lisp.

Originally billed as a rock and "classic" (meaning 80s-esque) music group, the Four's rock songs send Mix Max stocks soaring in several parody newspapers (the Fall Street Journal among them). As they begin to pass out of the public eye, things get steadily worse for the group, which isn't helped by their rebellious attitude. Rest of the movie condensed: prison break, discovery of evil plot to turn kitties and other cute things into sausages, apparently recapture/repentance of the Four and then finally public disclosure of the plot during a concert. Oh, and there was a classical-music-fan mouse somewhere.

The story was very loosely inspired by the folk tale of the "The Bremen Town Musicians".


 * Berserk Button: Don't pull Buster's tail. Just don't.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Do not get on Fred's bad side.
 * Bowdlerize: Dr. Greed is all but edited out of the English and Italian dubs, reduced to a few cameos throughout the movie as many of his scenes involved detailing such plans as having his rivals assassinated to his minions. Even worse, much of the epilogue itself is cut out due to featuring characters drinking, cutting directly to Gwen finding the secret of her late owner's portrait.
 * Conspicuous CG: And lots of it!
 * Disney Villain Death
 * Does This Remind You of Anything? - One could make rather quick parallels between Nazi Germany and the Mix Max regime.
 * Also, there's this scene. Suffice to say it was cut out of the english dub.
 * Feather Fingers
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble
 * Tortellini: sanguine
 * Fred: choleric
 * Buster: melancholic
 * Gwen: phlegmatic (possibly supine)
 * Another way to look at it would be to call it a Five-Man Band without The Smart Guy, or fold The Smart Guy into Gwen.
 * Humans Are Bastards: This trope is about as subtle as a supertanker. Often in situations where the humans have no valid reason to act like assholes (for example Buster's former owner lets out a particularly sinister laugh when he agrees to sign Buster off to a taxidermist when originally he just wanted the dog off his hands).
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Sort of; considering animals in this universe are sentient...
 * Obviously Evil: Played painfully straight. The bad guys are even associated with Satan in the narration for crying out loud!
 * Our Centaurs Are Different: They are evil, mechanical beings who sing a Villain Song every time they come to replace a donkey.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Big Bad has a pet snake. Reptiles are also not among the "good animals"
 * Ship Tease: Gwen and Buster
 * Soylent Green: The sausages are ground up animals! Oh, erm, wait a minute...