An American Tail/Headscratchers


 * How do the Native Americans that appear in Fievel Goes West have all that food in the middle of a desert?
 * On a somewhat related note, in The Treasure of Manhattan Island...how in the heck are the Native Americans growing crops in an underground cave where there's no sunlight? Where do they get the huge fruits and vegetables we see them feeding Tiger?
 * As to the first question, there are numerous animals and vegetation that are capable of surviving in the desert, and there are trade routes between those who live out in the desert and those who live closer to oases.
 * How did NONE of the mice realize they were building an enormous, fully functional, and completely undisguised mouse trap?
 * Maybe they all just never pay attention?
 * Same reason Cat R. Waul has no trouble tricking them again in quite a few episodes of Fievel's American Tails.
 * Where did they get the idea that there were no cats in America in the first place?
 * Same way the human immigrants got their unfortunately false misconceptions about America.
 * Watching this movie as a kid, it really bugged me when, every five minutes, Fievel and his family would be moments away from reuniting without realizing it. It's a real Mind Screw for a seven year old child.
 * As a young child, I saw it as unfortunate coincidences keeping them barely apart until Fievel fulfilled his destined prerogative or the movie was close enough to feature-length. Rule of Drama (the poignancy of repeatedly missing them For Want of a Nail, and the Truth in Television of him missing them In Spite of a Nail) and seeing that his family was making their way okay, I think, justified the near-misses.
 * When the cats capture Fievel in the first film, why do they put him in a cage instead of just killing him?
 * Maybe they were planning on sending him back to the sweat shop.
 * Offscreen Villainy. We never see a mouse actually get eaten by a cat in the entire series, it's only implied that it happens (though Fievel gets almost eaten).
 * Warren could have been planning to use Fievel as some kind of bargaining chip, perhaps.
 * I get that humans can't understand the talking animals but do they not notice that they wear clothes?
 * What is the point of the scene in the second movie where the human lady shoves the cat in her cleavage while shouting "pussy"? Like, is that supposed to be funny? It just seems so random and out of place, especially in a kids' movie.
 * Something that's always annoyed me: Fievel's dad in the second film telling him to effectively forget about Tiger because 'He was still a cat.' despite acknowledging that he was good - But they're going to Green River where apparently cats are good, too. Why?
 * They weren't under the impression that the cats in Green River were good until after they got there, right?