| The Gift | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 4 | |
| |
| Written by | David Carren and J. Larry Carroll |
| Directed by | Larry Jacobs |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Little Mouse on the Prairie |
Next A Case of the Hiccups |
The Gift is the fourth episode of Fievel's American Tails. It was directed by Larry Jacobs (as Lawrence Zelig Jacobs), and written by David Carren and J. Larry Carroll.
Plot[]
It's Fievel's birthday, and while hanging out at his friend's treehouse, he decides he wants a treehouse for his birthday, having already come to the conclusion that it was what he was going to get from his Papa. But Papa had other ideas. Papa somehow becomes completely sure that Fievel wanted a violin, so he makes Fievel a violin. Fievel tries to mask his disappointment, and it turns out Fievel's even worse at playing the violin than Warren. Later on Tiger tries to cheer Fievel up and they begin to play, but Tiger clumsily falls down and crushes the violin. Fievel is terrified of what his Papa will think, and to add to the trouble, the wood it was made from can only be found on a particular mountain. Fievel decides he needs to go there and rebuild the violin. Meanwhile, Papa wonders why Fievel wasn't so thrilled with his present, and Mama knocks some sense into him, telling him the violin was what HE wanted, not Fievel, and informs Papa that Fievel really wanted a treehouse. So Papa decides to go to the mountains for wood to build a treehouse. The same mountain Fievel is going to.
First off a dog goes after Tiger and Fievel for being stowaways, and they narrowly escape. Once they get there, they have no money to buy lumber so the mouse at the lumber shop tells them they need to find the special wood themselves. When they find it, they climb a tree, only to have it be cut down by a human. Luckily their fall is cushioned by coal. While this is going on, Papa is buying the lumber and gets back onto the train with it. But uh oh...the dog is back, and in the struggle Tiger has with the dog, a lever is turned, and the train speeds forward, out of control. The dog continues to chase Tiger and Fievel, and Papa realizes Fievel's on the train as well. They are able to get off the train and make a narrow escape from it's inevitable crash at Green River by jumping into a mailbag. At the end of the episode, Fievel reveals to papa his newly rebuilt violin, and Papa reveals to Fievel his new treehouse.
Trivia[]
The Steam locomotive (With the word Western Onion on it's tender) is a 4-4-0 steam locomotive. Such steam engines of this common wheel arrangement were used on American railroads during the 1800s and 1830s until 1928, and were given the name "American" in 1872, because of all the work they did on every railroad in the United States.
The train whistle in this episode is actually the old 5 chime whistle of Canadian National railway #3254, which had been used in countless shows, movies, cartoons, games, etc.