While An American Tail told the story of European immigrants struggling to make a new life for themselves, its sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West explored the lure of the Old West's vast spaces for the Mousekewitz family. Fievel, his sister Tanya and many other familiar faces star in the film, along with a few new additions.

Fievel and his family are now settled in Brooklyn, New York, but prosperity still eludes them. Relations between cats and mice are still bad, with a new feline boss, Cat R. Waul, making things hard for mice. Cat R. Waul has grand plans of his own: tired of chasing the crafty mice all over town, he devises a scheme to gather them in one place for the slaughter.

As part of his plan, Cat R. Waul tricks the Mousekewitz family and many others to board a train heading out West, where cats and mice supposedly live in peace and harmony. While on the train, Fievel overhears the cats' real plans to make mince pies out of all the mice, but he is discovered and thrown off the train. Thinking that Fievel has fallen off yet another mode of transportation (it was a boat in the first movie), the Mousekewitzes arrive at their destination of Green River completely heartbroken.

As Fievel wanders the desert, he meets up with his old friend Tiger the cat, who had also decided to look for his fortune out west. The two friends head to Green River to expose the evil plans of Cat R. Waul, despite Tiger's cowardly wavering. Once there, Fievel meets Wylie Burp, once a legendary lawdog and gunslinger who agrees to help Fievel oust the greedy cats. When Fievel succeeds, Wylie Burp gives him his sheriff's star as a gift.

The sequel wasn't as popular as the original (are they ever?) and critics weren't particularly impressed with Fievel's western adventure, though the movie has gained more fans since its release.