Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / Basil's American Tail

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s_American_Tail_8181.jpg

A Crossover fan fiction by Masked Bard, which links The Great Mouse Detective with An American Tail.

The year is 1886. Basil of Baker Street, fresh off of busting Ratigan's latest heist at the British Museum, travels to New York City in search of stolen artifacts which he discovered had been sold on the black market to "a feline obsessed with culture". Upon his arrival he's assigned someone from the NYPD to be his body guard, who, as Basil deduces, is actually a woman in disguise, Miss Nellie Brie, a famous undercover reporter who couldn't resist getting the scoop on Basil's latest case. After proving her worth as an assistant to Basil, the two embark on a case that takes them through the corrupt underbelly of New York, exposing a crime lord, and in the process, even helping a certain lost little boy reunite with his family.

The fanfic, in its complete state (19 chapters in all), can be read on DeviantArt here, or on FanFiction.Net here. The FanFiction.Net version has some differences, whereas scenes and lines of dialog taken directly from the script of An American Tail were removed or at least altered at the urging of the website's moderators. Surenity has also completed two sequels, Olivia Goes West and The Great Mouse Reporter. Olivia Goes West is also available at both DeviantArt and fanfiction.net.


This work provides examples of:

  • Bowdlerise: The author was forced to create a more copyright-friendly version for Fanfiction.net, though aside from altered scenes and dialog it reads mostly the same, and the majority of the chapters were unique enough to require no change at all. The Mouse of Minsk scene is where it needed the most alterations.
  • Child Hater: Perhaps not a hater, but Basil was never very comfortable around children, and expresses his extreme annoyance with Fievel several times throughout the story. Nellie, on the other hand, seems much better with children.
  • Crossover: Not only between The Great Mouse Detective and An American Tail, but managing to work in all four of the An American Tail films, conflicting canons and all.
  • Crossover Couple: Basil and Nellie Brie, eventually. invoked
  • Culture Clash: Basil just can't understand these American mice and their tendency to run around barefoot and randomly break out in song when there's no way they could have known the lyrics beforehand.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Both Basil and Nellie have one, though Basil's is somewhat worse. Nellie's is a mouseified version of the human Nellie Bly's past.
  • Expy: Nellie Brie is made even more of an expy of the historical Nellie Bly than she was in Mystery of the Night Monster. Lampshaded in the final chapter, when Nellie Bly is mentioned by a human cop.
  • Fanon:
    • Sherringford being Basil's first name (a trend in many GMD fics due to it being Sherlock Holmes' original name in an early draft). invoked
    • Dylan O'Brian, the fanon name for the Irish mouse from the "There Are No Cats in America" song in An American Tail, makes an appearance.
  • Funetik Aksent: Gussie Mausheimer's Elmuh Fudd Syndwome is the most obvious example, plus anyone with an Irish accent (this being 1880's New York, it shows up a lot).
  • The Glomp: Fievel gives one to Basil, in almost the same way Olivia did in The Great Mouse Detective, and similar to the one he gives Tony in the movie.
  • Impersonating an Officer: Nellie Brie not only disguises herself as a male cop but actually completes the police academy while on an undercover report, one which was aborted once she got wind of an even bigger story in Basil coming to town. The disguise doesn't fool Basil for a second though.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: The reason Basil can't bring Nellie to London until he defeats Ratigan. Nellie has her own reasons for not being able to come too, as described below.
  • I Will Wait for You: Nellie and Basil, being from different countries, both promise to do this for each other at the end, until Basil defeats Ratigan in London and until Nellie feels she's made New York a safer place to live through her undercover reports.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: What with Basil, Warren, Cat R. Waul, Cholena and Nellie Brie all appearing in the same story, among many others.
  • Master of Disguise: Both Basil and Nellie, though Basil sees right through Nellie's disguises (as well as Warren's later).
  • Police Are Useless: As Nellie was working on exposing before being sidetracked by Basil coming into town. Honest John flat out tells Basil the police are useless against Warren when he and Nellie begin to suspect Warren as the culprit.
  • Running Gag: Basil can't pronounce "Mousekewitz" any better than he could pronounce "Flaversham".
  • Sherlock Scan: Basil is good at doing these. Makes Warren's disguise fairly ineffective.
  • Sleep Cute: Basil and Nellie accidentally fall asleep together while searching for Fievel.
  • The Stations of the Canon: Variant—dialogue from all four An American Tail movies are often quoted exactly as is, causing concern with Fanfiction.net's moderators.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: Nellie usually disguises herself as a male.
  • Twice-Told Tale: The events from An American Tail are happening in the background as Basil works on his case, only for him to become personally involved in them once he and Nellie are captured by Warren at the same time Fievel is.

Top