Dates: 1990 – 1997
This outdoor arena stage was in the area now occupied by the Despicable Me show building (on top of the Frankenstein parking structure).
The venue was designed by D.S.Ewing architects, and was intended to be temporary and reconfigurable, reusing the existing parts.
Adjacent to it was the Fievel’s Playland area.
The set design for the show was all scaled so that the performers in mouse costumes looked tiny. The exclusive photos below from a 1990 performance show how well the illusion worked.
The “lead” mice had animatronic eyes and mouths which were operated by the dancers themselves (via triggers in the gloves). Tiger the cat was a mechanical puppet. He was operated by three people; one on each arm and a third buckelled into a chair sitting in the torso who could move the head using handlebars and control the mouth, eyes and eyebrows through a series of cable triggers much like the brakes on a bicycle. The operator on the cat’s right arm had a cable control that could open and close the bottom two of Tiger’s four fingers.
This allowed him to point and approximate holding on to Fievel during parts of the show. The show was performed to a pre-recorded soundtrack (download below).
Fievel can still be seen around the park as part of Streetmosphere.
American Tail Live soundtrack (MP3)
