A psychological/vocal observation…

In the clip below (taken from a childhood favorite of mine-Stephen Spielberg’s “An American Tale: Fievel Goes West”), there are a couple interesting details I recently noticed:

1. Throughout his monologue, Cat R. Waul (voiced by John Cleese) modulates his tone to reflect the different parts of his mental debate, with the lower tones representing the typical cat’s appetite and the higher tones signifying the logical planner he seeks to be.

2. We witness a typical psychological battle: Cat R. Waul’s Id (“the feline/gourmet”) versus his Superego (“the shrewd businessman/entrepreneur”); thankfully, Fievel survives when the Superego wins (Waul decides not to eat Fievel, though in the very next scene he orders his hench-spider, Chula, to make Fievel have an “accident” and fall off the train to keep him quiet about Waul’s plan to “befriend” and entrap the mice of Green River, the town he is going to).