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Tanya Mousekewitz
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In-universe information
Species

Mouse

Gender

Female

Relatives
Real world information
Debut

An American Tail

Appears in
Voice actor

Tanya Mousekewitz is the eldest child of Mama and Papa Mousekewitz and the older sister of Fievel and Yasha. She’s a cheerful, optimistic and caring young female mouse who is well known for having faith that Fievel was alive when her parents refused to believe it in An American Tail. She looks and acts a little different in every sequel; in Fievel Goes West she is shy and wants to be a singer, in The Treasure of Manhattan Island she is spunky and sarcastic (although this began to show in Fievel's American Tails), and in The Mystery of the Night Monster her personality is much the same, but she tries to act more adult, partly because she has a deep crush on newspaper editor Reed Daley. Despite her personality change, she still cares for her brother.

Age[]

She is described as being sixteen years old (nine years older than Fievel, who is described as being seven in both versions of The Illustrated Story) in trading cards released with the 2nd film.[1] However in the first illustrated story it explicitly said "Tanya was eight" when Fievel was seven.[2]

The 3rd film's revelation that the 2nd film never actually happened (it was all a dream Fievel had) helps to explain the discrepancy: he dreamt that Tanya's age had doubled: his subconscious nonuplet the age difference between them from one year to nine years.

Appearance[]

In An American Tail, she wears a red babushka (European headscarf), a blue blouse with a navy jumper dress and frilly white pantalettes. She was also much closer to Fievel's age. She looks much the same as this in The Treasure of Manhattan Island, though she's colored differently. In The Mystery of the Night Monster she looks taller than in the last movie, and is hairless. Although she normally wears her regular outfit with her babushka (seen in one of Fievel's dreams), she instead wears her work outfit, consisting of a slimmer, professional-looking white blouse and purple ankle-length skirt, with a large blue bow on her blouse.

In An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (pictured), she was much older (trading cards released at the time of the movie claim she is sixteen, although the novelization of the first movie claimed she was eight, a year older than Fievel) and her age range from Fievel was increased. This was her oldest incarnation, as in later sequels she is aged down again as the direct-to-video animations occur during their time in New York. She removed her red babushka for a long ponytail and an orange and brown dress and is bare-legged. Throughout the movie, she is shown wearing shoes in some scenes, and barefoot in other scenes. Between 1998 and 2015 she appeared in this form on the cover of the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of An American Tail despite looking different in the actual film, for unknown reasons. In Fievel's American Tails she looks almost the same, but streamlined to make her cheaper to animate (with only one tuft of hair in the front, and her cheek tufts missing).

An American Tail[]

Tanya is a secondary character in the first film, who only features prominently in a few scenes. At the beginning of the film Tanya gets a babushka for Hannukah (a religious holiday) while Fievel gets his hat. Tanya later has her doubts about leaving Russia after the cat attack, but goes along with her family to the States anyway. She is as hard hit as the rest of her family by Fievel's apparent death but she never loses hope that he survived falling off the ship somehow. This irritates Papa, who is in mourning. At Castle Garden, Tanya's name was changed to Tilly when she went through immigration to sound more Americanized. This name is never mentioned again in the sequels, however. Perhaps the scene where she is most prominent is where she sang the heartwarming but distant duet "Somewhere Out There" with her brother Fievel when they were separated. Throughout the rest of the film, whenever Tanya begs her father to look for Fievel, it turns out Fievel is nearby but they don't see each other. She's finally proven right late in the film, when the Mousekewitz's meet Tony and Bridget. She's last seen riding on Henri's back with Fievel at the end of the film as they check out the newly built Statue of Liberty.

Fievel Goes West[]

Tanya is given a much larger role in the sequel, as well as being much older. At the beginning of the film it is shown that Tanya wants to be a famous singer, but her talents go unappreciated. She has a beautiful singing voice, which didn't "fit in" well with her New York neighbors (as Mama Mousekewitz prepared some of the food they throw as the family dinner, but this is just because her "audience" was a bunch of humans who most likely interpreted her singing as musical squeaking, not to mention it was late at night when some of them were probably trying to sleep). After moving to Green River, Cat R. Waul finds her singing the song "Dreams to Dream" in the streets, and is instantly entranced by her voice before even seeing her. He then takes Tanya under his wing, entitling her as "The Diva" and having her perform at a saloon for his gang, with Miss Kitty to be her mentor. She instantly wins over the cats with her song "The Girl You Left Behind". After the praise she has received by her "public", Tanya becomes somewhat delusional from her fame, and she doesn't listen to her brother's warnings that Waul is bad news. Seeing Waul try to put the mice of Green River into a giant mouse trap during the film's climax snaps her out of it though, and by the end of the film she realizes she can still be beautiful by being herself, washing her makeup off.

In the comic book adaptation she is given a love interest, Willie, who does not appear in the film and may have been cut. Her trading card may possibly allude to this as well. She was sad to leave him behind in New York, but at the end of the comic they would have been reunited when he moves to Green River.

Fievel's American Tails[]

Tanya is much the same personality-wise in the short-lived animated series, with the same voice actress and general look but different. We see more of her teasing her brother in some episodes, but the two still have a strong bond. She is continuing to follow her dream of being a singer, and she takes after school singing lessons, as well as putting on a concert orchestrated by Cat R. Waul in The Legend of Mouse Hollow (despite the fact that she found out he tried to eat her family in Fievel Goes West and should know better by now). When the famous cowboy Clint Mousewood comes to town to take out Sweet William's gang, she develops a huge crush on him despite that he's much older than she is (very similar to her crush on Reed Daley in the 4th film), and although Clint is probably quite aware of her feelings he does not returns them, and leaves town at the end of the episode.

The Treasure of Manhattan Island[]

In this film Tanya is again younger, which is either due to the retcon of Fievel Goes West, or because takes place before said film.

Tanya's personality has become sassy and sarcastic in this movie, and she gets very jealous of her brother getting to go on adventures all the time. When adding her sarcastic comments to family arguments, she is told "Tanya, don't help!" by others. She forms a sisterly bond with Cholena when she is brought to the surface, helping make a dress for her and showing her around New York. When her parents agree to let her accompany Fievel and Tony and take Cholena back home to protect her from the police, she is thrilled at finally getting to participate in an adventure. When Tony is attacked by Scuttlebutt, Tanya comes to Tony's aid by punching Scuttlebutt right in the face. She is last seen with the Mousekewitzs, Tony, and Dr. Dithering at the celebration ceremony of the new labor union for the cheese factory.

The Mystery of the Night Monster[]

Tanya, still younger from the previous sequel, has a job as a secretary at The Daily Nibbler in this film, a job Tony helped her get. She wears a professional dress, and tries to act more adult, partly because of the crush she has on editor Reed Daley. She's embarrassed to have Fievel tag along with her, afraid he'll make her look less professional. Tanya was curiously questioned by Fievel if she likes him as she responded that wasn’t any of her brother’s business. Reed Daley never return the feelings and deliberately ignores her because she was much more underage. Tanya's hopes are dashed when Nellie Brie and Reed get together at the end of the movie, and in the final scene where the family is at the beach, she laments that her life has no meaning and is ignored, particularly by Mama. She later watches Fievel sleep beside Yasha (who is quite awake), and Tanya (who is at least happy for her brother), Mama, Papa, Tony, & Tiger have a group hug.

Trivia[]

  • In Fievel Goes West and Fievel's American Tails, Tanya is voiced by Cathy Cavadini, who is most well-known as the original voice of Blossom from Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls.
  • Cavadini was not the first choice to voice Tanya; she originally only auditioned to sing Dreams to Dream. James Horner liked her voice so much though he had her re-dub Tanya's lines, which had already been voiced by someone else and animated. While it's unknown who the replaced voice actress was, it could possibly have been Tanya's original voice actress Amy Green.
  • If we look real close at her feet when she was singing Dreams to Dream, it looks like Tanya is wearing black flats.
  • In The Treasure of Manhattan Island and The Mystery of the Night Monster, Tanya is voiced by Lacey Chabert, who also voiced Eliza in The Wild Thornberrys. Chabert was much older than the two said characters she voiced.
  • Tanya's character description on the now-defunct official American Tail website mistakenly dubs her as Fievel's little sister. A similar mistake was made on the tag for the Sears Fievel Plushie, which said that Fievel was the oldest Mousekewitz child.
  • Tanya is frequently a victim of inconsistent aging. While her appearance from An American Tail remained the same in The Treasure of Manhattan Island, Tanya appears to be a young adult in Fievel Goes West while the Mousekewitzes are aged the same as the first film. The Mystery of the Night Monster became more of a serious inconsistency for the character owing to the result of her maturity and attempt of escorting a relationship with an elder adult while regarding her physical appearance as a child compared to her appearance in the Green River continuity, as well as the film took place shortly after The Treasure of Manhattan Island.
    • Her maturity at youth was partly the reason Universal Kids refused to air The Mystery of the Night Monster as age disparity intimacy is since regarded to be one of the most notorious concepts in animation history, which led to serious changing mandates for children’s TV in the 2010s.

Gallery[]

We can find Tanya Mousekewitz's gallery here.

The Mousekewitz Family
Family Members Papa MousekewitzMama MousekewitzTanya MousekewitzFievel MousekewitzYasha MousekewitzSophie Mousekewitz
An American Tail
Characters Papa MousekewitzMama MousekewitzTanya MousekewitzFievel MousekewitzYasha MousekewitzTigerHenriTony ToponiBridgetGussie MausheimerHonest JohnWarren T. RatDigitMott Street MaulersMoeThe Bullying Orphans
Locations Shostka, RussiaStatue of LibertyNew YorkCastle GardenMoe's SweatshopOrphan Alley
Songs There Are No Cats In AmericaNever Say NeverSomewhere Out ThereA Duo
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Characters Papa MousekewitzMama MousekewitzTanya MousekewitzFievel MousekewitzYasha MousekewitzTigerWylie BurpCat R. WaulT.R. ChulaCactus Cat GangMiss KittyOne EyeFeloniusGeronimouseHawkOwlScorpion
Locations New YorkGreen River
Songs Way Out WestDreams to DreamThe Girl You Left Behind
Spinoffs Comic BookVideo GameA Musical Adventure With Fievel and Friends
An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island
Characters Papa MousekewitzMama MousekewitzTanya MousekewitzFievel MousekewitzYasha MousekewitzTigerTony ToponiCholenaChief WulissoLenape MiceMr. ToploftyMr. GraspingMr. O'BloatChief McBrusqueScuttlebuttDr. Dithering
Locations New YorkLes Club Des Grands FromagesCheese Factory
Songs We Live in ManhattanAnywhere in Your DreamsFriends of the Working Mouse
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
Characters Papa MousekewitzMama MousekewitzTanya MousekewitzFievel MousekewitzYasha MousekewitzTigerTony ToponiNellie BrieReed DaleyMadame MouseyTwitchBootlickSlugLone WoofThe Dog High Council
Locations New YorkThe Daily Nibbler
Songs Get the FactsCreature de la NuitWho Will
  1. see File:TanyaSixteen.jpg
  2. An American Tail: The Storybook page six, seen here: "As the sun went down, little Fieval and Tanya lit the candles in the menorah and recited the ancient prayers. Fievel was seven years old, and his sister Tanya was eight."
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