Cast

A list of the cast of the An American Tail movies and TV series.

An American Tail[]

Phillip Glasser as Fievel Mousekewitz. While "Fievel" is the generally accepted spelling of his name, the opening credits spell him as "Feivel", which is technically the correct Yiddish transliteration of the name (see also Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz and Feivel Gruberger) since Yiddish evolved from a medieval form of German and its rules for transliteration are therefore based on German orthography (the ending credits spell his name as "Fievel"). However, many English-speaking writers have come to adopt the spelling Fievel (with reversed i and first e) especially for this character; it was this spelling that was used on the film's poster, in promotional materials and tie-in merchandise, and in the title of the sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. He was named after Spielberg's maternal grandfather, Philip Posner, whose Yiddish name was Feivel. The scene in which he presses up against a window to look into a classroom filled with American "schoolmice" is based on a story Spielberg remembered about his grandfather, who told him that Jews were only able to listen to school lessons through open windows while sitting outside in the snow. His last name is a play on the Jewish-Russian last name "Moskowitz", the name of the human occupants of the house his family is living under in the beginning of the film.
Amy Green as Tanya Mousekewitz (singing voice provided by Betsy Cathcart), Fievel's older sister. Optimistic, cheerful and obedient, she continued to believe that her brother was alive after he was washed off the ship en route to America. She was given an American name 'Tillie' at the immigration point at Castle Garden on Ellis Island.
John P. Finnegan as Warren T. Rat a cat disguised as a rat and the leader of the Mott Street Maulers, a gang of cats who terrorize the mice of New York City. He is accompanied nearly all the time by his accountant Digit, a small British-accented cockroach.
Nehemiah Persoff as Papa Mousekewitz, the head of the Mousekewitz family who plays the violin and tells stories to his children.
Erica Yohn as Mama Mousekewitz, Fievel's mother. She appears to be the stricter of the two Mousekewitz parents and has a fear of flying.
Pat Musick as Tony Toponi, a streetwise teenage mouse of Italian descent and with a 'tough New Yorker' attitude. He meets Fievel during their slavery at the sweatshop. He takes a liking to him, and gives him an American name: "Philly" (Philip). After they escape the sweatshop, he becomes Fievel's friend and guide to the town.
Dom DeLuise as Tiger, a very large, cowardly, long-haired orange cat who also happens to be vegetarian.
Christopher Plummer as Henri, a pigeon of French descent, who is in New York City while building the Statue of Liberty.
Cathianne Blore as Bridget, an Irish activist and Tony's girlfriend.
Neil Ross as Honest John, a local Irish-born mouse politician who knows every voting mouse in New York City. An ambulance-chasing drunkard who takes advantage of voters' concerns to increase his political prestige, he is a stereotype of the 19th-century Tammany Hall politicians.
Madeline Kahn as Gussie Mausheimer, a German-born considered to be the richest in New York City, who rallies the mice into fighting back against the cats.
Will Ryan as Digit, Warren T.'s British cockroach accountant who has a fondness for counting money, but is plagued by frequent electrical charges in his antennae whenever he gets nervous or excited.
Hal Smith as Moe, a fat rat who runs the sweatshop Fievel is sold to by Warren T.

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West[]

Additional Voices[]

Jack Angel - Frenchy
Fausto Bara
Vanna Bonta
Philip Clarke
Jennifer Darling
Annie Holliday
Sherry Lynn
Lev Mailer
Mickie McGowan - New York Mice, Country Mice
Larry Moss
Nigel Pegram
Patrick Pinney - One Eye
Lisa Raggio
Lawrence Steffan
David Tate
Robert Watts

Uncredited[]

Frank Welker as a Hawk

Fievel's American Tails[]

Phillip Glasser as Fievel Mousekewitz
Dom DeLuise as Tiger
Susan Silo as Mama Mousekewitz
Lloyd Battista as Papa Mousekewitz
Cathy Cavadini as Tanya Mousekewitz and Yasha Mousekewitz
Dan Castellaneta as T.R. Chula and Mr. Schimmel
Gerrit Graham as Cat R. Waul
Kenneth Mars as Sweet William
Hal Rayle as Clint Mousewood
Arthur Burghardt as Hambone
Cynthia Ferrer as Miss Kitty

An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island[]

Uncredited[]

Dave Mallow - Looper (additional voices)

An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster[]

Casting difficulties[]

After the original 1986 movie, a handful of characters are written off due to either voicing issues as some voices are irreplaceable or the writers prefer not to have them reappear in anymore entries.

Here are the notable characters that were written off from certain entries:

Tony Toponi is downgraded to a background cameo in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and dropped from Fievel's American Tails due to his voice actress Pat Musick had largely stepped out of acting to take care of her daughter Mae Whitman and only appeared in a handful of productions during that period. She eventually return to voice Tony in the direct-to-video movies in the late 1990s.
Bridget is dropped from any of the direct-to-video sequels because of her actress Cathianne Blore was in poor health while battling cancer, prior to her death in 2002.
Gussie Mausheimer is dropped completely after the original movie since her voice actress Madeline Kahn was in a large number of productions and was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, prior to her death the following year. Her absence outside the original film can also be the factor that she couldn’t align within the stories.

Several other characters, such as Honest John, Henri, and The Bullying Orphans, are written off for reasons that the character may not factor within the stories. Wylie Burp, who appeared on Fievel Goes West, could not be recasted in Fievel's American Tails due his voice actor James Stewart had retired from acting, prior to his death in 1997. The characters that were featured in the DTV sequels are one-time characters only. According to Yahoo AI, these are limited characters and are only used for basic storyline focuses,[1] which means these additional characters weren’t attended to replace any of the suspended characters from the past films in any way.

Only a few characters are capable to be voiced by rather than the original actors in later films. Thomas Dekker replaced Phillip Glasser as the voice for Fievel Mousekewitz in the direct-to-video sequels due to Glasser's voice was changing by adult age. Cathy Cavadini was chosen to replace Amy Green as Tanya Mousekewitz to suit her characteristics in Fievel Goes West. However, Cavadini was under a contract for Cartoon Network to voice for Blossom in Powerpuff Girls as Lacey Chabert replaces her during the production of the latter sequels. Tiger is the only character that appeared in every film of the franchise to be voiced by one actor Dom DeLuise, as DeLuise passed away in 2009.