Chief McBrusque

Chief McBrusque is the secondary antagonist of An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island. He is voiced by Sherman Howard.

Bio

McBrusque is a ferocious, and overweight, yet muscular rat chief of the NYPD (New York City Police Department), and a very strict and harsh chief. He enjoys killing the workers by beating them and causing trouble to the other mice of New York, particularly the immigrants, calling them as trouble-makers, as earlier, he and his men killed the glasses-wearing worker, devastating the other workers seeing this. He, like the factory owners are suspicious of Papa and accused him as a trouble-maker. When he followed Fievel and the others to the underground cave, there was a battle between the Indians and the police. Eventually, the police surrendered and were believed to have left. Then, as Fievel was about to set the gunpowder, McBrusque and Scuttlebutt returned for round two only to fall down a pit which was soon filled with water after the gunpowder went off, drowning him.

Personality

McBrusque is the corrupt and ruthless mouse police chief of the NYPD. He is extremely strict and harsh in carrying out his work to the point of taking extreme pleasure in committing countless acts of police brutality, particularly in violently punishing those he deems as “delinquents and troublemakers” (especially immigrants) as a way of keeping them in line and uses his efforts to fully enforce the law as an excuse to justify his brutal methods. This is shown where he and his officers savagely beat a bespectacled worker to  near-death for protesting against Mr. Grasping, Mr. Toplofty, and Mr. O’Bloat, and showed no hesitation to do so when given the order by Grasping. He is shown to have extreme confidence in the manpower of his police force, believing no enemies were any match for them, as not having to “fight fair” supposedly gave him and his officers an advantage over them.

McBrusque is more than willing to accept bribes from powerful and influential individuals, such as the factory owners who paid him and his entire department to work for them as their enforcers in the factory, indicating him to be a very greedy individual.

He also shows no hint of remorse or guilt for his actions against those much weaker than him as shown when he proudly brags to his bosses about an incident where he and his men had punished an “offender” who had earlier pleaded for mercy to which the chief had mockingly refused him before severely beating him, showing that he is also very sadistic. Thus, it is implied that, though he valued the money that his employers gave him for his service to them, the pleasure in carrying out his ruthless actions is what motivated him more in general, indicating that his payments were just an added perk.

He can also be very impatient to those who inconvenience or delay him, particularly Scuttlebutt whom he forcefully brought with him as a guide to lead him and his officers to the Lenape village underground, during which the cowardly Scuttlebutt wanted no involvement in, having narrowly survived the traps that protected the village already. When pushed to the end of his rope by his enemies, he can be very vengeful and even more bloodthirsty, as evident when he and Scuttlebutt attempted exact revenge against Fievel, Tanya, and Tony in the cave, he snatched a torch from Fievel and mockingly warned him not to play with fire before presumably intending to murder him with the torch.

Trivia

• He and Scuttlebutt are the only villains in the American Tail series to definitively die.
• Despite being a secondary antagonist, Chief McBrusque is one of the most evil villains in the American Tail film series (alongside Warren T. Rat) because of his cruelty to the workers and others.

Gallery

You can find the Chief McBrusque Gallery here.