Continuity Errors in the Series

This is a list of the various continuity errors and inconsistencies that occur in the franchise. Some may be described as goofs by the animators, others might be flat-out retcons. The sequels in the An American Tail franchise were all handled by different writers, thus its only natural for there to be continuity errors and conflicts within the canon of the series.

An American Tail

Yasha is absent from Mama's arms; one of the infamous errors in the franchise

• Yasha's Disappearance: About half way through the film, the youngest Mousekewitz sibling Yasha seems to disappear. This might be explained by the fact that her family are in potentially dangerous situations for the second half (building and controlling the Giant Mouse of Minsk, riding on Tiger, and flying on pigeons), but no real explanation is given. The cuts that were made for the film were responsible for Yasha's absence.
• Disappearing Cheese: In the scene where Tony Toponi trips a mouse trap to get the cheese, and tosses it because it has gone stale, it simply disappears from the frame.
• Bridget's Shoes: Bridget is one of the only mice in the series who is seen wearing shoes, however it is inconsistent and they appear and disappear from scene to scene.
• Warren T Rat's Size: Warren's size varies throughout the film, particularly when compared to Fievel and Digit, who are almost the same height in scenes where they appear together. When standing next to Moe, a rat, he is dwarfed. Yet he becomes bigger when not wearing his rat disguise, the same size as the rest of the cats.

After An American Tail

• Unrecoveries of Tiger's Family: Before "A Duo", Tiger mentioned that he misses his family and Fievel responded that he would help find them. Unfortunately, Tiger is never seen reuniting with his family. This is either Tiger is better off being kept as one of the tritagonists in the film series as his actor Dom DeLuise was able to voice his character throughout or the result of Tiger mentioned of having "three fathers" as the writers may have reviewed this as if Tiger was raised by same-gender parents as LGBT was outlawed from children’s films at the time.

Fievel Goes West

Fievel and Tanya were usually one year apart; Fievel seems to be a lot younger than the timeline when Tanya is 16

• Tanya's Age: One of the most famous inconsistencies in the entire franchise. In An American Tail, Tanya is close in age to Fievel. In An American Tail: The Storybook, it is mentioned that Fievel is seven years old, while Tanya is a year older, making her 8. However, by the time of Fievel Goes West she is much older, and her An American Tail Trading Card states that she is 16 years old, and it is very unlikely that Fievel is 15.
  • This inconsistency is one of the many reasons this film was retconned in the first DTV sequel as it is too impossible for anyone to age that quick while Fievel and Yasha appeared to be a year older after the event of the first film.
• Tanya's Shoes: Similarly to Bridget's inconsistent footwear in the first film, Tanya has flats or slippers in some scenes and not in others, such as when she sings Dreams to Dream.
• Tony’s Cameos: Majority errors occurred throughout Tony’s cameo appearance, including his shirt and hat frequently changes colors during several shots. In first shot, his shirt is dim light blue and the strip on his hat is the same "red" color of his hat with the buttons missing. In second shot, his shirt is changed to dark blue and his hat strip appears black, revealing his gold buttons, which carries to the third shot. In fourth shot, both his shirt, hat and his head hair are changed to green, as his red scarf is strangely replaced with a white bow tie, notably another mouse (slightly older and not having head hair, setting between him and Bridget) is wearing a dirt-colored hat and scarf (switching without audience looking). This is all caused from Pat Musick's non-involvement of the film, causing animators not to have Tony as a focused character. Strangely in one sequence, Tony and his wife and baby only made a shot on the mousetrap with the crowd, while in all other shots, they are missing from the crowd.
  • Bridget’s cameo appearance is also cheap with the texture palette, as her flower, dress, and trimmings are all dark blue, with the exception of her brooch as it is gold instead of purple.

Fievel's American Tails

• Cat R. Waul's Schemes: Several times, such as in The Legend of Mouse Hollow, Tanya, as well as the rest of the town, seem to have forgotten about Cat R. Waul's scheme to kill every mouse in Green River while sparing Tanya in Fievel Goes West, and continue to trust him. Fievel never trusts Waul, but never reminds others of Waul's scheme in Fievel Goes West again either.
• Cat R. Waul's Owner's Whereabouts: In Fievel Goes West, Cat R. ended up with the fat lady in the train and vows of taking care of him. Here, he appears alone as the lady never appears nor spoken of anymore. This is possibly due to the writers wanted to keep Cat R. in the series alone without explanation in the series itself and felt that her aspects were deemed suggestively inappropriate for the series.
  • Notably during Universal Kids’ airtime of Fievel Goes West, the first shot of the lady was cut.
• Chula's Characterization: Chula is a very different character in the series, no longer as sadistic or psychotic. In That's What Friends Are For, Tiger and Fievel befriend him separately, as if forgetting the time Chula tried to cook Fievel over a candle and eat him in Fievel Goes West.
• Wylie Burp's Whereabouts: Wylie Burp is missing from the series, and it is not explained what happened to him nor is he even mentioned.
  • As a respect for James Stewart's retirement, the character could not be recasted.
• Fievel's Hat: At the end of Fievel Goes West, Fievel turns his hat back into its original shape from a cowboy hat because he is ready to start being himself. But in Fievel's American Tails, he is always seen in a cowboy hat.
• Tiger's Characterization: By the end of Fievel Goes West, Tiger had found his courage, won back Miss Kitty, and it is implied Wylie passed his torch to him and he became sheriff. But in Fievel's American Tails he is back to being a coward, is unemployed living in a discarded wagon, and Miss Kitty has left him.

The Treasure of Manhattan Island and The Mystery of the Night Monster

• Back in New York: Perhaps the most infamous continuity error in the whole franchise, the direct-to-video films inexplicably take place in New York and disregard the events of Fievel Goes West. The Treasure of Manhattan Island alludes to this by Fievel stating he had a dream where the family moved west, perhaps implying that the film was all just a dream. Some fans explain this by saying the two direct-to-video sequels take place before Fievel Goes West, but apparently the writers of those movies had to retcon the first sequel due to many inconsistencies. Notably the song "We Live in Manhattan" is part of retconning that event as lyrics, such as "...and we're here to stay.", might mean that the mice aren't leaving to Green River. This explains several instances, like Papa Mousekewitz's first name, Fievel’s heroism of becoming a sling shooter, and Tanya’s dream of becoming a singer, did not come to pass. This may also includes cutting out Tony’s marriage and fatherhood as Tony appears single without in-film explanation (well, not right then).
  • Despite going back to New York, a handful of basic characters from the 1986 movie, including Gussie Mausheimer, Honest John, and Tony’s soulmate Bridget, were excluded from the story either due casting difficulties or the results that they don’t factor in the films' basic storylines like many DTV sequels produced during that period.
• Irreverent Historical References: The Statue of Liberty is given a green texture that was 4 decades ahead of its time, while the Statue was given a copper tone as shown at the end of the 1986 movie. Also, Tony mentions that the Subway closed down 12 years after the timeline the film took place, but the Subway shut down in 1873 as the movie took place after the completion of the Statue of Liberty (albeit mid 1886), which makes the Subway’s closure 13 years after.
• Tony’s characterization: Tony seems to be more scared and defenseless towards his foes for his physical return, disregarding the courage he had in the original film. For instance, Tony rarely stood up to Mr. Grasping before he could fire him. Also, Tony was overpowered by Scuttlebutt before Tanya saves him near the end. His characterization is changed in the next direct-to-video sequel.
• Yasha's Appearance: Throughout most of the film, Yasha appears to be asleep, starting after Mama takes the baby out of the tub. Strangely, she is seen asleep in Tanya’s arms during both sequences including getting lost in the mob and sliding down the water sprout. Notably again, Yasha is not seen with the Mousekewitz family, Tony, Tiger, Dr. Dithering, and Scuttlebutt in the Subway, prior to their exportation for the treasure. Luckily, she appears to be more awake in the next film.
• Fievel's Characterization: Fievel has always been portrayed as brave to a fault, often getting himself into trouble because of it. But in The Mystery of the Night Monster, Fievel is fearful and plagued by nightmares, which is very unlike him.
• Mama and Papa's characterizations: Mama and Papa Mousekewitz showed more attention with their children in the previous three films. However, both parents are more out of character in The Mystery of the Night Monster as they appeared to be more negligent to their daughter Tanya. In one scene, Papa only asked about Fievel's whereabouts to Tony after being rescued (alongside Mama and Yasha) from the cats and not concerning about his daughter whether she's in danger or not. Near the end, Mama is seen turning her back on Tanya.
  • Strangely in The Treasure of Manhattan Island, Papa did ask Tanya about the whereabouts of Fievel, Tony, and Cholena, as Tony wasn't a family member nor was he put in the responsibility of the Mousekewitzs, but the Mousekewitzs were responsible for Cholena as she was in a potential danger in Manhattan.
• Daily Nibbler Calendar: Reed Daley's calendar on the wall of his office at The Daily Nibbler always reads September 19th even though several days go by in the course of the film.
• Unknown freedom of the Manhattan resident mice: After Tony freed Mama, Papa, and Yasha Mousekewitz from the cats, the other mice are still incarnated in their crates and ignored. At the end, all the other resident mice are not shown anywhere, even in the beach with the Mousekewitzs, Tony, and Tiger. It is unknown if they were freed by Nellie Brie and her now-soulmate Reed Daley and their whereabouts have yet to be explained in the films at all.

Tiger as a cop at the end of AAT3. This did not occur in the next film due to basic storyline focusing.

• Inconsistencies Between Both Films: The two direct to video films are similar in most respects; same voice actors, generally same character models, the Mousekwitz family lives in the same house, Tony appears single in both; they seem at first glance to take place in the same universe. However, new characters are introduced in The Treasure of Manhattan Island, yet they did not stay in the story and are likely replaced with different characters for The Mystery of the Night Monster. Many fans have questioned about the storyline changes, including the position of Tiger becoming a police chief at the end, were ignored in the next film.
  • According to Yahoo AI, the main reason for DTV character omissions and replacements was due to changing on basic storyline and character focuses and the staff felt that the characters and areas created for The Treasure of Manhattan Island would not align in The Mystery of the Night Monster, which focuses on mystery solving.[1] Notably other film series in this format, like the Balto sequels and DTV sequels based on Disney films, have suffered this issue during the period of DTV marketing as well. In Disney's case, their DTV sequels are "non-canon" as characters created for those films are less significant and don’t factor into the broader Disney universe explaining their absence outside the films also according to Yahoo AI.

Other Works (games, music, etc)

An American Tail: A Musical Adventure With Fievel and Friends

• Diddy Diddy Dum Dum: The track Diddy Diddy Dum Dum (Fievel's Little Song) is riddled with continuity errors, stating that Fievel was made fun of for having a funny accent (never implied in the movies), that Papa was a tailor (he's a violin maker; although there are hints in the first film that he briefly was a tailor when he first came to America), and that Russia is west of Prussia (it was actually to the east).
• Timeline error references: The album is considered infamous for containing anachronisms. In "Anything Can Happen in America" Papa mentions computers, as such didn’t come about until middle of the 20th century. And as for "A Little Bit of Reggae", reggae as a musical genre did not emerge until the 1960's. It is assumed that some of the songs' aspects in the album are non-canon.

An American Tail: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends

• The Mousekewitz's Home in Fievel Goes West: The film itself is never clear in what area of New York the Mousekewitz family is living in at the beginning of the film. This DOS game states that they live in Brooklyn, while the trading cards say they live on Hester Street. A clear case of conflicting canon.
• Sophia Kitty: The game gives Miss Kitty a first name that appears in no other An American Tail media. While fans have accepted this as her real name as a result, other aspects of the game are clearly non-canon, meaning this is probably unofficial.

An American Tail Trading Cards

Willie and Tanya at the end of the FGW comic, as Willie remain obscured from the actual movie

• Conflicting Dates: The Hester Street card claims the Mousekewitz family settled in New York in 1881 (five years too early), while the Statue of Liberty card claims the statue was finished in 1885 (a year too early). While the first film opens in 1885, it is Hanukkah, a holiday in December, meaning the rest of the film couldn't possibly have taken place that year.
• Tanya's Love Interest: Tanya's card states that she has "love for a certain young mouse". This error may be based on an older version of the script that appears in the Fievel Goes West comic book as well, where Tanya falls in love with a boy mouse named Willie. He seems to have been cut from the final film.