Tanya Mousekewitz

Tanya Mousekewitz
In-universe information
Species	Mouse
Gender	Female
Relatives	Papa Mousekewitz (father) Mama Mousekewitz (mother) Fievel Mousekewitz (brother) Yasha Mousekewitz (sister)
Real world information
Debut	An American Tail
Appears in	An American Tail An American Tail: Fievel Goes West An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster Fievel's American Tails
Voice actor	Amy Green Betsy Cathcart Cathy Cavadini Lacey Chabert

Tanya Mousekewitz is the eldest child of Mama and Papa Mousekewitz and the older sister of Fievel and Yasha. She is a cheerful, optimistic, beautiful, cute, obedient and energetic young mouse who is famous 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, 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.

Appearance

In An American Tail, she wears a red babuska (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 her hair is very short. She has stopped wearing her babushka and instead wears 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. She dropped her red babuska for a long ponytail and an orange and brown dress. She appears 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

In the first film, Tanya gets a babushka for Hannukah while Fievel gets his hat. She has her doubts about leaving Russia after the cat attack, but goes along with her family to America 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. 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. She sang the heartwarming but distant duet "Somewhere Out There" with her brother Fievel when they were separated. 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

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). 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 alludes to this as well. She was sad to leave him behind in New York, but at the end of the movie they would have been reunited when he moves to Green River.

The Treasure of Manhattan Island

In this film Tanya is again younger, which has 2 explanations:

• it takes place just after the first movie but before the second
• it takes place after the 2nd film, but the 2nd film and the TV series were only a dream

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 her parents. 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 come with to bring Cholena back home and protect her from the police she is thrilled at finally getting to participate in an adventure. And when Tony is fighting Scuttlebutt, Tanya comes to Tony's aid by punching Scuttlebutt right in the face. She is last seen at the celebration ceremony of the new labor union for the cheese factory.

The Mystery of the Night Monster

Here Tanya has a job as a secretary at the Daily Nibbler, 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 embarassed to have Fievel tag along with her, afraid he'll make her look less professional. Reed Daley doesn't return the feelings though, and ignores her. 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.

Trivia

• In Fievel Goes West, Tanya is voiced by Cathy Cavadini, who also voiced Blossom in 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.

Gallery

Tanya's original appearance in An American Tail

Storyboard of Tanya singing "Somewhere Out There"

Tanya performing in "Fievel Goes West"

Tanya trading card

Tanya trading card (back)

Tanya in "Fievel's American Tails"

Tanya in "The Treasure of Manhattan Island"

Tanya in "The Mystery of the Night Monster"

Tanya Model Sheet From Fievel's American Tails

Another Fievel's American Tails Model Sheet

Tanya Mouth Sheet From Fievel's American Tails

Tanya Transformed (front)

Tanya Transformed (back)

Tanya and Fievel .

bloomers absent

Tanya gets together with Willie in the Fievel Goes West comic