Tanya Mousekewitz

Tanya Mousekewitz
In-universe information
Species	Mouse
Gender	Female
Relatives	Papa Mousekewitz (father) Mama Mousekewitz (mother) Fievel Mousekewitz (brother) Yasha Mousekewitz (sister) Sophie Mousekewitz (aunt) Grandma Mousekewitz (grandmother) Grandpa Mousekewitz (grandfather) Great Grandpa Mousekewitz (great-grandfather)
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 (first movie; speaking) Betsy Cathcart (first movie; singing) Vikki Watson (An American Tail: A Musical Adventure with Fievel and Friends) Cathy Cavadini (second movie and TV series) Lacey Chabert (direct-to-video sequels)

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 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 (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.

Appearance

In An American Tail, she wears a red babushka (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. 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. She dropped her red babushka for a long ponytail and an orange and brown dress and no undergarments. 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 while Fievel gets his hat. Tanya later 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. 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. 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 but it would be odd if it were referring to Fievel. 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.

Fievels 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. This is no longer official due to possible retconning in the upcoming direct-to-video sequel and the series' abandonment.

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 it is supposed to take 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 at the celebration ceremony of the new labor union for the cheese factory, and like Fievel, she unhappily glances at Tony (as he ogles over Cholena) to set him straight. Her role in this film is displeased by fans.

The Mystery of the Night Monster

Tanya 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, as this modification is arranged due to the negative attention the staff had with her jealousy towards her sibling in the first direct-to-video sequel. She's embarrassed 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 and is ignored, particularly by Mama. She later watches Fievel sleep beside Yasha (who is quite awake), and Tanya, Mama, Papa, Tony, & Tiger have a group hug.

Trivia

• In Fievel Goes West, Tanya is voiced by Cathy Cavadini, who also voiced Blossom in The Powerpuff Girls. She also has her biggest involvement during that film.
• 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 you look real close at her feet when she was Dreams to Dream, it looks like Tanya is wearing black flats.
• In Treasure of Manhattan Island, Tanya is voiced by Lacey Chabert, who also voiced Eliza in The Wild Thornberrys.
• Tanya is one of the five well-regarded heroines in the franchise, alongside with Bridget, Miss Kitty, Cholena and Nellie Brie.
  • She's the only heroine who is given a special trademark role in one of the sequels and related to the starred character.

Gallery

You can find Tanya Mousekewitz gallery here.