Mama Mousekewitz is the matriarch of the Mousekewitz family. She appears in all four movies and in Fievel's American Tails. She was voiced by the late Erica Yohn in every film save for An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster, where she was voiced by Jane Singer. In Fievel's American Tails, she was voiced by Susan Silo.
Personality and Appearance[]
Mama Mousekewitz is not a very prominent character in the An American Tail series, but from what we see she balances Papa's carefree style of parenting with a more strict, disciplined style of her own. She is almost always taking care of Yasha, the youngest of their children. She also does much of the cooking in the Mousekewitz household. Taking care of a family, especially with Fievel running around and getting himself into trouble all the time, is quite the job. But somehow she manages. She is a lot more pessimistic and realistic than Papa. In the first movie she calls his tall tales about America nonsense and is quick to rub it in when they discover there really are cats in America, and in the second movie she warns Tanya, after catching her admiring a group of actors, not to stare at people less fortunate than herself. But without her the Mousekewitz family would likely fall into chaos, she's the one who keeps things running. If not for her Fievel would never take a bath, and we can't have a filthy little boy as the main character of the series, now can we? Compared to Papa, we know even less about her background and history, only that she is Russian and probably also Jewish. Her appearance changes very little throughout the series compared to the other Mousekewitz family members. Her hair is always in a bun, and she wears spectacles, and a conservative yellow and brown dress with a red apron over the skirt. She is somewhat obese, but thinner than Papa. She is more out-of-character in The Mystery of the Night Monster alongside Papa as she appears to be more negligent to her daughter Tanya. She was seen turning her back while ignoring her own child at the beach.
Name[]
Unlike Papa, who was given the name Bernard in Fievel's American Tails, Mama's first name is never mentioned in any film or TV series. Fan rumor has it that her first name is Emily, because, some contend, the mouse at the Castle Garden immigration center mentions it briefly in the first movie when registering the Mousekewitz family. However, this may be disproved by the captions on the VHS and DVD releases, which show that he was saying "family". And even if he were saying Emily, it could also have been Yasha's American-given name. Mama's maiden name is also unknown.