Now, does anyone remember An American Tail, which is a cartoon franchise which was started by Don Bluth, Steven Spielberg and David Kirschner back in the 1980s, or especially the original 1986 Don Bluth film's first sequel from 1991, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West? Yes? No? Maybe so?
Well, even though Fievel Goes West will always and forever be best remembered, especially in so many circles, to say the least, for featuring classical Hollywood actor James Stewart's last performance in cinema before he passed away in 1997 (as the voice of the over-the-hill dog character Wylie Burp, of course), this person will always remember Fievel Goes West nowadays and primarily for The Powerpuff Girls' Blossom's original voice actress Cathy Cavadini voicing Fievel's sister Tanya Mousekewitz, the subplot involving her wanting to be a singer, and the two songs that Tanya actually sang in that 1991 animated film, which will be ‘Dreams to Dream’ and ‘The Girl You Left Behind.’
And after less than 30 years, and being a big and ambitious dreamer myself, not only can I really still relate to Tanya wanting to be a singer in Fievel Goes West, but I also think that Fievel’s oldest sister Tanya’s teenager-like character redesign for Fievel Goes West (and especially extending to that beautifully stunning saloon girl diva makeup and dress of hers in that movie’s Girl You Left Behind sequence) by Uli Meyer, Rob Stevenhagen and possibly even co-director Phil Nibbelink (all three of whom had previously worked on the 1988 live action/animated classic film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, alongside H.G. Wells' great, GREAT grandson Simon, who also co-direct) has got to be, for me, especially, among the cutest and also among the most beautifully stunning female mouse cartoon character designs that I’ve ever, EVER seen, especially outside of Don Bluth’s 1982 The Secret of NIMH’s Mrs. Brisby herself or any of the mice characters in Disney’s 1977 film The Rescuers or even their own 1986 film effort The Great Mouse Detective.
And I do well remember seeing and hearing and having been moved to tears by Tanya losing herself in her rather beautiful and lovely singing of the song ’Dreams to Dream’ (or Tanya’s version, in particular) and dancing not only with a paintbrush, but also with Cat R. Waul’s paw (Cat R. Waul being voiced by Monty Python member John Cleese) before the cat carries her off to the saloon so she can be part of his saloon dance hall performance act:
And in addition to that, I even do well remember seeing and hearing Tanya singing and dancing to her saloon act song and dance hall performance number, ’The Girl You Left Behind’, in, of all places, a saloon full of cats, whether she really like it or not, and while her little brother Fievel gets chased all over the place by a talking spider with the voice of Jon Lovitz (formerly of Saturday Night Live fame) named Chula:
And once again, I tell ya, I also found that saloon dance hall showgirl diva dress and makeup of Tanya's in that saloon scene in the movie to be not only cute, but very beautiful, lovely, pretty, and especially very stunning to behold!
And even between the late, great AVATAR/TITANIC/Braveheart movie music composer James Horner’s lovely music scoring talents and the aforementioned Cathy Cavadini’s rather beautiful singing and/or voice acting chops, I really still love that Tanya, Fievel’s oldest sister in the American Tail franchise, was able to, somehow or another, and as I will even put it this way, fulfill her ‘epic dream-quest to sing a song or two to the whole, entire world’ (whether the world really like it or not) in Fievel Goes West.
And even recently, I also sometimes felt an almost existential desire for the character of Fievel’s sister Tanya (or even her Fievel Goes West character redesign that made her look like a teenager who's on the brink of young adulthood or something) to be fleshed out or greatly expanded or perhaps even take center stage in her own story and carrying said story on her own small shoulders, perhaps even more so than in Fievel Goes West or anywhere else in the American Tail franchise outside of that film.
But of course it didn’t happen outside of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West itself, certainly as far as fleshing out or even greatly expanding upon the character of Fievel’s sister Tanya, or her Fievel Goes West character redesign, or even let alone, allowing Fievel's sister Tanya to take center stage in her own story and carrying said story on her own small shoulders even more than her more popular little brother Fievel’s or something like that, to say the least.
Long story short, folks, but hey!
At least her version of the Dreams to Dream song in Fievel Goes West is very, very, VERY BEAUTIFUL for us to hear after all these years!
Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, my question is this:
What do you think of Tanya’s character redesign, as well as her singing voice in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West?
