Papa Mousekewitz

Papa Mousekewitz (Russian: Папа Мышкевиц, Papa Myshkevits) is the overarching protagonist of the An American Tail film franchise. He is the father of Fievel Mousekewitz, Tanya Mousekewitz, and Yasha Mousekewitz.
He was voiced by the late Nehemiah Persoff.
==Appearance==
(Details to follow)
==Personality==
As patriarch of the Mousekewitz family, Papa is kind, caring, compassionate, and a skilled violinist. He cares deeply for his family and is always willing to tell stories to his eldest children in Tanya and Fievel, despite Mama's scolding, especially with the mention of "cat". However, despite his skill with a violin, he is not above intentionally playing horribly off-key in a more screeching manner, such as he did in Fievel Goes West to protect Fievel from a member of the Cactus Cat Gang that was about to eat him.
==Biography==
===An American Tail===
The year is 1885 in Shostka, Russia. Papa Mousekewitz, his wife, and three children, are a Russian-Jewish mouse family living in the home of the human family Moskowitz as they celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Papa presents Tanya with a new head scarf and Fievel his own hat as their gifts, before telling them the legend of the Giant Mouse of Minsk, though when Mama scolds him for saying the "C" word in "cat", and suggests telling them something else, Papa decides to tell his kids about America instead. He explains that America is supposed to be this land of opportunity and there are no cats there, but Mama again tells him to shut it about saying "cat" as "they" could hear him. The "they" she is referring to being the Cossacks and their own cats. However, their village is soon attacked by Cossacks and their cats in an anti-Jewish pogrom arson attack, resulting in the Moskowitz home, and that of the Mousekewitz family, to be destroyed, consumed in fire.
Traveling to Hamburg, Germany, the Mousekewitz family board a ship that will take them to the United States in the hopes of finally getting away from being attacked by cats. However, during the boarding, Fievel repeatedly interrupts the procession to ask curious questions to Papa, who simply tells him to keep walking each time. The third time results in two seagulls watching Fievel, along with the other mice passengers, to say the same thing to Fievel as he was angering all of them with his continued interruptions, including the band that was playing as everyone boarded. During the trip, Papa leads all the other mice traveling to America in the song, "There Are No Cats In America". However, after Fievel wanders off, he soon ends up deciding to go to the deck to look for fish after seeing them in a barrel earlier, lying that he was going after his hat Papa had given him for his Hanukkah present that he threw out intentionally to retrieve it so he could see the fish. Unfortunately for Fievel, the storm currently raging around the ship results in where it appears the very god of the sea himself, Poseidon/Neptune, appears to attack the ship, finally culminating in Fievel being swept overboard, with Papa unable to save him as Papa ends up trapped in some rigging as he frantically shouts Fievel's name to no avail.
By the time the storm clears and the ship makes it safely to Ellis Island in New York Harbor, Papa has broken the grim news to Mama and his daughters of Fievel's presumed death at sea, and the Mousekewitz family pass through immigration to be welcomed into the United States, with Papa sadly telling the mouse clerk checking them through that there are only four members of their party instead of five, with Tanya asking Papa why they changed her name to "Tillie" instead of leaving it "Tanya".
Once the Mousekewitz family has settled into their new home, and set up a memorial for Fievel, they soon learn that their belief in America being cat-free was sorely misplaced when they are attacked by the local cat gang, the Mott Street Maulers, and worse still, a local rat who promised them "protection" from the Maulers, Warren T. Rat, seems to not be upholding his end of the deal.
As a result, a local rich German-accented mouse, Gussie Mausheimer, suggests calling a rally to discuss the cat problem. Papa and Tanya attend it, but are unable to see that Fievel, who Papa believes dead, is still very much alive, and up on the dais with Gussie and another mouse Fievel befriended, Bridget, thanks to another female mouse's large hat blocking Tanya's view.
Thanks to an idea that Fievel suggested to her from the stories that Papa told him back in Shostka of the Giant Mouse of Minsk, Gussie leads Papa and many other mice to Chelsea Pier to use the old magic storeroom there to build a secret weapon based on said story. When Fievel arrives later with the Maulers hot on his tail, Papa, Mama, and Tanya, are ordered to launch the secret weapon, despite it being too early as the ship meant to take the Maulers to Hong Kong has not sounded its whistle yet. When it does, panic ensues as, having tied down the weapon before it could be launched prematurely, the mice are now unable to release it when the time came. Luckily, Fievel cuts the ropes holding the weapon back with a lit match, but the recoil from the ropes being severed while taut causes him to hit his head on a metal nut, knocking him out, while Papa, Mama, and Tanya successfully launch the weapon and send Warren, revealed to be a cat and leader of the Maulers, and his gang into the water, being picked up by the ship's anchor to be taken to Hong Kong. The mice celebrate their victory, but some spilled kerosene from when the weapon burst out of its hiding spot finds some leftover fire from when Warren started it earlier by lighting some cotton and causes the pier to be engulfed in flames, forcing the mice to flee as the human FDNY arrives to fight it. In the confusion that follows, as Papa, Mama, and Tanya flee, they hear Bridget and Tony Toponi calling for Fievel and by another name, "Fillie". Remembering what happened back on Ellis Island, Tanya suggests finding them as they might lead them to Fievel. When Tanya and Papa catch up to Tony, Papa demands he tell them they are looking for someone else named Fievel and not his son. Although Tony is honest with them, Papa remains adamant that it could not be his son, until Mama and Bridget show him the hat he gave Fievel on Hanukkah, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was their Fievel that Tony and Bridget were looking for.
The next morning, after a rainstorm the previous night, Papa, with the rest of the family, Tony, Bridget, and Gussie, are riding on Tiger as they look for Fievel, figuring that he might hear them if Papa plays his violin, as Fievel would never forget hearing his father's music. Indeed, as Fievel wanders through the morning mist, he initially doesn't hear his family, until Papa calls out for him. At that point, initially thinking he was just hearing things as he had given up hope of ever seeing his family again, when he hears Papa again, closer this time, he realizes they are looking for him, renewing his hope, and starts to call back to them. When Papa hears him, he immediately orders Gussie to stop Tiger as he dismounts and goes looking for his son. Soon enough, Fievel and Papa reunite, and are joined by Mama and Tanya, with Papa and Mama overjoyed to find Fievel alive and have him back with the rest of the family.
Some time later, Papa joins the rest of his family as Henri and his fellow pigeons take them on a visit to the Statue of Liberty as they prepare to enjoy their new lives in America.
===An American Tail: Fievel Goes West===
It has been five years since the events of the first film, and things for the Mousekewitz family have not improved, as they are still attacked by cats in their new home in New York City. During one raid by the Cactus Cat Gang, the Mousekewitz family escape, but soon encounter a mouse puppet who mentions a better life out west in the town of Green River. Encouraged by Fievel and Tanya, Papa agrees to buy train tickets for them, and they soon board the train to head for Green River.
However, one night during the trip, Fievel sneaks away from his family and discovers the Cactus Cat Gang on board the train as well, along with their plan to turn the mice into mouse burgers after helping the gang's leader, Cat R. Waul, complete construction of his saloon. Though Waul lets Fievel go, he orders his assistant, T.R. Chula, to throw Fievel off the train. Fievel's screams when Chula gets to him alert his family, but Papa is unable to go after Fievel as he is held back by Mama and the other mice passengers, with one shouting at him, "Don't be a fool, Mousekewitz!", knowing it is too dangerous. Fievel falls off the train and is left stranded, while Papa and the rest of the family arrive in Green River once more with heavy hearts at losing Fievel, fearing he won't make it to Green River on his own because of how big the desert is for someone his size.
After finding a place to set up their new home near the water tower, after Chula blocks it up, Waul appears to offer the mice a chance to cooperate with him to build a Green River where cats and mice can coexist peacefully in harmony, and the Mousekewitz family take him up on that offer.
Some time later, as they help build Waul's saloon, they are shocked to find that Fievel, still very much alive, made it to Green River on his own, relieved to see he made it. However, when Fievel tries to tell them the truth about Waul and his plans for the mice he heard back on the train, they don't believe him, having fallen for Waul's lies.
Much later, Papa, Mama, and Yasha are among the mice attending the grand opening of Waul's saloon, unaware that the grandstands they were sitting on was a giant mousetrap to squash them, just as Fievel had tried to tell them earlier. Only after Waul shoots Tiger with his revolver and orders his architect to trigger the mousetrap, does Tanya step in to warn her family and the other mice of the deception and have them run for it, angering Waul as he shoots at them until Fievel, with help from Wylie Burp, commandeers the gun away from Waul. After Tiger saves Miss Kitty from Chula and Waul and the Cactus Cat Gang are now sitting on the mousetrap, on Wylie's order, Fievel shoots and severs the ribbon, triggering the mousetrap and sending Waul and his gang flying high into the sky, which is witnesses by Fievel, Papa, and many others, before the Cactus Cat Gang land in the U.S. mailbag on the side of the train tracks, and as Waul pops out to declare revenge, the bag is snatched up by a passing train, snapping the spigot on the water tower in the process, thus undoing Chula's earlier sabotage of it.
As the water causes numerous flowers to spring up as a result, everyone celebrates. Fievel rejoins his family, and after Tanya washes the makeup from her face and gives Papa his violin, he leads everyone in a celebratory dance, though Fievel soon steps away to be with Wylie Burp as he gets his sheriff's badge from Wylie and some final advice from him as well, before the two of them watch the sunset together.
===An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island===
Papa serves a much bigger role in this sequel, where he reevaluates his beliefs of a better life in America due to being overworked and having to deal with corrupt enforcers. This is where his son would have to remind him of his previous speeches of hope and not to give into despair. 
Later on, he persuades his bosses into letting Tony keep his job when he was caught running late, but at the cost of being falsely labeled as a troublemaker for "getting what he wanted" out of his primary boss, Mr. Grasping. Eventually, chaos ensues when the factory owners order their workers to "triple their output" for the same pay if they wish to keep their jobs. Papa tried to calm the rioting workers and not to cause a scene, but to no avail. This resulted in the police enforcers beating a vocal worker near to death just to set an example. This caused Papa to yell out in anguish "This is like Russia all over again!" before he ran off in disgust, which further attracted the attention of his malevolent superiors. 
It only got worse when his corrupt bosses began to deceive the workers into believing that Fievel's new friend, Cholena, was a spy for the Natives underground and that they were planning an uprising, manipulating the workers to band with their deceitful bosses together "against a common enemy." Even though this was specifically done to distract the ongoing wrath of the workers (from their bosses' mistreatment) and to pivot their anger on someone else instead. Papa is quick to warn his family ahead of time to keep Cholena safe while he, Mama, and Tiger save Dr. Dithering from an unlawful execution initiated by the mob. He exposes the factory owners of their heinous actions for blinding the workers with ignorance and hatred, and furthermore turned the mob to his favor through his motivational speech.
During the ending, Papa opens a union where he and the workers unite for better working conditions. He then reveals how Fievel served as his main inspiration for helping him regain hope, while also restoring him to his optimistic and jovial self again.
===An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster===
(Details to follow)
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