Warren T. Rat

""Hey, hey, hey! Wait a minute. Who are you gonna believe? Me or your own eyes?""

- Warren T Rat

Warren T. Rat is the hidden main antagonist in the animated film An American Tail. Warren T. is a cat in rat's clothing and the leader of the Mott Street Maulers, a gang of cats who terrorize the mice of New York City. He is accompanied nearly all the time by his accountant Digit, a small British cockroach.

He offers false friendship to Fievel when the two meet and offers to take him to his missing family - yet after gaining Fievel's trust he cruelly sells him to a sweatshop, when next they meet it is some time after Fievel managed to escape the sweat-shop: he sees Warren T for what he truly is, a cat, and is imprisoned by Warren T and his gang to stop him telling anyone, however Fievel is released by Tiger - a soft-hearted minion who doesn't share the usual anti-mice feelings most cats do in American Tail.

Warren T and his gang give chase to Fievel but are caught in a trap by the mice, who have had enough of being bullied. Warren tries to reason with the mice but Tony Toponi knocks Warren's rat disguise off with a slingshot and then the truth about Warren's species is exposed. The mice unleash a mechanical-mouse called the Giant Mouse of Minsk that proceeds to knock Warren T and his gang off the harbor and into the sea. Before he was chased off he attempted to set fire to the pier; the fire gets blown out by the Mouse of Minsk, but after Warren is defeated a tiny ember is ignited by a kerosene leak and it burns the whole pier down, as his last villainous act. Warren T was last seen hitching a ride on a boat heading for China along with his gang.

Trivia

 * Although his true colors are not revealed until near the climax, he is the main villain, because he was actually the Mott Street Maulers' boss and had bigger plans than they did. Plus, he was thought to be a friend to Fievel, but is actually against him.
 * He bears a physical resemblance to The Coachman, and also Carface, a later Don Bluth villain.
 * Warren T. Rat is similar to Honest John Worthington Foulfellow, both are con artists trying to fool the hero (Pinocchio for Honest John, Fievel for Warren T.) Unlike Honest John, Warren T and his minions have their punishment.
 * He's based on a villain who would have appeared in Don Bluth's Banjo the Woodpile Cat, named Rocko, but was cut when the film was shortened to a half hour special.