Mr. Grasping

"Fear is a powerful motivator."

- Mr. Grasping

Mr. Grasping is the main antagonist of An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island, the second sequel to An American Tail. He is the loathsome leader of the factory owners.

He was voiced by the legendary actor, Ron Perlman, who also played Dieter Reinhardt in Blade II, Nino in the 2011 film Drive, Stabbington Brothers in Tangled, Warhok in Kim Possible, Slade in Teen Titans, Xibalba in The Book of Life, and The Lich in Adventure Time.

Role in the film
Mr. Grasping nearly fires Toni Toponi from his job for being late, but is convinced by Mr. Mousekewitz to let him keep his job. When questioned by O'Bloat, another of the factory owners, why he let Toni keep his job, he says it is because "fear is a powerful motivator". He is then convinced by the third factory owner, Toplofty, to keep an eye of Mr. Mousekewitz, so he has their spy, Scuttlebutt, spy on the Mousekewitz family.

Upon finding out about the Indians, Grasping tells the citizens that the Indians want to attack, stirring them up into an angry mob. After a long rampage to find the Indians, Dr. Dithering is accused of helping the Indians and brought to the butcher shop for his punishment. He is rescued by the friendly cat, Tiger, before Mr. Mousekewitz convinces all the mice that the Indians mean no harm and that the factory owners are the real enemy. With every mouse in Manhattan now against them, the factory owners retreat, but not before Grasping, refusing to admit defeat, tells Chief McBrusque to turn the Indian home into a burial ground.

After McBrusque is stopped, along with Scuttlebutt, the factory owners are forced to give the citizens what they want or they will go broke. Mr. Grasping tells them that they'll soon regain control, and that there are lots of ways to skin a cat, only to be scared off by Tiger.

Personality
Mr. Grasping is a scheming, pompous, loathsome, and acquisitive individual. He is shown to be cruel, greedy, ruthless, manipulative, and opprobrious to his workers. Like Toplofty and O'Bloat, Mr. Grasping doesn't care about Indians, and he tells their workers a fib about the Indians being enemies.

Appearance
Mr. Grasping has light brown fur, gray hair, and white eyebrows. He wears a black top hat with a purple band on his head. His suit is purple, and he has a yellow tie. He is tall and skinny, and walks with a cane.

Trivia

 * Mr. Grasping and his two colleagues are the only major antagonists in the American Tail film series who has no interaction with Fievel Mousekewitz, the main protagonist of the franchise. They are more the arch-enemies of Fievel's father and only their henchman has met and fought Fievel.
 * Alongside the other villains in the third movie, Mr. Grasping is the only major antagonist who is a rodent in the series, as opposed to Warren T. Rat and Cat R. Waul.
 * If An American Tail would have continued with more sequels, there is a 100% chance that Mr. Grasping and his colleagues could reappear and attempt to regain control.
 * In the fourth sequel An American Tail: Mystery Of The Night Monster, Mr. Grasping, and his colleagues did not appear physically in the movie to make way for the next villain. However, it is possible that they were mentioned at the beginning of the movie, where Papa tells the story of the rats that own a clothing factory and makes the mice that work there very hard to the fact that they had no food, no air, no water, no nothing. Nellie Brie went there undercover and exposes the entire conflict in the newspaper and the factory owners were sent to jail. It is a possible hint that Mr. Grasping and his colleagues attempt to regain control of the mice and were finally sent to jail.