Hello there, @bugeyedfreaks,
Yes, this may or may not be related to the Powerpuff Girls cartoon show itself, but, in addition to providing the voice of The Powerpuff Girls' so-called "commander and the leader" Blossom, the voice for whom she is best known in so many circles, Cathy Cavadini once provided the voice of Fievel's older sister Tanya Mousekewitz for An American Tail's 1991 sequel Fievel Goes West as well as the Fievel's American Tails TV show from which it spawned. And here she is in her beautiful, pretty, lovely, gorgeous and very stunning "the Girl You Left Behind" show girl gown dress outfit thing and makeup during Fievel Goes West's saloon scenes:
Speaking of Cathy Cavadini voicing Tanya, I had heard somewhere along the grapevines that during the making of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West itself, Tanya was supposed to be voiced in that movie by someone else filling in for Amy Green and Betsy Cathcart who had respectively spoken and sang as the Tanya character in the original 1986 American Tail movie of Don Bluth, when one day, the late great movie music composer James Horner (who worked with James Cameron on the music for Aliens, Titanic, and Jim Cameron's Avatar movie from 2009) was listening to Cathy Cavadini singing her demo of the beautiful Fievel Goes West song "Dreams to Dream", and in fact, James Horner was so moved by Cavadini's singing demo of the Dreams to Dream song, which touches and sends his heartstrings all the way down to its very core, that James Horner himself successfully persuades presenter and producer Steven Spielberg to let Cavadini voice Tanya for Fievel Goes West in the finished film. And the rest, they say, was history.
In addition, @bugeyedfreaks, I had actually got in touch with Cathy Cavadini herself online, and back in July 23rd, 2021, in fact, I sent her a very sweet message of an email to her requesting for an mp3 shoutout recording and two autograph pictures featuring two of the characters that she voiced, one of Blossom the Powerpuff Girl, and one of Fievel's mouse sister Tanya, and here they are hanging in my bedroom:
And here's the very cute and very beautiful, and aforementioned mp3 shoutout recording that Cathy Cavadini happen to sent me back in July 2021, and featuring Cathy Cavadini herself, as well as Blossom the Powerpuff Girl and Tanya the girl mouse singer of An American Tail fame, complete with part of the beautiful Dreams to Dream song that Tanya sang in A Capella:
Now, I may not know why I got those two autograph pictures and one mp3 shoutout recording from Cathy Cavadini back in July 2021, but as the story goes, Cathy Cavadini really liked my sweet email to her so much that she agrees to send me those three things, but on the condition that I pay eighty dollars for those things.
So I called up my mom, who happened to finish up cleaning out her sister's old house for the night at the time, on the phone to send her some good news about me sending a sweet message to Cathy Cavadini and I told her that she and I will pay 80 bucks for the Blossom and Tanya autograph pictures and one mp3 shoutout recording from Cathy Cavadini, and soon enough, my mother and I paid eighty dollars for it all using something like PayPal or something, and now, I'm still happy with the Cathy Cavadini/Blossom/Tanya mp3 shoutout recording and the two autograph pictures of Blossom and Tanya hanging side by side on my bedroom.
Yes, you, just like everyone else, may always and forever remember Cathy Cavadini best for voicing Blossom, the so-called "commander and the leader" of the Powerpuff Girls who hailed from the City of Townsville, but as a matter of fact, @bugeyedfreaks, Cathy Cavadini is also the voice of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West's Divine Diva Showgirl, Miss Tanya Mousekewitz, elder sister of Fievel Mousekewitz of Don Bluth's An American Tail fame:
So, what do you think?
Yours truly,
@ulyssesbobmac
Nice! Another member of the Cathy Cavadini fan elite! 💪 She's truly the best of the best.
I swear I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, but when I was a little baby Bug (a grub, if you will), I would basically watch two particular VHS tapes on repeat: one was Cinderella, and the other was Fievel Goes West. There’s SO much that I loved about that movie, but I adored Tanya and her story, and along with all the songs from Cinderella, I would absolutely belt out hers whenever I got the chance. Later on, when I ended up becoming the huge Blossom fan that I am today, I looked into Cathy’s old work and was surprised/not surprised to find out she voiced and sang as my fave mouse girl. Crazy! That's also such a cool story about how she got the role, but the lady's got excellent pipes. It was a no-brainer for them to cast her. 😆
And I’m so glad that you got those autographs and that voice recording from her! That's very sweet. I got to meet her and the girls and Tom Kane a couple years back and she was seriously one of the nicest of the bunch, so I definitely hope that in the future you get the opportunity to say hi to her in person! 💖
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a not-so-brief look at bob's early life and things pre-top gun, all in one post for your convenience!
his parents met at 19 and 23 at rit in ny, his dad was finishing up college. they started dating in october, by february she was pregnant, and by the end of the spring semester they were married. as rushed as everything had been, they truly love each other, regularly gush about it being love at first sight, and are still very much happily married.
they lived briefly with his maternal grandparents in ridgewood nj when stevie was born before moving when his dad started flight school
bob was born four years after stevie as his dad finished flight school and started his navy career as a fixed wing pilot in earnest
gracie was then born four afters that (bob 4, stevie 8) and his parents were really starting to feel settled in their lives at this point - despite their rushed start, they feel like they've finally done things "right" and "traditional", old enough now that the worst judgment for being young military parents doesn't phase them as much.
his childhood is largely happy, even with the constant moving (they bounced between virgina and florida, mainly) and his dad's deployments.
bob was always a shy, quiet child very much the opposite of his mom and sisters who are social butterflies, well suited for military life. while his sisters ran around the house with the other base kids, bob was content to help in the kitchen or hide out in his room with whatever electronic he'd been allowed to tinker with, legos, or whichever comic or show he was into at the time.
while his dad may at first appear quiet, at least compared to his wife, he's loud and the first to laugh when at home with his family and friends. he is, however, strict, reserved, and protective in a way that many military parents often are so bob's often struggled to read him.
growing up, they'd split summers between montanna at his paternal grandparent's ranch (stevie was the ultimate horse girl fyi) and his grandparents in ridgewood, who spoiled them endlessly
during a family vacation in ridgewood in january, a trip they took as an entire family before an upcoming deployment, stevie fell into the ice while they're out ice skating on a local pond. while she was initially resuscitated, she passes a week later. she was 14, bob 10 and gracie 6. his parents tried to be optimistic, shielding them from the worst by not being entirely truthful on how unlikely it was that she'd wake up again and keeping the kid's visits short; as a result, bob feels robbed of that time.
their house, which was once constantly loud and busy with activity, becomes quiet after they sit shiva. his dad is redeployed two months after stevie's death, unable to defer it further, and whatever success his mon had at holding their family together, crumbles. no large shabbat dinners where everyone from the neighborhood is invited; no more kids running around the house as the moms chat.
(@heartsbreaking quote wrecked me when were talking about this so must share it with you - like imagine having a big family with kids always doing SOMETHING and you can always hear someone somewhere and then suddenly you lose one of those sounds)
bob goes from helping around the kitchen to cooking meals, helping gracie get ready for school and then camp. two weeks into a local day camp, he breaks down in the middle of lunch, which sets off family counseling and support from their temple.
with help and time, they all adjust to their new family dynamic, but the damage is already done - bob was forced to grow up too soon, too fast and his mom depends on his help more than either realizes.
he also starts spending more of his summers at his grandparent's ranch rather than new jersey. bob likes the horses and, perhaps surprisingly, prefers the physicality of it. he enjoys working with his hands, though, bob quickly realizes he has no interest in taking over the ranch. no, he'd love to be up in the sky.
in the summer between middle and high school, bob comes out as gay. his dad doesn't hesitate; he's the first to hug his son and reassure him that everything will be alright, but while bob sometimes has trouble reading his dad's expressions, he doesn't struggle in the days after - as supportive as his dad is, there's no ignoring the plain fear in his dad's eyes inspired by the military's policies and attitudes towards gay men.
it's a fear that grows when bob starts to more openly express his interest in becoming a naval aviator.
they're lucky; they move back to jacksonville at the start of tenth grade so bob gets to enjoy a more traditional high school experience. he runs track, is popular among his clique of nerds by virtue of being top of the class, and is president of the robotics club. he also spends a good amount of time volunteering for a jewish family services organization.
don't be fooled, though, while he is largely mild mannered and follows his parents more tedious, over protective rules, he's easily talked into breaking some of them by gracie, more so once he's driving.
in an effort to dissuade bob from becoming a navy pilot, his dad allows him to take flight lessons at 17 so he can get his civilian license. it does the opposite - bob finishes high school with a navy rotc scholarship to mit. (his dad also spends some time encouraging him to go into intelligence, capitalizing on his love and interest in learning hebrew)
it's a tense summer, his dad is terrified both by bob being a gay man in the navy and just at the idea of losing their son. so is his mom, though her fear is more inspired by the danger of piloting. it culminates in a nasty fight, his dad threatening to cut him off should he go. so, bob goes and his mom follows his dad's lead.
bob's roommate invites him to some house party two days into term, and without the rules or any reason to say no, bob goes and finds that liquid courage makes him courageous instead of overanalyzing every word of every social interaction. and thus starts his spectacular spiral. he drinks, a lot, and sleeps around. he scrapes by in classes because he's the type of person who doesn't have to study too hard, and well, his rotc requirements are another story. bob manages, but he's not impressing anyone.
bob doesn't go home over winter break and when he stays in boston for the summer too, his parents realize he may not ever come back home again. it takes some time for them to mend their relationship, slower due to bob's drinking. as much as he tries to hide it from them and gracie, it's obvious.
while he does come home for winter break the next year, it's not his family that convinces him to stop drinking. one of his instructors sits him down when he returns to campus for the spring semester - he knows bob's been drinking, has lost a few part time jobs due to it, and with more than a few mentions to his father's successful career, outlines just how thoroughly he's screwing up any chance of accomplishing something similar. it's a real 'come to jesus' moment and it helps give bob the final push he needs.
it works, in part because bob's ready to change and because he also starts going to temple again, which in turn helps him build a healthy, if small group of friends and gets him involved in a few campus clubs (one of which he starts dating their final year of mit. they later mutually breakup a few months into flight school, neither interested in long distance.)
with sobriety, a few friends, and new interests comes clarity - bob's still very much interested in aviation, just no longer piloting. he likes the technical side of things and wso offers him the same satisfaction he'd assumed piloting would.
flight school was largely uneventful. he dated around casually but found it hard to date other service men just as it was hard to judge if civilians were interested in him beyond his uniform (and he was, and still is, reluctant to drag someone into this life).
bob also found it hard to fit in due to the drinking culture. while he becomes comfortable enough to have a glass of wine during shabbat dinner or pick out something that compliments a good meal, bob does not go back to social drinking and will not drink at bars, parties, etc. a single glass of wine with dinner is his limit.
he graduates flight school, gets assigned to a squad to the eagles and is quickly recommended to top gun despite his little experience and young age.
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