The Great Mouse Detective

¨The great mouse detective¨ also titled ¨The adventure of the great mouse detective ¨ is a Walt Disney cartoon feature based on famous characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle adapted of Eve Titus' book titled ¨Basil of Baker Street¨ . This amusing cartoon movie deals with Basil , the rodent Sherlock Holmes who investigates the kidnapping of a toy-maker and uncovers its link to his archenemy , Professor Ratigan . It begins when Hiram Flaversham ( voice by Alan Young) , a master toymaker , is abducted by a peg-legged bat , on his daughter Olivia's birthday . The nefarious Professor Ratingan (voice by Vincent Price) kidnapped him for forcing his victim Flaversham to make some diabolical device . The young mouse has no one to turn to for help , so she strikes out on her own , looking for the greatest detective in all mousedom , Basil of Baker Street ( performed with gusto by Barrie Ingham) . En route , Olivia encounters Dr. David Dawson (voice by Bettin) , a mouse recently gone back from military duty in Afghanistan . They manage to encounter his rooms at 221 1/2 Baker Street in the cellar of a very notorious address , and the mouse himself soon makes his appearance running around the apartment , ignoring his two hosts , in anticipation of bringing his latest case to a successful final with an experiment in ballistics . Nevertheless , the experiment is a flop , and the detective is thrown into a deep depression, still unwilling to help poor Olivia . But Basil is again galvanized into action . The Sherlockian mouse matches wits with the nasty Professor Rattingan . The crime lord Ratigan is planning in the sewers of London nothing less than the demise of the Queen on the day of her ¨Diamond Jubilee¨ and his own ascension to the throne . Later on , Basil , Dr. Dawson and Olivia are submitted a tempestuous trap by Professor Ratingan and are imprisoned .

This fun animation is set in England's mouse population, who lives not so different from ours, in the mouse holes and basements of the British Empire . The funny characters are the following : Basil who is a bundle of energy , he is played in a clever , broody and impetuous manner similarly to Holmes-Basil Rathbone . Good Doctor Dawson/Watson is drawn or played in kindly way , he's the perfect counterpoint to Basil/Holmes . Ratigan , the arch-nemesis , a Doctor Moriaty-alike is the worst criminal in London, a veritable Napoleon of Crime . Furthermore , a sympathetic thug ,an unfortunate peg-legged bat . This agreeable animation movie contains a lively and enjoyable musical score by the great Henry Mancini . The motion picture is well realized by Ron Clemens and John Musker (among others) who subsequently would have several successes such as ¨The little mermaid¨, ¨Aladdin¨ , ¨Hercules¨, ¨Tresure planet ¨, and ¨The princess and the frog¨ . Rating : Good , worthwhile watching and reissued successfully in 1992 .

Great Mouse Detective is one of the best Disney movies I've seen yet. The animation is that classic Disney style and (thank Goodness) it lacks all of those annoying songs.

As a true Sherlockian, I can only say that this is as good as it gets as far as Holmes goes. No matter what everyone says, It is still great. Kids may not get some parts f it, but every Sherlockian knows what's going on. While Ratigan may be no Moriarty, he's still the perfect example of the classic Disney villain.

Vincent Price is a terrific actor, and Alan Young as Flaversham was the perfect fit. Young Susanne Pollatschek is the perfect Olivia and no one could do a better Basil than Barrie Ingham. Val Bettin makes a lovable Dawson. Fidget is the classic evil crony.

This is absolutely a must see. For all you baby-sitters out there, and I know from personal experience, take this to your next job and the kids won't even blink for over an hour. It's one of the most memorable Disney movies of it's age. Although Beauty and the Beast will always be my favorite, GMD runs an extremely close second!

I give it 11/10! It's that good!

I always say when I write these, I loved this movie, but you may not. So how do you decide if you like it? See it! Form your own opinion! After all, one man's trash and all like that! Hope you find a good one!

This is probably one of the most unknown Disney classics.

For the time the movie was quite new and revolutionary and it doesn't quite fit in with the other movies Disney made in that period., perhaps that's the reason why it has been forgotten. But "The Great Mouse Detective" deserves to be known and seen.

The characters are real classics and one of the best to have ever appeared in a Disney movie. Actually Professor Ratigan (voiced by the legendary Vincent Price) is quite possibly my favorite movie villain of all time. No wonder that it was Vincent Price's favorite role. His style and humor is priceless and it cracks me up every time. But the other characters are also very memorable. I especially like the character of doctor Dawson.

The story is good and very pleasant and very mature compared to other Disney's from that period. But of course the idea of making a story about the mouse version of Sherlock Holmes alone is already good enough to make a fun movie about.

One of the other things that makes this movie different compared to other Disney's from that period are the songs or better said the lack of it. The movie features only one song (3 if you count the bar song and the goodbye, so soon song.). But it's not a miss. The surprising magnificent musical score by famous composer Henry Mancini make up for this loss.

The movie has a very spectacular final on and in the famous Big Ben. It's by far my favorite Disney movie ending.

Certainly a fun movie to watch over and over again.

10/10

P.S.: If you're Dutch speaking, I highly recommend that you watch this movie Dutch spoken. Believe it or not it's even better and more fun then the English version! Believe me, just give it a shot.

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Under-appreciated is the best way to describe "The Great Mouse Detective" because you never hear mention of this movie. "Renaissance" this and "Classic Disney" that, but never this one. And it's a shame really, since this is a fun, well put-together flick. There's life to the animation (for a story told from a mouse's level, it's pretty good-looking), it makes good use of early CGI, and I really like the new spin on the subject matter while paying respect to earlier Sherlock Holmes adaptations. This is a real treat; good characters, dastardly plot and an outsized adventure.

7/10

By no means does it rank among the greatest Disney films. Its animation is mostly Saturday Morning level and its plot is as simplistic as a Sherlock Holmes knockoff story can get, complete with plotty, expository script and pretty typical archetypes throughout. Yet, it has something that has been missing in Disney movies for years: likability. It's lightweight, well crafted fun, like all the best Saturday morning cartoons, with inventive set pieces and terrific voice acting that helps make up for the fact that the losses incurred on The Black Cauldron show quite clearly. Unfortunately, it was shoveled under the hype over Don Bluth's An American Tail, a film that I have a bit of a soft spot for but which I'm not sure was that much better despite more involved animation. Of course it's no masterpiece, but it does deserve some appreciation for its virtues.

The plot's rather simple, and a bit too dialogue driven. Basically, you can figure out what happens before you even see it. What makes it work are the personalities. True, Olivia's a bit cloying, but Basil himself is as manic and fun to watch as any good Holmes knockoff, due in no small part to Barrie Ingham's performance. However, the show stealer, like with many Disney films, is the villain, Professor Ratigan as brilliantly voiced by the great Vincent Price. What I love about his character is that he comes off a narcissistic buffoon most of the time, but when pushed he shows himself to be a ruthless maniac able to wring whatever he wants from people by sheer force. In many ways, he's the villain that Captain Hook should have been. He even gets one of the only song numbers in this movie, one of the finest villain numbers in its jaunty bombast and how it shifts to a dead stop when a henchman double crosses him then shifts back after a rather grim moment in the film.

Unfortunately, one wishes the animation was better than Toon Disney on a production level. There's lots of conservative pose-to-pose stuff and very little in the ways of spontaneous character stuff. The angles are all very flat and straightforward. It especially shows in the dog character, who is much larger than the others but has too lightweight a feel to him. It's still a better looking film than The Black Cauldron, however less lavish it may be, and it has a few highlights. Ratigan, again, is superbly animated by Glen Keane, who gives him much more nuance and presence than the other characters. There's also a steep improvement toward the end, where Disney really ratchets up on some terrific set-piece direction. The CGI may show its age, but it's incorporated quite well. One also suspects that Disney first started to look at Hayao Miyazaki's work around this time, since there are more than a few similarities to the climax of Castle of Cagliostro.

All in all, these elements, along with a great Henry Mancini score, add up to another overlooked gem of a Disney movie, if not an essential work. It's light nature makes it understandable that some people tend not to care for it, but I enjoy it like I do any decent childhood cartoon. For me, it's the best Disney picture between the end of the golden age in the 60s and the renaissance at the end of the 80s, despite not being especially ambitious or innovative. It's just good fun, and what more can one ask for?