The Great Mouse Detective

• Directed by John Musker, Ron Clements, Dave Michener, and Burny Mattinson (their feature directorial debuts)
• July 2, 1986
• Based on the children’s book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone

Voice Cast

• Basil, Bartholomew (drunken lackey of Ratigan’s)-Barrie Ingham
• Professor Ratigan-Vincent Price
• Major Dr. David Q. Dawson-Val Bettin
• Olivia Flaversham-Susanne Pollatschek
• Fidget-Candy Candido
• Mr. Flaversham-Alan Young
• Mrs. Judson-Diana Chesney
• Queen Mousetoria-Eve Brenner
• Sherlock Holmes-Basil Rathbone
• Dr. Watson-Laurie Main
• Ratigan’s Thugs-Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo, Walker Edmiston
• Miss Kitty Mouse-Melissa Manchester

A mouse detective investigates a kidnapping and realizes its connection to his arch enemy.

The Great Mouse Detective is a (barely) pre-Disney Renaissance entry that’s an animal populated riff on Sherlock Holmes. It’s a fun little bit of fluff often credited with keeping Disney animation alive long enough to lead to the Disney Renaissance.

As with such a concept, we have animal equivalents of the significant Sherlock Holmes characters. Basil (named for Basil Rathbone) as Holmes. Major Dr. David Q. Dawson as Watson. Mrs. Judson as Mrs. Hudson. Professor Ratigan as Prof. Moriarty. And truthfully, who better to play the Moriarty equivalent of Ratigan than Vincent Price? The voice alone was perfect.

Price is the biggest name in the film (not including the recording of Rathbone used when Holmes is heard speaking). Yet the talent of all involved is indisputable. They knew how to use their voices to create characters and gave life to the Disney animation.

The Sherlock Holmes elements are played to a humorous extent. Basil makes huge deductions with little information. He’s hyper observant, though also a bit of a jerk. Not severely so, but he can be thoughtless at times. Though it has been a bit since I last saw it, the character of Basil reminds me a touch of Sigerson Holmes in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother in the previously stated aspects.

I wish they had done more of the Scooby-Doo thing and made the mystery a little bit harder to figure out. The audience does not see the clues as Basil discovers them but rather we get the information in a more standard way by seeing moments with Ratigan. It does not seriously hurt things, but the lack of mental engagement leaves it a little less than it could have been.

Ratigan’s plot seems to take a bit of a page from a trick used by Bugs Bunny once or twice. Ratigan seeks to replace Queen Mousetoria with an automaton just long enough to take control of the animal portion of England. All that was missing were a couple of sticks of dynamite.

The character of Olivia Flaversham who starts the whole story rolling kind of falls into the background. I did not need her to be front and center in the movie but she kinda vanishes from things only popping in here and there. Then again this are only 70 something minutes so there’s not a lot of time for cute kid stuff.

Though not the greatest Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective has held a certain special place in my heart. Maybe it’s because of the perfect casting of Vincent Price or that it is a kid friendly version of a classic literary character. Something about this whole film has always appealed to me.

This is a fun and bouncy fun story that goes down smoothly. As usual for the older stuff Disney they are not trying to push an agenda or have any strong message other than do the right thing. It’s a good versus evil story with an over-the-top villain and an outlandish plot and quirky supporting characters.

The Great Mouse Detective is an entertaining Disney film from back in the day. This is a fun take on the Sherlock Holmes mythology. Maybe not required viewing but it is certainly a good time.