The Great Mouse Detective draws heavily on the tradition ofSherlock Holmes with a heroic mouse who consciously emulates the detective. Titus named the main character after actorBasil Rathbone, who is best remembered forplaying Holmes in film (and whose voice, sampled from a 1966 reading of "The Red-Headed League"[3] was the voice of Holmes in this film, 19 years after his death). Sherlock Holmes also mentions "Basil" as one of his aliases in theArthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of Black Peter".
The Great Mouse Detective was released to theaters on July 2, 1986, to positive reviews from critics and financial success, in sharp contrast to the box office underperformance of Disney's previous animated feature film,The Black Cauldron (1985). The film's timely success has been credited with keepingWalt Disney Animation going after the previous film's failure by renewing upper management's confidence in the department, thus setting the stage for theDisney Renaissance when feature animated films would become the corporation's most lucrative and prestigious product.[4]
Plot
In 1897 London, a young mouse Olivia Flaversham celebrates her birthday with her single father,toymaker Mr. Flaversham. A bat with a crippled wing and apeg leg arrives unexpectedly, kidnapping Flaversham. Olivia leaves to find Basil of Baker Street, the famous Great Mouse Detective. David Q. Dawson, a retired army surgeon mouse returning fromAfghanistan, meets Olivia and escorts her to Basil's residence.
After meeting the detective, Olivia mentions the bat abducting her father. Basil realizes Olivia saw Fidget, the assistant of Professor Ratigan; an elusive criminal mastermind. It is revealed that Ratigan kidnapped Flaversham to force him to create aclockworkrobot replica of the Queen of the Mice, usurping her place as "Supreme Ruler of all Mousedom". Flaversham initially refuses to participate in the scheme, but capitulates when Ratigan threatens to harm Olivia.
During their conversation, Fidget appears in Basil's window, then suddenly disappears. Basil, Dawson and Olivia take Toby,Sherlock Holmes' petBasset Hound, to trail Fidget's scent. They trace him to a human-sized toyshop. Dawson finds Fidget's checklist, discovering that he has been stealing clockwork mechanisms and toy soldiers' uniforms. The bat ambushes and snatches Olivia away, before Basil and Dawson can stop him.
Back at Baker street, Basil does chemical tests to the checklist, discovering it came from the "Rat Trap", a tavern near the junction of the sewer and theThames. Basil and Dawson disguise themselves as sailors, and head to the tavern. There they spot Fidget, following him to Ratigan's headquarters, only to be ambushed by Ratigan and his henchmen. Ratigan has the pair tied to a spring-loaded mousetrap connected to aRube Goldberg machine of various killing devices. Ratigan then sets out forBuckingham Palace, where his henchmen hijack the royal guards roles and kidnap the Mouse Queen. Inspired by a remark Dawson made, Basil deduces the trap's weakness, freeing himself, Dawson and Olivia.
At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan orders Flaversham to operate the toy Queen, while the latter is taken to be fed to Felicia, Ratigan's pet cat. The toy Queen declares Ratigan the ruler of all Mousedom, and he announces his dictatorial plans for his new "subjects". After the trio save Flaversham and the real Queen, they restrain Fidget including the henchmen, as Toby chases Felicia away. Basil seizes control of the toy, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud, breaking itself into pieces. Realizing Ratigan'streason, the enraged crowd attacks, but Ratigan escapes on hisdirigible with Fidget, holding Olivia hostage.
Basil, Dawson, and Flaversham create an airship from a matchbox, balloons, and aUnion Jack flag, to pursue an escaping Ratigan. After Ratigan tosses Fidget overboard, Basil jumps onto the dirigible to confront Ratigan, causing it to crash straight intoBig Ben's clockface. Inside the clocktower, Basil restrains Ratigan, rescues Olivia, and safely delivers her to Flaversham. Ratigan breaks free and attacks Basil, just before theclock strikes 10:00, causing Ratigan to fall to his death. He attempts to take Basil with him, but the detective grabs a part of Ratigan's dirigible and saves himself.
Back at home, the group recounts their adventures. The Flavershams bid a fond farewell and leave to catch their train. Dawson reluctantly resolves to leave as well, before a new client arrives. Basil accepts her case, introducing Dawson as his investigative partner, prompting Dawson to remain and assist Basil.
Voice cast
Vincent Price as Professor Ratigan, a villainous rat who hates being reminded as one, and Basil's long-established arch-enemy.[5][6]
Barrie Ingham as Basil, a brilliant mouse detective from London's Baker Street.[7]
Ingham also voices Bartholomew, a drunken mouse lackey of Ratigan.
Val Bettin as David Q. Dawson, previously of the Queen's66th Regiment inAfghanistan. He eventually becomes Basil's associate, friend, and personal biographer. Dawson also serves as the film's narrator.
Bettin also voices a thug guard of Ratigan.
Susanne Pollatschek as Olivia Flaversham, a young Scottish mouse who seeks Basil's help in finding her father.
Candy Candido as Fidget, Ratigan's bumblingbat right-hand henchman who cannot fly because of a crippled wing.[8]
Candido also voices a reprobate in the pub.
Diana Chesney as Mrs. Judson, Basil's mouse housekeeper who is often exasperated by his antics.
Eve Brenner as the Mouse Queen, whom Ratigan attempts to depose.
Alan Young as Mr. Flaversham, Olivia's affectionate Scottish father who owns a toy shop.[9]
Basil Rathbone voicesSherlock Holmes, the famous human detective who lives above Basil. The voice of Rathbone (who had died in 1967) is taken from the 1966 Caedmon Records recording of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League".[3] Voice samples ofNigel Bruce were not used for the voice ofWatson, Holmes' medical associate, because a similar recording of him was not available.[3]Laurie Main portrays Watson.
The idea of doing an animated film about Sherlock Holmes with animals was first discussed during the production ofThe Rescuers. Veteran layout artist Joe Hale is credited with suggesting to adapt the children's book seriesBasil of Baker Street byEve Titus, but the project fell into development limbo because of the similarities toThe Rescuers.[3] In 1982, Ron Clements proposed adapting the children's book series into an animated feature and, along with story artist Pete Young, it was pitched to Disney presidentRon Miller, who approved the project.[10] Earlier in his career, Clements created a 15-minute Sherlock Holmes animated short recorded onSuper 8 film.[11] Because the animators were displeased with the directionThe Black Cauldron was heading,Basil of Baker Street was approved as an alternative project.[3][12]
Burny Mattinson and John Musker were assigned as the original directors while Dave Michener was also added as co-director. Miller became the producer for the film. The first idea for the victim was for Olivia—then an older and potential love interest whom Dawson falls for, but Miller suggested the character be "a little girl, someone they [the audience] can feel sorry for." One of the dropped characters was a stool pigeon who always hung around Buckingham Palace and tipped Basil off about the skullduggery. The writers dropped the characters deciding for Basil to figure it out for himself.[11]
With the departure of Miller in 1984, the board of directors appointedMichael Eisner, who had resigned fromParamount Pictures, to become the new CEO. Eisner recruited former production headJeffrey Katzenberg to become studio chairman over Disney's film division. Following a story reel screening ofBasil, Eisner and Katzenberg complained about the slow pacing of the story and ordered for rewrites before animation would commence. Although the intended release was set for Christmas 1987,[13] Eisner slashed the projected production budget at $24 million in half where it was green-lit at $10 million and moved the release date up to July 1986 giving the production team one year to complete the film.[14] To replace Miller who had been producer, Feature Animation chairmanRoy E. Disney assigned Mattinson to serve as director/producer, but finding both tasks much too laborious, Mattinson decided to remain as producer. Musker and Michener remained as directors, but with the shortened production schedule, Clements became an additional director.[3]
Following a succession of American and British actors who read for the part of Basil,Royal Shakespeare actorBarrie Ingham won the role within six minutes of his audition.Val Bettin was co-director Ron Clements's first choice for Dawson.[18] For Olivia, Susanne Pollatschek was selected over hundreds of other applicants whileAlan Young, who had voicedScrooge McDuck forMickey's Christmas Carol, was selected to voice her father Hiriam because of his authentic Scottishbrogue.[3]
When the filmmakers watched the 1950 comedy filmChampagne for Caesar to studyRonald Colman's performance as a possible model for Basil, they immediately decided to castVincent Price, who also starred in the film, as Ratigan.[19][20] A veteran actor for fifty-two years, Price was willing to do an audition commenting "If anybody but Disney had asked me, I would have been offended."[21] Following a voice test, veteran voice artistCandy Candido recorded his dialogue for Fidget in one hour. To heighten the pitch, the tape recording of his voice was sped up.[22] Candido's natural voice was kept for one character shouting "Get off, you eight-legged bum."[3]
Animation
Before the box office failure ofThe Black Cauldron, the animation unit onThe Great Mouse Detective was moved to animate the film at 1400 Flower Street in Glendale, California (pictured here).[17]
Basil was first modeled onBing Crosby, but the animators eventually took inspiration fromLeslie Howard.[11] Initially, Ratigan had been designed as thin, weasely, and ratlike. Following the screening ofChampagne for Caesar, Glen Keane noted that following the casting of Price, "his expressive voice and attitude inspired us to further redesign the character."[3] Additionally, during one story meeting, Glen Keane decided to base the stature of Ratigan on then-Disney CEO Ron Miller,[23] who was a 6'6" former football player for theLos Angeles Rams.[3] Furthermore, Keane lifted his personality as he was thumbing through these "photographs of people ofLondon in the 1800s, of railroad men, and there was this one guy smoking a cigar—he had a top hat and there was just something about this guy—this Ratigan ... this rat sucking the cigar, completely dressed to the hilt, he was sharp and perfect—he's a sewer rat dressed like a king and he lives as a king!"[24] The following supervising animators includedMark Henn for Basil, Hendel Butoy for Dawson,Rob Minkoff for Olivia,Andreas Deja for Queen Moustoria,Ruben Aquino for Mrs. Judson, andMike Gabriel for Toby and Felicia.[25]
The original finale was to take place on the hands ofBig Ben with Ratigan eventually falling to his demise. However, layout artistMike Peraza approached Musker with the idea of restaging the final confrontation so the characters would break through the face of Big Ben with the grinding clockwork gears providing added menace, in which Musker agreed. Peraza's inspiration for the scene was a Japaneseanime film,The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), the feature film debut of animatorHayao Miyazaki which is part of theLupin III franchise;The Castle of Cagliostro, which Peraza was a fan of, featured a climactic scene involving characters amidst giant turning gears in aclock tower.[26] Pereza and his team was sent toLondon for video reference and were granted unprecedented access to the clockworks inside Big Ben. Because the bells would chime at every quarter-hour, the team completed their research in one hour.[27]
AnimatorsPhil Nibbelink and Tad Gielow spent months designing the interior of Big Ben at the Feature Animation building, with each gear produced aswire-frame graphics on a computer that was printed out and traced onto animation cels onto which the colors and characters were added.[26] The two-minute climax scene thus usedcomputer-generated imagery (CGI), making it the first Disney film to extensively usecomputer animation, a fact that Disney used to promote the film during marketing.[26][28]
The film was the last work to featureEric Larson as an animation consultant before his retirement. Larson was the last ofDisney's Nine Old Men, the group that had defined much of Disney's theatrical direction since the 1930s. The character of Dr. Dawson was modeled on Larson as a tribute.[29][30]
Music
The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Unusually for a Disney animated feature, there was no soundtrack album released alongside the film; it was released in 1992 alongside the film's reissue under its new title byVarèse Sarabande, one of the few Disney cartoons to have an original soundtrack on the label to date (and the only one not to be issued under a Walt Disney imprint). The album marked the debut ofHenry Mancini for score composition of an animated feature aside from the animated opening forThe Pink Panther.[31]
Initially, Mancini composed a song titled "Are You the One Who Loves Me?" to serve as a parody of a Victorian British music hall. Already in rough animation, the song was recorded byShani Wallis. However, Katzenberg and the new management desired a more contemporary song as they would help make the film more marketable.[3]Michael Jackson was considered by Eisner to voice a character who would enter the saloon, confront Basil,[32] and sing a song at the tavern, but the suggestion was met with uncomfortable silence for which Eisner withdrew the idea; Eisner later proposed forMadonna to perform the song. Eventually,Melissa Manchester was brought in; she wrote and performed "Let Me Be Good to You", by which the rough animation had to be re-timed and often re-animated to properly sync with the song.[3] Mancini also co-wrote two of the film's three original songs, "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind" and "Goodbye So Soon" (both performed by Vincent Price).
During the film's initial theatrical release, the film was accompanied with the short,Clock Cleaners.[33]
The film was re-released on February 14, 1992, retitled asThe Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective.[34][35]
Home media
Following the theatrical re-release, the film was released on VHS andLaserdisc in July 1992 as part of theWalt Disney Classics series. It was placed intomoratorium on April 30, 1993.[36] It was released again on VHS on August 3, 1999[37] (with a game sheet inside it as part of a contest) and on DVD in 2002 with a short making-of featurette. In the United Kingdom, it was first released on VHS in 1992 followed by re-releases in 1993 and 1995.
A "Mystery in the Mist Edition" ofThe Great Mouse Detective was released on DVD on April 13, 2010, and onBlu-ray Disc on October 9, 2012. Unlike previous home media releases, which all used the 1992 reissue title print (The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective), this DVD restored the original 1986 title card, which had previously not been seen since the original 1986 release. The DVD also has the film in its 1.78:1 widescreenaspect ratio, which brings it closer to its original theatrical aspect ratio. TheBlu-ray edition is region-free and thus can be played in any region of the world.[38] The Blu-ray was finally released in the UK on November 9, 2015, and released in France on Blu-ray on October 20, 2015.
Reception
Critical reaction
On their syndicated television show,At the Movies, the film received a "two thumbs up" rating from criticsGene Siskel andRoger Ebert. In his print review forThe Chicago Tribune, Siskel enthusiastically praised the film as the most "truly memorable animated feature in 25 years" that "travels a wide emotional range, taking us from cuddly to scary, from recognition to wonder."[39] Likewise, in his print review for theChicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film three stars out of four in which he praised the film's animation and compared the film to that of Disney'sgolden age. He summarized that "the result is a movie likeThe Great Mouse Detective, which looks more fully animated than anything in some 30 years."[33]
London'sTime Out magazine wrote, "As usual withfilm noir [...] it is the villain who steals the heart and one is rooting for in the breathtaking showdown high up in the cogs and ratchets of Big Ben."[40] Nina Darnton ofThe New York Times applauded that "[t]he heroes are appealing, the villains have that special Disney flair – humorous blackguards who really enjoy being evil – and the script is witty and not overly sentimental."[41] Johanna Steinmetz, also fromThe Chicago Tribune, graded the film three-and-a-half stars (out of four) writing "This movie is cute, cute, cute, but it's a higher grade of cute thanThe Rescuers (1977) andThe Fox and the Hound (1981). The key to good Disney animation is character and facial expression, andDetective abounds in both."[42] Alex Stewart reviewedThe Great Mouse Detective forWhite Dwarf #83, and stated that "After their dismal fudge ofThe Black Cauldron, it's good to see the Disney studios taking a step, however cautious, towards the world of animation as it is today. The style is looser and more vigorous, and, in a climactic fight inside Big Ben, effectively amalgamates computer-drawn clockwork with hand-drawn characters."[43]
Thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reported that the film received a 78% approval rating based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus states that "The Great Mouse Detective may not rank with Disney's classics, but it's an amiable, entertaining picture with some stylishly dark visuals."[44]Metacritic gave the film a score of 73 based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[45]
Animation criticCharles Solomon listed this as one of the best animated films of the 1980s while singling out Keane's key work on Ratigan.[46]
Box-office
The film grossed around $50 million worldwide against a budget of over $14 million during its initial release.[2] Its inexpensive success after its predecessor's under-performance gave the new management of Disney confidence in the viability of their animation department, though it was surpassed at the box office byAn American Tail.[47][48] Re-titled asThe Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective, the film was re-released theatrically on February 14, 1992, where it grossed $13.3 million.[49]The Great Mouse Detective has had a lifetime North American gross of $38.7 million across its original release and reissue.[50]
Legacy
Basil and Professor Ratigan were characters to meet-and-greet at theDisney Parks, until both were retired after 2004.
In the television seriesDarkwing Duck, a little statue of Basil opened the secret passage to Darkwing's hidden base. Some of the characters from the film have recurring cameo appearances in the television seriesHouse of Mouse.
Professor Ratigan is one of the villains with a main focus in the anthology filmOnce Upon a Halloween. He is also one of the villains present in the board gameDisney Villainous.[51]
Basil of Baker Street appears as a playable character in the video gameDisney Heroes: Battle Mode.[52]
Additionally, in honor ofMickey Mouse's 75th anniversary, was planned a film under the titleThe Search for Mickey Mouse in which Mickey gets kidnapped by unknown forces, forcingMinnie Mouse to enlist Basil of Baker Street to investigate his disappearance. However, the project was cancelled after it suffered script problems.[54]
^abTucker, Ernest (April 10, 1987)."Disney still works alchemy".Chicago Sun-Times. Archived fromthe original on October 8, 2017. RetrievedMay 7, 2017 – viaHighBeam Research.Last year, Disney's 26th full-length animated release, the $12 millionThe Great Mouse Detective, took in $50 million at American and overseas box offices.
^Peachment, Chris (2008). "The Great Mouse Detective (aka Basil the Great Mouse Detective)". In Pym, John (ed.).Time Out Film Guide 2009 (17th ed.). Time Out Group Ltd. p. 426.ISBN978-1-84670-100-9.
