The Great Mouse Detective (also known as The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective in its 1992 re-release and Basil the Great Mouse Detective in other countries) is an American animated mystery comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus. It is the 26th animated film in the Disney animated canon and was directed by John Musker, Ron Clements, David Michener, and Burny Mattison. It was released on July 2, 1986.
Plot[]
In London 1897, a young mouse named Olivia Flaversham is celebrating her birthday with her toymaker father, Harem, when a bat with a crippled wing and peg leg breaks into the toyshop and kidnaps him. Olivia sets out to look for Basil of Baker Street, a famous mouse detective, but becomes lost. She meets Dr. David Q. Dawson, a surgeon who has just returned from a lengthy service of the Mouse Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan, who escorts her to Basil's home. Basil is initially indifferent with Olivia's problem, but quickly realizes that the bat she mentioned is actually Fidget, a henchman of Basil's arch nemesis Professor Ratigan. Ratigan is revealed to have kidnapped Hiram to build a clockwork robot that will resemble and mimic the Queen so that Ratigan can rule England. Hiram initially refuses to take part in the scheme, but gives in when Ratigan threatens harm to Olivia. Ratigan then announces to his henchman his plan to kill the Queen and become "supreme ruler of all mousedom", and demonstrates his sense of power when one of his cohorts drunkenly calls him a rat (which he is) and has him eaten by the palace cat Felicia.
Fidget appears in the window of Basil's residence, but quickly escapes when Basil and Dawson give chance. Basil decides to track Fidget by taking Toby, a Bassett Hound who resides in the home of Sherlock Holmes, with Dawson and Olivia accompanying them. Toby tracks Fidget's scent to a toyshop where the bat is stealing the clockwork mechanisms and uniforms from toy soldiers. Fidget ambushes and kidnaps Olivia, easily evading Basil and Dawson who fail to catch him. Dawson discovers a checklist which Fidget had dropped, for which Basil does chemical tests to discover that the list came from a riverfront near the Thames. Ratigan is at first furious with Fidget for allowing Basil to discover him and nearly feeds him to Felicia, but decides to spare his life and use him for his next scheme. Basil and Dawson disguise themselves as sailors and enter a tavern called the "Rat Trap", where they find and follow Fidget to Ratigan's headquarters, where they are caught in a trap set by Ratigan. Ratigan has them tied to a spring-loaded mousetrap connected with a Rube Goldberg machine laid out to kill them both and sets out to Buckingham Palace, where his henchmen kidnap the Queen. Basil deduces the trap's weakness and, along with perfect timing from Dawson and Olivia, saves them all and heads out to the palace.
At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan forces Hiram to operate the toy Queen, which announces Ratigan as the ruler of all Mousedom and he begins to announce his tyrannical plans to his new "subjects". The real Queen is dragged away to be fed to Felicia, but is rescued by Basil, Dawson, and Olivia while Toby chases away Felicia, who is confronted by the royal guard dogs. Basil, Dawson, and Olivia rescue Hiram and restrain Figet and Ratigan's other henchmen. Basil seizes control of the mechanical Queen, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud and tyrant while making it disassemble all the while. The crows turns on Ratigan, but he escapes in his dirigible with Fidget holding Olivia hostage. Using the Union Jack, a matchbox and helium balloons, Basil, Dawson and Hiram make their own craft and pursue them. Fidget is eventually thrown from the dirigible to lighten the load by Ratigan, who attempts to drive it himself. Basil jumps onto the dirigible to confront Ratigan, causing it to crash into Big Ben.
Inside the clocktower, Basil manages to get Ratigan's cape caught in some gears and safely delivers Olivia to Hiram. Ratigan, furious at the sight of his enemy escaping, finally snaps and breaks free and attacks Basil, eventually knocking him onto the remains of the dirigible. When the clock strikes 10:00, the bell hits the loudest sound, and Ratigan falls to his death, taking Basil with him. However, Basil manages to survive by grabbing onto a piece of Ratigan's dirigible. Back at Baker Street, Basil and Dawson recount their adventure and the Flavershams head home. After their departure, a distraught new client arrives and solicits their help, with Basil noting Dawson as his most trusted assistant, prompting Dawson to remain and assist Basil.
Why It's No Mystery in History?[]
- This movie came out at exactly the right time; when it was released, Disney had been struggling in the animation department following Walt's death, and the financial failure of The Black Cauldron nearly convinced them to shut their animation studio down when this movie came along. While it was not quite a big hit as some of the films made in Walt's time and on account of being outperformed at the box office by Don Bluth's An American Tail, it still did succeed well enough, both critically and financially, to prove Disney was still capable of doing animated films, which ultimately preserved the studio and set the stage to the Disney Renaissance.
- Both Basil and Ratigan are really fun to watch; they are smart, calculating, egotistical, and just work off each other brilliantly.
- Ratigan is especially fun to watch because he reveals in how evil he is and is voiced perfectly by the late Vincent Price, who would even go on to consider Ratigan one of his favorite roles, especially because he got to sing two songs, "The World's Criminal Mind" and "Goodbye so Soon".
- The animation is incredible, especially when it comes to the use of computer-generated imagery used for the inside of Big Ben; they make it look huge, and it's incredible.
- An awesome chase scene that culminates in one of Disney's greatest climaxes.
- Memorable characters like Dr. Dawson, Olivia, Mr. Flaversham, Fidget, Toby and other characters.