The Great Mouse Detective Review

Disney fans the studio has released alot of animated over the years some good some not good some of which became instant classics some of which didn't. The film i'm about to review today is a film that wasn't considered a classic for a long time but has since gone on to become a cult classic this is also a film that i've honestly not seen a single frame from so i'm seeing this for the first time and so here is my review of The Great Mouse Detective.

The plot of the film is Olivia's father  toy maker is kidnapped and she goes to get help from famous mouse detective Basil and so it's up Basil to find her father and find out what the villain's evil scheme is. The plot of the movie is pretty basic mystery film stuff and given that the film is an hour and fourteen minuets long you can't go into this expecting a deep and complex plot and the story as basic as it is is very well told and paced.

Starring in the film is Barrie Ingham as Basil , Vincent Price as Professor Ratigan , Val Bettin as Major Dr. David Q. Dawson , Susanne Pollatschek as Olivia Flaversham , Candy Candido as Fidget , Frank Welker as Toby and Bye Felicia , Scrooge McDuck as Hiram Flaversham , Diana Chesney as Mrs. Judson , Eve Brenner as Queen Mousetoria , the late Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and the late Laurie Main as Dr. Watson.

In all honesty I had no idea what to expect from the acting since i've honestly not heard of that many of the main cast outside of Frank Welker of course. So i'm pleased to say that the acting in the film isn't that bad it's alot better then what I thought it was going to be but at the same time I feel that it could have been better especially from Barrie not that he's bad but he's eccentric enough for a Sherlock Holmes type character.

Of course this film was animated by Walt Disney Feature Animation I don't really think it needs saying what they've worked on since it's pretty much in the name. This film was made when the company used that scratchy look in pretty much all of their animated films but it was being phased out by this point and I hated it in all the other films it's in and I hate it here thank god they got rid of this style and never went back to it.

The overall quality of the animation is indeed up to the Disney standerd but given that the studio wasn't doing to good at this time it's clearly not their best work. Which is a shame because Disney animated films usually have some really great animation infact even in bad Disney films the animation is usually the best thing about the film where as here tho it's not it's just OK at best and that's the best thing I can say about the animations overall quality.

For those that don't know the film loosely follows the story of Sherlock Holmes with several of the characters being based on classic characters from the Sherlock Holmes with the characters of Dawson and Mrs. Judson each being based on Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson respectively. You could say that the character of Basil is based on Sherlock Holmes but it would be a pretty big stretch and that's why i'm not included him and the same goes for the villain Ratigan.

This film is the directorial debut for Disney legends Ron Clements and John Musker who have made many famous some would even say legendary films for the company. Here tho there talents don't really get a chance to shine which I think is due to the fact that their working with two other directors in this case producer Burny Mattinson and Dave Michener and I feel that really does hurt the film because Clements and Musker are a talented duo.

Every hero needs a villain and so let's take the time to talk about the villain of this film Ratigan and I have to say that I really liked him. He's sophisticated yet goofy at the same time , he's terrifying as all villains should be and in a strange way he's likeable which is something that I don't really get to say that often and yet here it's so true and I loved that about him since it makes him come across as more three dimensional.

However if there is one thing about the character that I didn't like it's that we don't really find out what his motivations are. That might be because the film is only an hour and fourteen minuets long and so somethings had to get cut in order to tell the story but if that is the case then I wished that they kept it in since it would have helped us identify with the character which for a mystery film is kind of important.

Speaking of the mystery that is something that we have to talk about since it's an important part of the film. I honestly didn't like the mystery aspect that much mostly because they revealed who the villain was far to early and the best part of any mystery is working out who did it and they completely stripped that away the entire film so you might as well not even have a mystery at that point because we already know who did it and so now we're ahead of the characters in terms of knowledge when we should be with them.

Overall while this is an enjoyable film and I can see why this became a cult classic it's still a film with alot of faults and so even tho I might get some hate for this the film gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me. Yes I know that it was re-released as Basil The Great Mouse Detective i'm not calling it that because that's not what the original title was and quite honestly that title is a bit of a mouth full anyways.