Disney has a long reputation for quality animation, but there have been periods where that was less true. Sometime between the classic era, often overseen by Walt himself, and the “Disney Renaissance” that started with The Little Mermaid, there was a period where Disney would still release the occasional hand-drawn animated feature, but never really seemed able to produce a classic the way the company did during its various periods of general greatness. That said, it does seem the company might have come close with 1992’s The Great Mouse Detective.
It’s only a little over an hour as it turns out. My smart TV had it listed amongst various movie recommendations for the different signs of the Chinese zodiac under “year of the rat” for some reason.
It’s 1897 in London, and there’s a world living beneath the notice of humans where mice seem to live parallel lives. Young Olivia Flaversham is horrified when a peg-legged bat named Fidget kidnaps her toymaker father. There is but one mouse who might be able to find him: the famous detective Basil of Baker Street, the eccentric mouse with great deductive powers that lives in Sherlock Holmes’s house’s crawlspace. Escorted there by former Army surgeon mouse Dr. Dawson, Basil has no real interest in the case until Olivia mentions the bat. The bat works for Professor Rattigan, the dastardly rodent that Basil has been trying to catch for ages! Now Basil will for sure take the case.
As it is, Rattigan, who hates to be called a rat despite obviously being one, has a plan to take over the country. Said plan involves Mr. Flaversham building some kind of clockwork machine and the Queen, an older mouse about to celebrate her diamond jubilee. Rattigan has a mob of helpers, a pet cat that can and will eat a cartoon mouse just off-camera, and a desire to end Basil as much as Basil wants to bring Rattigan to justice. Who can win this battle of wits?
So, keeping in mind the era, this was a decent enough movie, and I can get why it might be beloved of people of a certain age. The animation isn’t up to the level of classic Disney or Disney Renaissance levels, but it’s still a lot better than a lot of other animation from the same period. The movie does use many of the recognizable Holmes bits, like referring to something as “elementary” to Dawson, the great observation skills, and even the presence of Toby the bloodhound from the old Holmes stories. They even managed to work in some old recorded lines by classic movie Holmes Basil Rathbone. That said, the slapstick is a bit intermittent, the story is decent but nothing great, and the songs are forgettable despite the fact Henry Mancini was responsible for the movie’s music.
That said, the movie does have one saving grace: Vincent Price as the voice of Rattigan. Rattigan may not be one of the all-time great Disney villains, but he is easily the most memorable character in the movie, and that comes down largely to the great gusto Price puts into his lines. Price was an old veteran by this point, and he knew what he was doing, making a more memorable character that was extravagant and outrageous in ways that none of the others here are. About the only other thing I felt worth mentioning for the cast is Alan Young doing what sounds like his Scrooge McDuck voice as Mr. Flaversham, but really, see this for Price if you’re interested, but there are better Disney movies and better Holmes parodies out there.
Grade: C+
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