The Great Mouse Detective

So I watched two very different movies tonight. I thought I'd start with the light hearted Disney film first and then get into the heavier stuff after.

(On a side note, if anybody is wondering why I haven't continued my Batman series, I'm trying to push as many movies into the last few days of my J-term so it will be done, I am just watching a lot of movies.)

But here's my review of the Great Mouse Detective.

Growing up with three sisters, I saw all the Disney movies. ALL of them.

But the majority of the frequent ones were Disney princess films. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, they were all movies my sisters wanted to watch and I was often in the minority.

Until I found The Great Mouse Detective.

This is a Disneyfied version of the story of Sherlock Holmes. It of course is put a little more kid friendly by having the main characters be mice.

Now I know that mice animated movies are a dime a dozen and why should this one be any different. But the truth is, this is really one of the Disney gems that unfortunately gets overlooked sometimes.

Now, I may have a little bit of a bias because I basically just told you this was one of my favorite Disney movies growing up. But I'll try and be objective and look at this, not from a nostalgic point of view but more of looking how it stands up to today's standards.

The movie begins in a similar fashion to how most Sherlock Holmes movies start. Narration from Watson... or Dawson the mouse. Pretty much the same backstory though, a Doctor, former soldier in the Queen's army, just returning from a tour in Afghanistan.

He finds a little girl crying named Olivia. She is looking for Basil of Bakers Street. They go and find the renown detective because Olivia's father has been kidnapped by a peg legged bat.

Basil deduces that Olivia's father was abducted by his arch nemesis, a rat named Professor Ratigan!

The rest of the film is really unraveling the devious plot of Ratigan and Basil doing Sherlock Holmes things in order to save the girl's father and foil Ratigan's plot to be supreme leader of all mousedom.

The great part about this movie is really the contrast between Basil and Ratigan. Basil is arrogant, dismissive, but at the same time he's the good guy. He's analytical and just wants to deduce for good.

Ratigan is elegant, doesn't want to be called a rat and is just diabolical. He's voiced by Vincent Price and its just phenomenal. I wish I could tell you the other voice actors in this movie but I don't think you would know them. Look them up online if you're curious.

But the movie really is a game between Ratigan and Basil and it comes to a brilliant close with a battle on the arms of Big Ben.

The only problem I see with this movie now is the fact that it is a mouse movie. I don't know what Disney and every other animated studios obsession was with mice in the 80's and 90's but there are so many movies staring mice as the main characters. But for a mouse centered movie, its still done pretty well.

Again, I may be a little bias as this was one of my favorite movies growing up, but there are still a lot of moments I enjoy, some jokes I didn't catch as a kid, and as far as straight forward plots go, this is a perfect example. I don't think I ever realized how simple the plot of this movie is until I watched it. There are a couple things I realized as an adult but it still just brings me back to the fun I had with this movie as a kid.

I don't plan on making this a really long review so I'll just give my straight out opinion.

I still love The Great Mouse Detective. Its a kids movie so don't expect something incredibly brilliant out of it but its still a fun time, even watching it and I'm not a kid. I think its worth checking out and make sure you don't forget about it next time you do a Disney movie marathon.

So have you seen The Great Mouse Detective? What do you think of it? What is your favorite Disney movie? Comment below and let me hear your thoughts.

I'll leave you with this. Its probably the best song of the movie, its Vincent Price singing, what can go wrong? Enjoy!