The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 American animated mystery adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on the children's book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone, the film is written and directed by John Musker, Dave Michener, Ron Clements, and Burny Mattinson. Featuring the voices of Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Susanne Pollatschek, Candy Candido, Diana Chesney, Eve Brenner, and Alan Young, the plot follows the titular mouse detective, Basil of Baker Street, who undertakes to help a young mouse find and save her father from the criminal mastermind Professor Ratigan.
The Great Mouse Detective draws heavily on the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with a heroic mouse who consciously emulates the detective. Titus named the main character after actor Basil Rathbone, who is best remembered for playing Holmes in film. Sherlock Holmes also mentions "Basil" as one of his aliases in the Arthur 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. The film's timely success has been credited with keeping Walt Disney Animation going after the previous film's failure by renewing upper management's confidence in the department, thus setting the stage for the Disney Renaissance when feature animated films would become the corporation's most lucrative and prestigious product.
Plot
In 1897 London, a young mouse Olivia Flaversham celebrates her birthday with her single father, toymaker Mr. Flaversham. A flightless, peg-legged bat bursts into the toyshop and kidnaps Flaversham. Olivia leaves to find Basil of Baker Street, the famous Great Mouse Detective. David Q. Dawson, a retired army surgeon mouse returning from Afghanistan, 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, who works for elusive criminal mastermind Professor Ratigan. It is revealed that Ratigan kidnapped Flaversham to force him to create a clockwork robot 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.
While Basil converses with Olivia and Dawson, Fidget appears in Basil's window, then suddenly disappears. Basil, Dawson and Olivia take Toby, Sherlock Holmes' pet Basset 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 the trio, kidnapping Olivia before Basil and Dawson can stop him.
Back at Baker street, Basil uses chemicals and determines the paper the checklist was written on came from the "Rat Trap", a tavern near the junction of the sewer and the Thames. Basil and Dawson disguise themselves as sailors and head to the tavern. There, they find Fidget and shadow 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 a Rube Goldberg machine of various killing devices. Ratigan then sets out for Buckingham Palace, where his henchmen hijack the royal guards and takeover their positions, before kidnapping the Mouse Queen. Meanwhile, inspired by a remark Dawson made, Basil escapes the trap, also freeing Dawson.
At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan orders Flaversham to operate the toy Queen, while the real Queen 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". Basil, Dawson and Olivia rescue Flaversham and the real Queen, then restrain Fidget and Ratigan's henchmen, while Toby chases Felicia away. Basil seizes the mechanism controlling the toy Queen, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud before breaking itself into pieces. Realizing Ratigan's treason, the enraged crowd attacks, but Ratigan escapes on his dirigible with Fidget, holding Olivia hostage.
Basil, Dawson and Flaversham create an airship from a matchbox, balloons and a Union Jack flag, and pursue Ratigan. Ratigan tosses Fidget overboard to lighten the load and gain more speed; Basil jumps onto the dirigible to confront Ratigan, who inadvertently crashes the dirigible into Big 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 the clock 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 Baker Street, the Flavershams bid Basil and Dawson a fond farewell and depart for home. Dawson reluctantly prepares to leave as well, but a new client arrives. Basil accepts the lady's case, introducing Dawson to her 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.
- Barrie Ingham as Basil, a brilliant mouse detective from London's Baker Street.
- * Ingham also voices Bartholomew, a drunken mouse lackey of Ratigan.
- Val Bettin as David Q. Dawson, previously of the Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan. 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 bumbling bat right-hand henchman who cannot fly because of a crippled wing.
- * 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.
Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo, and Walker Edmiston voice Ratigan's thug guards. Melissa Manchester also appears as Miss Mouse, who sings "Let Me Be Good To You".
Production
The idea of doing an animated film about Sherlock Holmes with animals was first discussed during the production of The Rescuers. Veteran layout artist Joe Hale is credited with suggesting to adapt the children's book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus, but the project fell into development limbo because of the similarities to The Rescuers. 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 president Ron Miller, who approved the project. Earlier in his career, Clements created a 15-minute Sherlock Holmes animated short recorded on Super 8 film. Because the animators were displeased with the direction The Black Cauldron was heading, Basil of Baker Street was approved as an alternative project.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 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.
With the departure of Miller in 1984, the board of directors appointed Michael Eisner, who had resigned from Paramount Pictures, to become the new CEO. Eisner recruited former production head Jeffrey Katzenberg to become studio chairman over Disney's film division. Following a story reel screening of Basil, 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, 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. To replace Miller who had been producer, Feature Animation chairman Roy 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.
Following the box office under-performance of the 1985 Paramount/Amblin film Young Sherlock Holmes, Eisner decided to rename Basil of Baker Street into The Great Mouse Detective, feeling the name "Basil" was "too English". The re-titling of the film proved to be unpopular with the filmmakers so much that animator Ed Gombert wrote a satirical interoffice memo, allegedly by studio executive Peter Schneider, which gave preceding Disney films generic titles such as Seven Little Men Help a Girl, The Wonderful Elephant Who Could Really Fly, The Little Deer Who Grew Up, The Girl with the See-through Shoes, Two Dogs Fall in Love, Puppies Taken Away, and A Boy, a Bear and a Big Black Cat. These generic titles would later become a category on Jeopardy!.