As a comedic take on the Holmes mysteries that really understands the source material from a satirical perspective, The Great Mouse Detective lives up to the potential that was squandered by the dreadful Holmes & Watson.īasil’s arch-nemesis Professor Ratigan is, of course, based on Professor Moriarty from the Holmes stories. It’s both a spot-on portrayal of Holmes’ genius and a fun satire of his arrogance. Much like The Lego Batman Movie, The Great Mouse Detective is both an affectionate parody of a familiar icon and a surprisingly engaging character study digging into what makes this charismatic crimefighter tick. The first and second acts deliver mystery and intrigue in spades, then the third act delivers action, spectacle, and emotional closure. All the clues and twists and misdirects build to a tense, thrilling finale set inside the Big Ben clocktower (whose spinning cogs and mechanisms are even more terrifyingly huge in relation to the anthropomorphic mice). Eventually, Basil’s investigation into the disappearance of Olivia’s father reunites him with his old arch-nemesis, Professor Ratigan. The mystery plot in The Great Mouse Detective might not be as devilishly complex as the works of Arthur Conan Doyle – it is aimed at an audience of all ages, after all – but it is an engaging whodunit that unfolds at a nice, fast pace with plenty of surprising twists and turns and red herrings along the way. Olivia hires Basil to help her track down her missing father, Dawson comes along for the ride, and the game is afoot. Olivia bumps into Dawson, who helps her find the eccentric yet legendary “Great Mouse Detective.” They find the detective, Basil ( named after Basil Rathbone, who played Holmes in 14 movies), living on Baker Street underneath the real Holmes (played by Rathbone himself, thanks to some sneaky archival audio). Narrated by Dawson, The Great Mouse Detective tells the story of an eight-year-old girl named Olivia whose father is kidnapped by a nefarious villain. RELATED: This Disney Animated Sci-Fi Movie Is A New Twist On A Literary Classic In fact, the movie was originally produced under the title Basil of Baker Street, but the head of Disney at the time, Michael Eisner, allegedly changed the title to the more generic-sounding The Great Mouse Detective after complaining that the name Basil was “too English.” This was an unpopular decision among the crew working on the film, and animator Ed Gombert responded to the title change by passing around a fake interoffice memo with satirical title suggestions for Disney classics like The Little Deer Who Grew Up, The Girl with the See-through Shoes, and The Wonderful Elephant Who Could Really Fly (these joke titles later became a category on Jeopardy!). The Great Mouse Detective was based on the Basil of Baker Street books by children’s author Eve Titus.
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