The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 American animated adventure film based on the children's book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone and produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Directed by John Musker, Dave Michener, Ron Clements, and Burny Mattinson, it features the voices of Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Susanne Pollatschek, Candy Candido, Diana Chesney, Eve Brenner, and Alan Young. The plot follows a mouse detective 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 (and whose voice, sampled from a 1966 reading of "The Red-Headed League" was the voice of Holmes in this film, nearly 19 years after his death). 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 (1985). 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 named Olivia Flaversham celebrates her birthday with her single father, Mr. Flaversham, who is a gifted toymaker. A bat with a crippled wing and a peg leg arrives and kidnaps Flaversham. Olivia leaves to find Basil of Baker Street, the famous Great Mouse Detective. David Q. Dawson, a retired army surgeon mouse newly returned from Afghanistan, meets Olivia and escorts her to Basil's residence.
Basil initially dismisses them, but when Olivia mentions the bat that abducted her father, Basil realizes that Olivia saw Fidget, the assistant of Professor Ratigan, the criminal mastermind whom Basil was working to catch. It is then revealed that Ratigan kidnapped Flaversham to force him to create a clockwork robot replica of the Queen of the Mice, so that Ratigan can usurp her place as "Supreme Ruler of all Mousedom". Flaversham initially refuses to participate in the scheme, but capitulates when Ratigan threatens to harm Olivia.
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 the bat to a human-sized toyshop. While searching the area, Dawson finds Fidget's checklist, and Basil discovers Fidget has been stealing clockwork mechanisms and toy soldiers' uniforms. Fidget ambushes and kidnaps Olivia before Basil and Dawson can stop him.
Basil conducts chemical tests to the checklist, discovering it 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. They spot Fidget, and follow 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' roles and kidnap the Mouse Queen. Inspired by a remark Dawson made, Basil deduces the trap's weakness, freeing himself, Dawson and Olivia.
At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan forces Flaversham to operate the toy Queen, while the real one 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". After Basil, Dawson, and Olivia save Flaversham and the real Queen, they restrain Fidget and Ratigan's other henchmen, while Toby chases Felicia until she jumps over a wall, into a pack of Royal Guard Dogs. Basil seizes control of the mechanical queen, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud while breaking it 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, setting off in pursuit. Ratigan tosses Fidget overboard to lighten the load. Basil jumps onto the dirigible to confront Ratigan, causing it to crash straight 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; the vibrations cause Ratigan to fall to his death. He attempts to take Basil with him, but Basil grabs a part of Ratigan's dirigible and saves himself.
Back at Baker Street, the group recounts their adventures. The Flavershams bid a fond farewell and leave to catch their train. Dawson reluctantly resolves to leave as well, until a new distressed client arrives. Basil introduces Dawson to her as his friend and investigative partner, prompting Dawson to remain and assist in Basil's future cases.
Voice cast
Vincent Price as Professor Ratigan, a villainous rat who hates being reminded of being 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. Shani Wallis as Lady Mouse, the female mouse that Basil and Dawson agree to help at the end of the film.
Basil Rathbone voices Sherlock Holmes, the famous human detective who lives above Basil. The voice of Rathbone (who had died in 1967) is taken from the 1966 Caedmon Records recording of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League". Voice samples of Nigel Bruce were not used for the voice of Watson, Holmes' medical associate, because a similar recording of him was not available. Laurie Main portrays Watson.
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 [the audience] 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. Some of the generic titles later became part of a category on the January 1, 1987 episode of Jeopardy!.
Casting Following a succession of American and British actors who read for the part of Basil, Royal Shakespeare actor Barrie Ingham won the role within six minutes of his audition. Val Bettin was co-director Ron Clements's first choice for Dawson. For Olivia, Susanne Pollatschek was selected over hundreds of other applicants while Alan Young, who had voiced Scrooge McDuck for Mickey's Christmas Carol, was selected to voice her father Hiriam because of his authentic Scottish brogue.
When the filmmakers watched the 1950 comedy film Champagne for Caesar to study Ronald Colman's performance as a possible model for Basil, they immediately decided to cast Vincent Price, who also starred in the film, as Ratigan.In Their Own Words: Glen Keane and Vincent Price on Ratigan | Cartoon Research A veteran actor for 52 years, Price was willing to do an audition commenting "If anybody but Disney had asked me, I would have been offended." Following a voice test, veteran voice artist Candy Candido recorded his dialogue for Fidget in one hour. To heighten the pitch, the tape recording of his voice was sped up. Candido's natural voice was kept for one character shouting "Get off, you eight-legged bum."
Animation