Review: The Great Mouse Detective

A young female mouse requests the help of famed (and highly eccentric) mouse detective Basil of Baker Street (voiced by Barrie Ingham, and named after…well, you know who) to find her missing toymaker father (voiced by Alan Young, from TV’s “Mr. Ed”). Basil, being a mouse, lives below the premises of a certain other famous detective of Baker Street. The nefarious villain behind the film’s evil plot is quickly revealed to be Basil’s arch-enemy, the diabolical Rattigan (voiced by Vincent Price). Also aiding Basil and the young girl is the kindly Dr. Dawson (voiced by Val Bettin), though the extent of his usefulness here might be a tad questionable.

 

Hardly Disney’s finest hour, you can see why this 1986 animated flick isn’t terribly well-remembered or widely viewed today. The 80s weren’t the greatest time for Disney animation, and although watchable, it’s weirdly lacking in the mystery department. I know this wasn’t based on an Arthur Conan Doyle novel, but I mean, this is still essentially an animated, anthropomorphised Sherlock Holmes movie, yet there’s practically no mystery to it. We know who the villain is right away, and although we don’t really know all the details of what they are nefariously getting up to, when we do find it out, it hardly plays out in mystery-story fashion. That’s a shame, because you’d think Sherlock Holmes would serve better as the inspiration for a fun family film (once you eliminate the seedier elements, of course), than say “Oliver Twist”. Yet, the subsequent “Oliver & Co.” is indeed the superior film. Go figure.

 

I was at first doing double-takes at how alarmingly similarly Basil of Baker Street behaved to Robert Downey Jr.’s subsequent “Sherlock Holmes”. It was uncanny at times. Barrie Ingham makes Basil a really enjoyable character, though this film’s version of Watson is seriously clumsily integrated into the story. Vincent Price’s Moriarty-esque character is closer to his campy Egghead from “Batman” than any of his film work, which although Egghead is one of my least favourite Price turns, is well suited to this. It’s a bit less campy than Egghead, and he’s clearly having a ball here in a role that he was probably born for. I just prefer my Price with a touch more malevolence, I suppose. He does get one hilarious song, however that I loved. Meanwhile, Alan Young (AKA Wilbuuuuurr!) practically Scrooge McDuck’s his wat through a small role here. I loved the incorporation of Basil Rathbone’s voice, clever given Rathbone had died many years before. I also loved the role of bloodhounds used for obvious purposes, and the overall mouse-eye worldview was interesting too.

 

The animation isn’t stellar, but more interesting to look at than the later “Oliver & Co.” at least. Also, does anyone else think the big fiendish plot (notice I said plot, not mystery) here is a bit fucked up for a Disney animated film? I mean, “Return to Oz” was nightmare-inducing enough, and now this? That’s not a complaint in this case, so much as a gobsmacked observation (Seriously hate “Return to Oz”, though. My very first and among my worst-ever cinema-going experiences).

 

It’s a film full of pleasurable little touches and a truly cute central idea, but it doesn’t add up to a solid whole. A cute film that you want to like more than you actually do. A bit disappointing. The directors are Ron Clements & John Musker (“The Little Mermaid”, “Aladdin”, “Hercules”), Burny Mattinson (co-writer of “The Fox and the Hound”, “The Rescuers”, and “Beauty and the Beast”), and Dave Michener (co-screenwriter of “The Fox and the Hound” and “The Rescuers”). Based on a series of novels by Eve Titus, the screenplay is by Roy O. Disney (Yes, Walt’s brother), Vance Gerry (“The Rescuers”, “The Fox and the Hound”), Mel Shaw (“Bambi”, “The Black Cauldron”), and Pete Young (“The Fox and the Hound”, “The Black Cauldron”).

 

Rating: C+