This review is part of the facebook group Super Ink Movie Club created by Amy
Mclean. Link to https://www.facebook.com/groups/superink/
and Amy’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/TVCriticAmy/videos
This month’s film is: Any Disney Film You Haven’t Seen
Previously. For which I have chosen The
Great Mouse Detective (1986).
Being a film with talking mice as well as its style of
animation, this film instantly reminded me of The Rescuers (1977) and The
Secret Of NIMH (1982). The film is an animated talking mouse adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, with our hero named
after Sherlock actor Basil Rathbone. In fact this is set in the same universe,
as Basil living under the floorboards and in the walls of his house at 221
Baker Street and Holmes himself has a bit of a cameo. Our main characters in
fact play roles equivalent to the famous characters including personalities and
relationships: Basil is Sherlock Holmes; Dr Dawson is Dr Watson; Ratigan is
Moriarty; Mrs Judson is Mrs Hudson and there’s an unnamed female character at
the end that could be Irene Adler. Also we have character mouse queen called
Mousetoria, obviously a parody of Queen Victoria.
Just like Sherlock Holmes, Basil is a highly intelligent,
very observant, a bit egotistical and could be emotionless yet still an
enjoyable character. Dr Dawson just like Watson is amazed by Basil’s abilities
and provides the emotional anchor for the audience as well as the protagonist.
Ratigan is such a fun and diabolical villain, like Moriarty
his is a criminal mastermind with no humanity and can’t be reasoned with. Just
to add to the awesomeness, he is voiced by the legendary Vincent Price! The
hero and villain relationship between Basil and Ratigan is perfect; they’re
both equally intelligent that they are enviousness towards each other but
possibly have admiration for each other as well.
The animation is beautiful and captures Victorian England
very well, seeing all the London landmarks in stylish dark colour palettes are
done extremely well. The climax is a lot of fun being is set on the Big Ben,
which is amazing and even has a nod to the famous Sherlock story The Final Problem.
If I had to nit-pick, I felt the character Olivia is kind of
annoying and I felt she was more in the way than actually adding to the plot. I
also felt Ratigan’s plot was a little too childish, granted it’s a children’s
film but a feel even some children may find it laughable. However they are
minor complaints and certainly don’t affect the overall enjoyment of the film.
This an underrated Disney film, that I wish I had seen ages
ago. Definitely worthy of seeing if you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes or The
Secret of NIMH.
