GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE

1986

The Great Mouse Detective is Disney's 26th animated feature. Based on the series of books "The adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  "Basil of Baker Street" by Eve Titus, the film follows the adventures of Basil and Dr. Dawson.

Black Cauldron was one of the biggest flops in the Studio's history, so with Great Mouse Detective, the new generation of animators was forced to prove themselves if they wanted to keep animated features alive. With great characters (probably the best villain from the 80's) and very funny references to Sherlock Holmes (even showing some scenes with Sherlock voiced by the original actor Basil Rathbone) the film was a much better effort than its predecessor.


Here we go back to a very low budget film, since Black Cauldron represented such a huge economical loss for the studio, but this does not mean that there wasn't room for some technological advances. Although we know that computer generated graphics were used mildly in Black Cauldron, Great Mouse Detective can be considered the first film in which CGI was used as a key element in the film.

Nowadays, complicated camera movements and chase sequences are very common in animation, but before Great Mouse Detective, animation was more limited in the sense that the camera movements were much simpler.
With the help of a computer generated model, animators at Disney were able to create an amazing chase scene in which Basil and Ratigan run through a complicated system of gears inside the Big Ben clock.

 

As usual, the voice casting in this film is amazing, but one of the highlights is the performance of Vincent Price as the villain Ratigan. Combining the voice of one of the most iconic villain actors and the great animation and character design of Glen Keane, watching Ratigan in action is a true delight.