FAQs about PROFESSOR RATIGAN
(Glutton
for punishment? Then click onto:)
FAQs about NEGADUCK
1.
Who is Professor
Ratigan, anyway?
a. He was the villain and sworn archenemy of the mouse
detective, Basil of Baker
Street in both Eve Titus' books and Disney's film The
Great Mouse Detective.
Ratigan's first appearance in Ms.
Titus' stories was in Basil and the Lost
Colony,
and he appeared again in Basil
in Mexico. To sum it up: if Basil is
The Sherlock
Holmes of the Mouse World, then Ratigan is Moriarty--in every
way.
2.
Why does Ratigan go postal every time he's called a 'rat' ?
a.
Wouldn't you? *grin* But then, Ratigan isn't just any
type of rat--he's a sewer
rat,
which has a reputation for being a pretty nasty critter.
Obviously, it's not something
Ratigan's proud of, and his gigantic ego won't allow him to
be called what he really
is (it's called denial ).
Ironically, by the end of
The Great Mouse Detective, Ratigan's
true nature emerges during his epic
battle with Basil in the clocktower of Big Ben.
3.
Didn't author Eve Titus depict him as a mouse
in her Basil
of Baker Street mysteries?
a. Yes. But the
Disney artists pictured him as a rat instead, probably to
make him
scarier. And he was,
especially in that 'Big Ben' scene.
(Warning: SPOILER ALERT on Question #4 ! )
4.
Speaking of which: isn't Ratigan supposed to be dead
???
a. As any doornail. Unless by some miracle he survived, in
which case there'd
have to be a sequel (like Disney needs another
one)--though without the late,
great Vincent Price to play his voice.
5.
Then why do we see his character on this site and even in
role
play on the forums?
a. Fandom license, I reckon. Not to mention, that there have
been certain theories
in the works that Ratigan somehow survived
the fall from Big Ben, and is either in
hiding or plotting his revenge on Basil.
6.
Why do Ratigan and Basil hate each other so much? Is it
something personal?
a. Good
question. It's the same type of question about the long-standing
war
between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty; the general
consensus is
that their animosity went a lot deeper than the usual "good
guy/bad guy" thing.
Perhaps it goes back to Basil and Ratigan's childhood; or
later in their lives, some
danged thing happened between them to make them bitter
enemies. As with their
human counterparts, there are various debates and theories.
7.
Did Ratigan ever have a love interest (wife, girlfriend)?
a. Not as far as is known; though in Eve Titus' book Basil
in Mexico, Ratigan seems
to fancy the opera singer Mlle. Relda enough to kidnap her
and force her to sing for
him (she is, of course, rescued by Basil). In my fanfic In
Memory of Elizabeth, there
is a rivalry between Ratigan and Basil
over the tragic heroine, Elizabeth Starling.
However, Ratigan's own interest in Elizabeth is far too
selfish and lecherous to be
called real love--but seeing Basil and Elizabeth's affections
for each other, he's out
to destroy their relationship any way he can.
Except
for what you'll find in fandom works, there's no indication
that Ratigan had
a love interest of any kind. And apparently, he's too much in
love with himself
to care.
8. Does Ratigan have a family?
a. Again,
none that we know of; but again, some fanfics have seen fit
to give him
one. However, his human counterpart Moriarty had three (?)
brothers--so it might be
possible that Ratigan has a sibling or more lurking around
somewhere. After all, rats
are known for big
families... ;-)
9. Why is Ratigan so evil?
a. Maybe
he's a 'bad seed'. Or maybe he had a traumatic childhood that
twisted his
personality somehow. Or maybe he went crazy sometime in his
life. Or maybe, he's
just a jerk.
What is
certain is that while Ratigan is as highly intelligent as
Basil (and frankly,
just as arrogant and egotistical--sorry, Bas!), he is the
exact antithesis of everything
that Basil stands for--and he's quite happy that way.
10.
If Ratigan comes from the Victorian era, what's he doing
with a modern-day thug like Negaduck?
a. Hey,
haven't you been watching Disney's House
of Mouse ? In a cartoon, you can
do anything. The
same goes for a website! ^_^
My thanks to Rachel Faraday
for contributing the following seven questions
(and to Diane T. for her kind assistance):
11.
Basil is based off of Sherlock Holmes, so is Ratigan based
off
of a Holmes villain?
a. Yes,
indeedy! ^_^ Everybody, say it with me: "PROFESSOR
MORIARTY" !
Ratigan is definitely playing Moriarty to Basil's Holmes. And
like their human
counterparts, they're equally highly intelligent, equally
egotistic, and equally
determined to defeat each other--except that Ratigan's
intentions are more
on the murderous side.
12. How old is this dashingly devious rat anyways? ;-)
a. Hmmm.
Ratigan certainly doesn't look
very old, but in Eve Titus' books he's
somewhat older than Basil (who's probably about 30). So
Ratigan could be in
his middle to late 40s--I'll even take a shot in the dark and
say 50. By the
way,
in case you're all confused, we're speaking in terms of human
years--cartoon
rodents have longer lifespans than the real animals.
13.
Were any other voice-overs considered before they hired
Price for his talents?
a.
Apparently, Price was the
first choice. At the time, Ratigan's animator
Glen Keane was working on the character, who at first was
going to be
much smaller than he is. However, Keane felt he should be
larger and
more in contrast to Basil. The next task was to find a
suitable voice fitting
the character's appearance and personality. As Keane recalls:
"At the time
we were also looking at a film with Vincent Price. It was 'Champagne
for Caesar'
and listening to his (Vincent's) dialogue, I realized that's
the voice for me. He
just had this sharp, quick way of speaking and the timing was
great. You could
tell he enjoyed being a rotten guy."
In fact,
shortly before his death in 1993, Price said that Ratigan's
character
had been one of his favorite roles. And who can blame him?
^_^
14. Is Ratigan his whole name, or does he HAVE a last name?
a. It's
likely not his whole name, since he's referred to as Professor
Ratigan.
Also, Ratigan is
his last name. But as with Basil (who's called Mr.
Basil by
Olivia and Mrs. Judson), the whole of the name is constantly
theorized and
debated by GMD fans. Basil simply refers to him as Ratigan,
just as Holmes
calls his own nemesis simply Moriarty.
However, Ratigan's human counterpart
did have a whole name: Professor James
Moriarty. So it's possible that "James"
might be Ratigan's first name. Or maybe it's something so
geeky that The
Napoleon of Crime is keeping it a well-guarded secret (a
handle like "Nermal"
would be a good example).
15.
How do his big feet fit in those tiny shoes? Hey, I'm serious!
I've been wondering that since I first saw the movie!
a. This
would be a great time to know animator Glen Keane personally,
because
I'd love to ask him that myself. Why, oh why, was there not a
book out on The
Art of The Great Mouse Detective
??? If anyone out there will gladly remedy
that, I'll dance at your wedding. Trust
me.
Ah, the
magic of animation. It's just another one of those unique
liberties that
cartoons take, such as characters running on the air, jaws
literally dropping to
the floor, etc. Jim Carrey certainly had it all down pat in The
Mask. Maybe
Ratigan put a heck of a lot of talc on his feet and put major
effort into that
shoehorn? Or maybe he soaked them in alum first...hey, the
possibilities are
endless.
As to why
his feet were drawn that way, I'll just take a guess on this
one and say,
"comic effect". I mean, look at that big, fat ra--uh,
mouse with those
itty-bitty
fancy shoes and tell me that's not
funny! ^_^ Though after seeing his actual foot
size toward the end of the film, it looks pretty painful in
retrospect. The
notorious foot-binding in China was in vogue during this era,
but usually just
inflicted on young girls. Ratigan couldn't have been that
desperate to fit into
those shoes--but then, Victorian footwear wasn't always
comfortable anyway.
And while foot-binding has long been abolished in the Orient,
what Western
women do to fit into shoes these days is just as painful...
^_~
But now
the burning question: why were Basil's
feet so HUGE??? (And let's leave
Freud out of this, please...)
16. How long have he and Basil been enemies?
a.
Probably since adulthood, if not farther back. At least one
of Eve Titus' stories
(I'll get back to you when I have more info on this) suggests
that Basil and Ratigan's
personal war went back to their college days. What
exactly inspired their mutual
animosity is as much a mystery as the hostility between their
human counterparts.
It may even be possible that it goes back to childhood, at
least when they were in
their teens (also, refer to question 6 above).
17.
How come it only took that one situation in GMD (the fall
from
Big Ben) to defeat Ratigan, and he was never beaten before?
a. Fate
pretty much stepped in on that situation, though as usual
Basil was surviving
(literally) by his wits. But the mouse detective was dealing
with an enemy who was
every bit as intelligent as he was, and who also had the
criminal underworld working
with him (not to mention that big, mean cat). It was a moral
chess game between the
two, each having to guess the other's move. Being bigger was
certainly in Ratigan's
favor; what also kept Basil just one step behind was that The
Napoleon of Crime
was (in Basil's own words) "a genius twisted for evil",
and he didn't mind using the
most viscious, treacherous means at hand to either fight back
or make a getaway.
(Darkwing Duck
fans might notice an interesting similarity to Negaduck in
Ratigan's
criminal methods!)
However,
it's Ratigan's cruelty and hatred for Basil that become his
own undoing.
Up until the Big Ben scene, Ratigan's pretty smug and
confident that he's finally
defeated Basil, but obviously that hasn't worked out. As he
fights his way out of
the clock gears in that scene, you can see his rage building
into madness as he
watches Basil fleeing with Olivia; and so he becomes
the very sewer rat that he's
long denied he is--snarling and growling and clawing at Basil
(and kicking his poor
little tail all over the place) until Ratigan realises, too
late, that he's put himself
in just the right position for the chimes of Big Ben to shake
him off the clock
hands and send him to his doom. In that sense, he's actually
defeated himself.
It's
interesting, incidentally, how many Disney villains meet
their ends by falling
off of stuff. Perhaps it's to insure an unbloody ending for
the kiddies, as well as
keeping the heroes' integrity intact (so the little ones
won't be crying because
"Basil killed Ratigan" ! ). Or call it Divine
Intervention if you will; either way
works for me.
~~~~~~~
18. Will there in fact be a sequel to The Great Mouse Detective ?
a. Not
that I know of as of this writing. We were
expected to see more of Basil
in the feature "The Search for Mickey Mouse";
unfortunately (or not?) the film,
slated for release this year, has apparently been scrapped (though
it may or may
not be released some years later). The recent controversy
regarding Disney
and its infamous closing of its hand-drawn animation studios
has only served
to complicate things. There has
been a rumour of a direct-to-video release of a
sequel, but sources at Disney suggest this is only a rumour
and no such sequel
seems to be planned. (Some of us have wanted to write one,
however.)
The general consensus among GMD fans is that there shouldn't
be a sequel, not
because they don't love
the film but because of the infamous reputation of Disney
sequels (which are being churned out to a fare-thee-well
these days). IMHO,
I
wouldn't mind seeing a continuing story to GMD if
proper justice were done to
the plot and the animation (having at least some of the
surviving voice actors from
the first film would help, too). Seeing what they did with
films like HUNCHBACK OF
NOTRE DAME II tells me that's an impossible dream, however...
*sigh*
My
thanks to Absolute Background Textures Archive for the BGs used here (and
almost everywhere else).