The Great Mouse Detective
I first saw this movie this spring. I'm surprised I hadn't shown an interest in it before, as I love rodents. Thanks Ethel the Mouse Queen and JBasil for finally convincing me to see it.
An absolutely wonderful film with all of the essentials: great characters, marvelous villain, wonderful voices, beautiful animation, a fantastic story, and a magnificent score.
It had just the right amount of humor and was more…mature than most other Disney films. It was positively remarkable how Sherlockian it was.
The story is told from the point of view of Dr. David Q. Dawson (Val Bettin), a Major just back from military service in Afghanistan. He meets young Olivia Flaversham (Susanne Pollatschek), who’s father (Alan Young) has recently been kidnapped by a rather evil little bat named Fidget (the late Candy Candido). Together, they set out to find Basil of Baker Street (Barrie Ingham).
Arrive at his place of residence, the two find him hot on the trail of the notorious Professor Ratigan (the late Vincent Price). They discover that Fidget works for Ratters and become caught up in the chase of a lifetime (taking them to an…interesting bar scene complete with showgirls. Basil was sooo cute in his sailor outfit!)
Olivia is captured by Fidget and taken to her father in Rattigan’s lair, then Basil and Dawson track her down and get themselves captured. Just as they are about to be “horribly splatted”, Basil saves them all.
But Ratters is still on the loose and is threatening the queen’s life and attempting to seize the throne. The movie ends in a fight between Basil and a rather were-wolfish Ratters in Big Ben’s clock tower.
How could I not like a movie that is so much like DWD? The similarities aren't that obvious to the casual observer, but if you really think about, they're there. The only reason I started looking for them was the large section of the fandoms that coincide with each other, and the Basil statue in the Mallard living room. Both DWD and GMD were, obviously, based on Sherlock Holmes (one more so than the other), Basil and Darkwing share many of the same personality traits (though DW is better with children, he is certainly not a people person), both had to help a little orphan girl (though the outcomes are a tad different), and Taurus Bulba and Ratigan can be rather similar at times, with Fidget and Hammerhead playing pretty much the same role (can you imagine Hammerhead with Fidget's voice? :-D). You know, I just came up with another fanfic idea. I know the "Ratigan didn't really die and is back for revenge" plot has been done more times than need be, but imagine him a la "Steermonator"... Aah, it's prolly been done, plus I have too many fanfics in the making as it is.
The Big Ben tower scene is probably my second favorite, my first being the mouse trap one, of course. I'm not sure what it is about it, but the atmosphere in this particular scene is especially eerie. It feels like you can't hear anything, but you can. There's still the sound of the clock and the background music, as well as Basil, Livvy, and Ratters' screams, yet...I don't know. And the CGI work here is marvelous, mostly due to its simplicity. I hate it when every single thing in a movie is CGI except the characters. Take it from me, ::coughcoughFox,coughcough:: either make it all computer animated or don't. But this was really well done. It had just enough detail to look like the rest of the animation, but not enough to stick out.
The score was marvelous, and I liked how they kept the number of songs to a bare minimum, with only "World's Greatest Criminal Mind" stopping the whole movie. But that one was essential to the plot. The main theme was great; a catchy little tune perfect for driving your sister crazy by humming it for ten minutes straight (I've never done that. hee hee hee). I would love to get a hold of the soundtrack or the music. Ack! If only Mr. Lara could have found it instead of the Pokémon theme.
The Great Mouse Detective was directed by John Musker, Dave Michener, Ron Clements, and Burny Mattinson, produced by Burny Mattinson, the songs were written by Henry Mancini, Larry Grossman, and Ellen Fitzhugh. It was based on the novel "Basil of Baker Street" by Paul Galdone and Eve Titus and was written by Ron Clements, Vance Gerry, Steve Hulett, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, Bruce M. Morris, John Musker, Matthew O'Callaghan, Melvin Shaw, Eve Titus, and Peter Young.
Thanks to JBasil of Basil's Secret Lab for the pictures.
