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Released
theatrically in
1986,
The
Great Mouse
Detective
has a couple of
interesting facts
behind it. The film
was co-directed by
Burny Mattinson and
David Michner. It
was also co-directed
by Jon Musker and
Ron Clements, the
team behind Disney
classics like
The
Little Mermaid
and more recently
The
Princess and the
Frog.
The other
interesting thing
about this film is
that Disney cartoons
weren’t dominant in
the 80’s. They
didn’t struggle, but
they didn’t dominate
like they did in the
90’s.
The
Great Mouse
Detective
performed well
enough at the box
office that it
opened the door for
Disney’s dominance
in the 90’s and the
last decade for
dominance with films
like
The
Little Mermaid,
Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin,
and
The
Lion King.
The
Great Mouse
Detective
is an overlooked
Disney movie
basically due to
that fact.
The
Great Mouse
Detective
is based on Eve
Titus’
Basil
of Baker Street
book series. Basil
is the mouse version
of Sherlock Holmes.
He’s London’s most
famous detective and
he’s joined by his
good friend and
colleague Dr.
Dawson. Strangely
enough, they live
underneath Sherlock
Holmes’ house. In
The
Great Mouse
Detective,
Dawson and Basil are
coming together for
their first mystery
and they were
brought together by
the case of Olivia
Flaversham. When
Olivia’s father is
kidnapped by
Professor Ratigan,
it’s up to Basil and
Dawson, (and a few
friends) to locate
Olivia’s father and
Ratigan and figure
out what the evil
villain is up to.
The
animation in
The
Great Mouse
Detective
was pretty
innovative at the
time. To go along
with a great story
that’s the biggest
thing to mention.
There’s one
particular scene
towards the end of
the movie where a
few new techniques
were used during a
high-action sequence
and the animators
pulled them off
brilliantly. After
all that’s even been
implemented with
normal animation and
the dominance of CGI
over the last
several years it’s
easy to overlook the
animation in
The
Great Mouse
Detective
but it was stunning
at the time and
remains competitive
today.
The
voice acting for
this Disney classic
wasn’t as big as
some of the casts
that they’ve had
more recently but
there were a few big
names providing
voice for the
characters in
The
Great Mouse
Detective.
The biggest of those
names is Vincent
Price. He voices the
evil Professor
Ratigan and does a
spectacular job in
pushing him over the
top as a quality
Disney villain.
The music in this
movie isn’t to be
overlooked either.
The great Henry
Mancini provided the
score for the
feature and he did a
great job with songs
like “The World’s
Greatest Criminal
Mind” and “Goodbye
So-Soon” both of
those songs were
sang by Vincent
Price and both songs
are fun pieces of
music that you and
your family can sing
and hum along with.
The
new release of
The
Great Mouse
Detective
on Disney DVD is
The
Great Mouse
Detective: Mystery
in the Mist Edition.
It’s more or less
just a reason to put
this on the shelf
again. All of the
original DVD’s bonus
features are on the
disc including a
making-of feature
and a sing-along.
The new featurette
on the
Mystery in the Mist
Edition
is a short Disney
piece on private
investigators and
detectives
throughout history
that has some
interesting facts.
The
Great Mouse
Detective: Mystery
in the Mist Edition
is a good release to
introduce your
children to a Disney
classic that they
might not be
familiar with. Henry
Mancini’s music for
the movie was
excellent and the
story based on the
Basil
of Baker Street
books is stellar.
This particular
release is one you
won’t want to
overlook when
searching for a
family movie.
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