Olivia turns to Basil, a well known detective, to find the culprit responsible for kidnapping her father, Hiram Flaversham. The trail leads to concluding that the “Napoleon of Crime”, Professor Ratigan, is plotting to assassinate the Queen of Mousedom.

Vincent Price was from my hometown (as was Kevin Kline (Phoebus) and John Goodman (Sulley and Pacha)), though no where near the Jefferson Barracks area where I lived as a toddler. He had been hell bent on working on a Disney movie for a long time though and was a revered horror movie actor seen in The Bat, House on Haunted Hill, etc. in the 50s and 60s. Go ahead and check them out if you’ve got time on your hands.

Val Bettin would later voice the Bishop in Shrek and take over for the Sultan in the Aladdin cartoon in the 90s. Alan Young (Scrooge McDuck and one of the 3 barber pirates in Curse of Monkey Island) voices Hiram Flaversham and was another good choice. Barrie Ingham originally played Robin Hood in A Challenge for Robin Hood, made by the legendary Hammer studio, known for their glorious horror movies.

For some reason, when this was re-released in the early 90s, the title was “The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective” and that title was kept on for quite a while on home video releases. This can be seen on the “black diamond” release from the early 90s and was announced on some copies of 101 Dalmatians released shortly before this movie was put on home video. Despite The Rescuers and So Dear to my Heart VHS releases in fall 1992 calling this “The Great Mouse Detective”, the title after the kidnapping doesn’t change.

Fidget the bat (the character above this section) is voiced by Candy Candido, but with his voice sped up; same way James MacDonald voiced characters like the mice from Cinderella.

I view this movie as the first “modern” Disney movie, particularly for being the first to not have any mention of Walt Disney Productions and for using Dolby System/Dolby Stereo, used on Star Wars prior (Black Cauldron used it too but the quality didn’t sound as good) in the late 70s.

The Black Cauldron used CGI but only for a brief scene, and from what I heard, the Fox and the Hound also did so as well. Unlike those two however it wasn’t as well done.

I tend to think of Revenge of the Sith given the quality of this movie.

David Q. Dawson has an uncanny resemblance to Maurice from Beauty and the Beast. Given how this was made by some of the same people who would work on Aladdin and The Princess and the Frog, that wouldn’t surprise me.

The plot itself could also be similar to Wayne’s True Grit in some spades. Both feature absent minded law enforcers.

Doesn’t Ratigan seem a little similar the Penguin from Batman?

1. Voices are near perfect for the movie.
2. The CGI inside Big Ben holds up even after so many years. Compare that to CGI used in movies from 2002 like Men in Black II or even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Even Jurassic Park’s CGI doesn’t look as good as the CGI in this classic!!
3. Professor Ratigan is one of the best Disney villains and one of the more sinister ones, ranking close to Scar, Chernabog, McLeach, or Frollo. The bastard himself has been known to drown widows and orphans, hell even Frollo didn’t drown Quasimodo as a baby!
4. The song “Goodbye So Soon” is one of my favorite villain songs. I love how happy-go-lucky it sounds.
5. The scene where Basil and Dawson get themselves out of a trap involving five weapons was one hell of an escape scene and was presumably inspired by James Bond.

1. I thought this was too short. This wouldn’t be a problem for most Disney movies, however this one should’ve clocked around 85 or even just 80 minutes.
2. Thunder sounds can get a little repetitive throughout the movie, especially since it’s around two or three sound effects repeated over and over.