Movies - The Great Mouse Detective

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	Movies - The Great Mouse Detective

The Great Mouse Detective (also known as The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective for its US reissue and Basil, the Great Mouse Detective in some countries) is the twenty-sixth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. The film was directed by Burny Mattinson, David Michener, and the team of John Musker and Ron Clements, who later directed Disney's hit films The Little Mermaid and Aladdin
.

Overview

Based on the children's story Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus, it draws heavily on the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with a heroic mouse who consciously emulates the detective; Titus named the main character after actor Basil Rathbone, who is best remembered for playing Holmes in film (and whose voice, sampled from the Red-Headed League, was the voice of Holmes in this film, 19 years after his death). The main characters are all mice and rats, who are living in London, England.

The movie is notable for its early use of computer generated imagery (CGI): for a chase scene that takes place in the interior of Big Ben, the movements of the clock's gears were produced as wire-frame graphics on a computer and traced onto animation cells. The characters were then animated by hand over these cells and the characters' completed cells placed on top of them. The Great Mouse Detective is sometimes cited as the first animated film to use CGI, but that honor actually goes to 1985's The Black Cauldron
.

When this film was released, it did fairly well in the box office and got warm reviews from critics (especially a "Two Thumbs Up" from Siskel and Ebert), especially after the critical flop The Black Cauldron. But it wouldn't compare to the big success of The Little Mermaid
, released 3 years later, which signaled the Disney renaissance.

Main characters

Basil of Baker Street - The great detective himself based on Sherlock Holmes. His main goal is to get Professor Ratigan behind bars and rescue Olivia Flaversham's father while saving the monarchy at the same time. It should be mentioned that there are a few differences between Basil in the book series and in the movie but most notable is that the film version is mercurial in moods and does not respond to setbacks well, tending to fall into deep melancholy that only sudden inspiration can dispel quickly. He also plays the violin rather well in the movie. (The book series mentioned Basil's violin playing was atrocious and instead Basil played the flute well.)
Dr. David Q. Dawson - Previously of the Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan. His character is based upon Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories. He constantly is amazed by Basil's deductions much like Watson is with Holmes. In the movie Dawson meets Basil after bringing Olivia Flaversham to Baker Street. He eventually becomes Basil's associate, friend, and personal biographer. The main difference from the books is that the animators modeled the character after Nigel Bruce
in both appearance and character. As a result, Dawson is essentially a fat bumbler who is redeemed by his good heart.
Olivia Flaversham - A small girl mouse of Scottish descent who seeks Basil's help finding her toymaker father. Basil seems to either have trouble remembering her surname (or just does not care) for he always messes it up somehow when speaking to her. (He gets the surname correct once, but he was speaking to Olivia's father, Hiram.) Her surname is most likely based on Flora and Fauna Flaversham from the Basil of Baker Street book series.
Professor Ratigan - Basil's arch-enemy based on Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories. The movie does not explain when the battles between Basil and Ratigan started to take place, but they had clearly occurred for quite some time. He longs for control of the monarchy and to put an end to Basil's meddling for good. In the book series it is revealed his given name is Padraic and that Ratigan is in fact, a mouse. This could be the reason why Ratigan in the movie (who is a rat; hence he has four fingers while the other mice have three fingers) takes offense from being referred to as a rat.
Fidget the Bat- Evil henchman of Ratigan. He does all the dirty work for him.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Great Mouse Detective ]

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Movies - The Great Mouse Detective

Overview

Main characters

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