Number Twenty Six: The Great Mouse Detective

The Great Mouse Detective

1986

When I was very young, I drove one of my aunts absolutely nuts. How did I do this? Every single time I went to her house, which was practically every day, I demanded that I watched The Great Mouse Detective. I guess I was a bit of a brat when I was five. Eventually my poor aunt became sick of watching the same movie day after day after day, so her solution to fix this problem was to give me her copy of the film. Let me tell you that had to be one of the best days of my life.

For those of you who have never seen or heard of this movie, I feel really sorry for you. I know it’s a lesser known Disney film, but it’s one of my personal favorites. I highly recommend going out RIGHT NOW and watching it. Don’t worry about finishing reading my blog! Just go do it! For those of you who have seen this, or who are losers and are not following my advice, you may read on.

This tale is a creative spin of the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries. So basically, what Disney did is they took a fantastic literary character, made him a mouse, and stuck him in a children’s movie. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the results were spectacular fun.

Basil is the name of this great mouse detective. He’s brilliant. Extremely brilliant in fact. He is able to deduce practically anything about a person within moments of meeting them. Because of all of this, he was able to build a fairly awesome reputation for himself.

A little girl named Olivia hears about him, and decides she must hire him to find her father. Her father, Flaversham, is a toy maker. I wish my dad was a toy maker! That’d be so awesome; it’d be like having Santa for a father.

Anyway, Flaversham was kidnapped by the evil Ratigan. He’s a rat. Really! But he thinks he’s a mouse. Or he wishes he was a mouse. Something like that, because if you dare call him a rat, he’ll feed you to his pet cat. He’s a vicious rat. That's right! I called him a rat. I'm so brave. 

With the help of his new found friend, Doctor Dawson (Yes, the mouse version of Watson, duh.) and Olivia, Basil must stop Ratigan from his dastardly plan before it’s too late!

What’s his devious scheme? And how do they stop him from carrying it all out? Well I’m not going to tell you! That would ruin this terrific movie if you hadn’t seen it. Which if you haven’t you really need to go do. Right now.

Movie Watching Budd(y)(ies): Well, Abigail, Kipp, Ruby, and Rose all watched parts of this movie with me, but the only person who watched the entire film with me was Mr. Dunn. Yay Mr. Dunn!

Best Song: “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind.” The only other song was about some kind of harlot mouse, and it was very odd.

Best Part: Ahh! That’s too hard of a decision! When Basil escapes from the trap? Or the juggling octopus? Possibly the drunk Dawson? Too many choices. Just go watch it and make your own opinion.