The Great Mouse Detective - Review

It's always a great feeling discovering a children's movie that you know you would have loved as a kid, but you never saw it until now. The Great Mouse Detective is one of those movies. Growing up, like many other kids born in the 90's, Disney was a major part of my childhood. The classics like Dumbo, Bambi and The Jungle Book were always enjoyable, but we were also being introduced to new films coming out like Aladdin, Lion King, Tarzan, etc. However, there were some that slipped through the cracks like Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and A Goofy Movie which I would eventually watch as an adult. However, one that went completely under the radar was The Great Mouse Detective. I never even heard of it growing up. So seeing it on a list of Disney animated classics got me curious. I decided to give it a try and not only did I really enjoy it, I think it's one of the better films that Disney has to offer.

The Great Mouse Detective is Disney's take on Sherlock Holmes with our main character being Basil of Baker Street and yes, he is the mouse equivalent of Sherlock Holmes even living in the famous Sherlock Holmes house, 221b Baker Street. He talks like him, acts like him even down to the violin playing and the catchphrases such as "elementary". He is an extremely likable hero and the evil Professor Ratigan voiced by Vincent Price is a great foil to our Basil. Equally as posh, but extremely sinister. A really fun villain.

And what makes this movie work is that even today without any nostalgic attachment, it's still extremely gripping, intriguing and it gave me the hero chills. I was on the edge of my seat during the exciting moments and it was great to see characters like this unravel mysteries and discover clues. This is a great detective story (it's in the title right?) that I can't believe I didn't see sooner!