In certain cases, the best adaptation of a legendary property isn’t an official one. A reverent homage can capture the spirit of its unofficial source material without using any of the proper names. The Incredibles is the best Fantastic Four movie, Thor: Ragnarok is the best He-Man movie, and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Kingsman: The Secret Service are two of the greatest Bond movies ever made. And the 1986 Disney cartoon The Great Mouse Detective, which reimagines Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson as a pair of talking mice named Basil and Dr. Dawson, is one of the best Holmes adaptations.
The Great Mouse Detective was based on the Basil of Baker Street books by children’s author Eve Titus. In fact, the movie was originally produced under the title Basil of Baker Street, but the head of Disney at the time, Michael Eisner, allegedly changed the title to the more generic-sounding The Great Mouse Detective after complaining that the name Basil was “too English.” This was an unpopular decision among the crew working on the film, and animator Ed Gombert responded to the title change by passing around a fake interoffice memo with satirical title suggestions for Disney classics like The Little Deer Who Grew Up, The Girl with the See-through Shoes, and The Wonderful Elephant Who Could Really Fly (these joke titles later became a category on Jeopardy!).
Narrated by Dawson, The Great Mouse Detective tells the story of an eight-year-old girl named Olivia whose father is kidnapped by a nefarious villain. Olivia bumps into Dawson, who helps her find the eccentric yet legendary “Great Mouse Detective.” They find the detective, Basil (named after Basil Rathbone, who played Holmes in 14 movies), living on Baker Street underneath the real Holmes (played by Rathbone himself, thanks to some sneaky archival audio). Olivia hires Basil to help her track down her missing father, Dawson comes along for the ride, and the game is afoot.
The mystery plot in The Great Mouse Detective might not be as devilishly complex as the works of Arthur Conan Doyle – it is aimed at an audience of all ages, after all – but it is an engaging whodunit that unfolds at a nice, fast pace with plenty of surprising twists and turns and red herrings along the way. Eventually, Basil’s investigation into the disappearance of Olivia’s father reunites him with his old arch-nemesis, Professor Ratigan. All the clues and twists and misdirects build to a tense, thrilling finale set inside the Big Ben clocktower (whose spinning cogs and mechanisms are even more terrifyingly huge in relation to the anthropomorphic mice). The first and second acts deliver mystery and intrigue in spades, then the third act delivers action, spectacle, and emotional closure.
Much like The Lego Batman Movie, The Great Mouse Detective is both an affectionate parody of a familiar icon and a surprisingly engaging character study digging into what makes this charismatic crimefighter tick. It’s both a spot-on portrayal of Holmes’ genius and a fun satire of his arrogance. As a comedic take on the Holmes mysteries that really understands the source material from a satirical perspective, The Great Mouse Detective lives up to the potential that was squandered by the dreadful Holmes & Watson.
Basil’s arch-nemesis Professor Ratigan is, of course, based on Professor Moriarty from the Holmes stories. Ratigan is voiced by the biggest star in the movie, legendary character actor Vincent Price, renowned for his performances in morbid Edgar Allan Poe adaptations produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman. Suffice to say, he makes a memorable villain out of Ratigan. Price leans into the mustache-twirling menace, as one would expect, and he even gets a couple of catchy musical numbers to chew on.
The key to making a Holmes movie work is capturing his friendship with Watson. Every Sherlock Holmes story is a buddy story, and The Great Mouse Detective stays true to that tradition with great chemistry between Basil and Dawson. The Great Mouse Detective acts as a sort of origin story for this familiar, iconic friendship, as they meet for the first time, rub each other the wrong way, and end up partnering up to solve mysteries together. Like Holmes and Watson, Basil and Dawson don’t always get along and they bicker a lot, but there’s ultimately a lot of love between them and they always have each other’s backs.
With various Sherlock Holmes projects in various stages of development, fans of the deerstalker-wearing detective might be getting restless in anticipation of his return to screens. Robert Downey, Jr.’s third Sherlock Holmes movie has been stuck in development hell for over a decade and fans of TV’s Sherlock have spent years waiting for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s schedules to line up for a fifth season. In lieu of new official Sherlock Holmes stories, The Great Mouse Detective is well worth checking out.