Movie Title: The Great Mouse Detective
Date Released: July 2nd, 1986
Date Seen: many times as a kid, again on January 16th, 2013
Part 1 – Spoiler Free Quickie Review
Re-watching this movie again as a 22 year old, I only remembered a couple of things about it. We watched it a lot when we were little, I think, and it had a scary rat. That was all I remembered. But I remembered I liked it, so I decided to re-watch it.
It’s amazing how much comes back to you when you do that. Every scene I was like “oh yeah… oh yeah…. oh yeah now that is going to happen…”. I also didn’t realize how much I much have actually watched it… I remembered the words to the entire “Ratigan” song. Considering I haven’t seen this movie in probably 15 years… yikes.
I still enjoyed this movie, mostly because it definitely is one of the darker Disney films. It is darker in imagery, the characters, and the plot overall. Yes, it still does have a happy Disney ending, but the whole plot line is much darker, I think than most other Disney movies. The characters are also much scarier. Ratigan, the rat villian, looks creepy and mob-bossy and then at the end goes all terrifying on you. The bat was also a thing I remembered. There is a scene where he jumps out of a baby carriage and is terrifying looking. So definitely not a Disney movie for young kids. It still is a fun movie, especially if you remember it from when you were little.
Part 2 – In Depth Spoiler Ridden Review
The only real thing I wanted to mention was how much this movie used Rube-Goldberg type devices. It just stood out to me. A number of the machines in Basil’s house, the way that Ratigan tried to kill Basil and Dawson, even the fight in the mouse bar was kind of rube-goldbergy. It was interesting.
Also, I think this movie has one of the best bitch slaps in any movie ever. When Basil and Ratigan are inside Big Ben, right at the start of their fight on the gears, Ratigan is holding Olivia, who manages to get a ‘look out Basil!’ scream out – and then Basil turns around, and Ratigan bitch slaps the shit out of him. It was quite awesome. That whole end sequence is a pretty well done animated movie fight scene, especially considering this movie came out in 1986. I really love the end sequence.
Overall: 6/10
Not a fabulous Disney movie, but one that is a good watch and is often over looked or forgotten about.
Maria's Movie Reviews 