The Great Mouse Detective is based on a children's book series by Eve Titus called "Basil of Baker Street," which follows a mouse who lives at Sherlock Holmes' feet and is just as great a detective as his human counterpart. The Great Mouse Detective's story isn't actually one from the book series, or the Holmes series, but instead is an original story where the evil Professor Ratigan (sung and acted by none other than Vincent Price) has kidnapped a talented toymaker, Hiram Flaversham (Alan Young with a voice that sounds a lot like his Scrooge McDuck), for a new dastardly plot. What gets Basil (Barrie Ingham) on the case is when the newly arrived Dr. David Q. Dawson (Val Bettin who plays a great Watson character) finds Hiram's daughter on the streets and helps little Olivia Flaversham (Susanne Pollatschek) locate the acclaimed detective.
The trio take Basil's dog, a sleuth hound named Toby, and hunt down the toady that Ratigan sent to pick up Olivia's dad, a crippled bat with a peg leg named Fidget (Candy Candido). With Basil's awesome deductive powers, they are not only able to find Ratigan's lair, but uncover his strange plot that somehow involves the toymaker and the Queen (Eve Brenner).
The Mystery In the Mist Edition includes a new special feature called "So You Think You Can Sleuth?" which talks about the history of private investigators and how they've evolved over the years. The other special features include an original making-of that interviews everyone from Vincent Price to composer Henry Mancini to the animators and their first computer-assisted scene involving a computer generated Big Ben that used a robotic arm to "hand draw" the scenes so the animators could draw on top of it. The other special feature is a sing-along for Ratigan's musical number, "The World's Greatest." I have to say, I can't help but enjoy Price's excellent voice, and this film features one of the few songs he sang in his acting career.
The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery In the Mist Edition also features a superb remastering to make everything look really crisp. The only exception are the few mist-heavy scenes since they are supposed to be full of specks. While it might look bad in these few scenes, the rest of the picture looks great. The only thing better would have been a Blu-ray release, but that doesn't look like it's going to come out anytime soon.
I personally have always loved this Disney feature, and hadn't had the opportunity to see it in a long time. It's nice to know that it stands the test of time, and even 26 years later, it has the power to capture the imagination. Parents should definitely get this movie for their kids, or themselves if they are like me and remember growing up to this film. While it doesn't really add a lot in the way of special features, the cleaned up video is really nice. I would normally recommend holding out for the high-definition release, but there's no telling when that will happen.
Clips
Featurette: Scotland Yard (bonus)Featurette: Sleuth (bonus)
Basil of Baker Street (film)
Basil's Experiment (film)
On the Trail (film)
Basil's Calculations (film)
