43 Fun Facts About The Great Mouse Detective

The Great Mouse Detective heralded which Disney era?

The Renaissance of The Little Mermaid and The Lion King followed, as the film's inexpensive success renewed management's confidence in the animation department.

How do Basil and Dawson disguise themselves to enter a tavern used by Ratigan's gang?

As sailors they wait in the tavern until Fidget walks in, then trail him to Ratigan's headquarters, only to walk into an ambush.

Who voices the villainous Professor Ratigan?

Price said that if anybody but Disney had asked him to audition, he would have been offended.

What does Fidget steal from the toyshop for Ratigan's plan?

Soldier uniforms let Ratigan's thugs pose as royal guards at Buckingham Palace, where they seize the Queen.

The mouse detective's first name honours which actor?

Basil Rathbone, the screen's famous Holmes, is heard as Holmes in the film too, through a story reading he recorded the year before he died.

While making The Great Mouse Detective, Disney's animators were moved from Burbank into what kind of building?

A converted warehouse in Glendale housed them, and the artists knew they were being tested: they had to prove they could work cheaper and faster.

Before Olivia was made a little girl, what was she first planned to be?

A love interest, older and with Dawson smitten, was the first idea, until the producer wanted a little girl the audience could feel sorry for.

Where has Dr. Dawson just returned from when he meets Olivia?

Afghanistan links him to Holmes's Dr. Watson: both served with the 66th Regiment of Foot before coming home from the Afghan campaign.

How does Ratigan force the reluctant toymaker Mr. Flaversham to work for him?

He threatens his daughter, and to make the threat stick he sends Fidget to snatch Olivia from under Basil's nose.

What kind of creature is Ratigan's henchman Fidget?

A bat with a crippled wing and a peg leg: the moment Olivia describes him, Basil knows Ratigan is behind her father's kidnapping.

Why does Ratigan kidnap Mr. Flaversham?

To build a clockwork replica of the Mouse Queen, and at the palace Basil later hijacks the machine to denounce Ratigan as a fraud.

What is the name of Ratigan's pet cat?

Felicia was about to be fed the real Queen until Toby chased her over a wall into a pack of Royal Guard dogs.

Which animal is Toby, whom Basil borrows to trail Fidget's scent?

A Basset Hound owned by Sherlock Holmes himself, Toby follows Fidget's scent all the way to a human-sized toyshop.

What is the name of the tavern where Basil and Dawson go in disguise?

The Rat Trap is where Basil's chemical tests on Fidget's checklist lead: a waterfront tavern near where the sewer meets the Thames.

In The Great Mouse Detective's final scene, what makes Dr. Dawson stay at Baker Street?

Basil calls him his partner just as Dawson is leaving and a distressed new client arrives, so the doctor stays on for more cases.

What do Basil, Dawson and Flaversham build to chase Ratigan's dirigible?

An airship from a matchbox and balloons lets them pursue Ratigan, who has snatched Olivia as a hostage after his coup fails.

What is Olivia celebrating when Fidget kidnaps her father?

Her birthday celebration ends in terror, and with her toymaker father gone, Olivia goes looking for the great detective Basil.

Which directing duo, later famous for The Little Mermaid, worked on The Great Mouse Detective?

Ron Clements and John Musker made their directing debut here; Clements had pitched adapting the Basil books back in 1982.

Which Disney CEO ordered the film's original title changed?

He felt the name Basil was too English after Young Sherlock Holmes underperformed in 1985.

Which Disney classic did a joke memo about The Great Mouse Detective's retitling rename 'Two Dogs Fall in Love'?

Lady and the Tramp got that title in a fake memo mocking the generic new name, and the spoof titles later became a category on Jeopardy!

Besides cutting its budget, what did Disney's new management demand?

An earlier release moved it from Christmas 1987 to July 1986, so the artists had to work much faster on far less money.

Which instrument does Basil play in The Great Mouse Detective?

The violin: the film made Basil an accomplished player, borrowing the habit of the human sleuth who lives upstairs at 221B Baker Street.

Which longtime voice of Scrooge McDuck also voices Olivia's father in The Great Mouse Detective?

Alan Young, also the star of TV's Mister Ed, was cast as the toymaker for the authentic Scottish brogue he had given Scrooge.

How was Candy Candido's voice altered to create Fidget?

His natural deep voice survives in one line: a character shouting at an eight-legged bum.

Basil's animators drew on which Gone with the Wind star's performance as Henry Higgins?

Leslie Howard's Higgins in Pygmalion won out after an earlier Bing Crosby approach to Basil failed to click.

Ratigan's imposing build was modelled on Disney chief Ron Miller, who had once been what?

A pro football player for the Los Angeles Rams, Miller lent Ratigan his bulk, and in the Big Ben showdown that polished villain turns savage.

Which future supervising animator of the Beast also supervised Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective?

Glen Keane found part of Ratigan in an 1800s photo of a cigar-smoking London man in a top hat: a sewer rat dressed like a king.

Which Hayao Miyazaki film's clock tower showdown inspired The Great Mouse Detective's Big Ben finale?

The Castle of Cagliostro, Miyazaki's 1979 debut feature, climaxes among giant turning gears, so the mouse duel likewise moves from Big Ben's face into its clockwork.

Why did The Great Mouse Detective's research team inside Big Ben work so quickly?

The bells chimed every quarter-hour, so the team rushed its photos and video of the clockworks, reference for the film's Big Ben finale.

What milestone did The Great Mouse Detective's Big Ben climax mark for Disney feature films?

The first extensive use of computer animation in a Disney feature let the 'camera' swoop through Big Ben's gears like a live-action film, with hand-drawn mice on top.

Which composer of 'Moon River' wrote the score for The Great Mouse Detective?

Henry Mancini had never scored an animated feature before, yet his Pink Panther theme already belonged to a famous cartoon character.

Which pop superstar did Disney's new management float for The Great Mouse Detective's tavern number?

Michael Jackson and later Madonna were both floated for the song, but pop singer Melissa Manchester ended up writing and performing it instead.

In The Great Mouse Detective, why does Ratigan feed a drunken henchman to his cat?

He called him a rat, and Ratigan, who insists he is merely a big mouse, then orders the terrified gang to keep singing his praises.

Which planned character did The Great Mouse Detective's writers drop so Basil would crack the case himself?

A stool pigeon informant who hung around Buckingham Palace, the very target of Ratigan's plot, would have tipped Basil off about the scheme.

Under what title was The Great Mouse Detective re-released in 1992?

The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective was the 1992 reissue title, and only after that reissue did the film first reach home video.

Which 1986 animated film outgrossed The Great Mouse Detective at the box office?

An American Tail came from Don Bluth, who had left Disney in 1979 to start his own animation studio.

Which Disney animated feature immediately preceded The Great Mouse Detective?

The Black Cauldron's troubled production got Basil approved as an alternative, and after its 1985 flop the cheaper mouse film carried the studio's hopes.

How does Sherlock Holmes himself appear on screen in The Great Mouse Detective?

As a shadow, in a brief cameo, since the directors wanted a totally miniature mouse world where humans served only as backdrops.

In The Great Mouse Detective, what is the mousetrap holding Basil and Dawson connected to?

A Rube Goldberg machine of various killing devices was wired to the spring-loaded trap, left to finish both mice while Ratigan headed for Buckingham Palace.

What gives Basil the idea for escaping Ratigan's death trap in The Great Mouse Detective?

A remark by Dawson, urging that they spring the trap now, reveals its weakness to Basil, who frees himself, Dawson and Olivia.

In The Great Mouse Detective, how does Basil first treat Olivia and Dawson at Baker Street?

He ignores them at first, and only takes the case once Olivia's story points to the criminal mastermind he has never managed to catch.

What does Ratigan do to his loyal henchman Fidget while fleeing Buckingham Palace with Olivia?

Throws him overboard to lighten the load, yet Basil still leaps aboard, and Ratigan's craft soon crashes into Big Ben's clock face.

Which title does Ratigan scheme to claim in The Great Mouse Detective?

Supreme Ruler of all Mousedom is his goal, and once proclaimed he boasts of plans for his new subjects, until the furious crowd turns on him.