The Great Mouse Detective
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43 free The Great Mouse Detective trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Great Mouse Detective is the Disney film that kept the animation studio alive. Made for a slashed $10 million budget after The Black Cauldron flopped, retitled by Michael Eisner because Basil sounded too English, and finished in a single year, it earned enough in 1986 to convince management the department was worth keeping, setting up the Disney Renaissance. These 43 questions cover Basil, Dawson and Olivia's chase after Professor Ratigan, Vincent Price's gleeful villain and the 1950 comedy that got him cast, Basil Rathbone's sampled voice as Sherlock Holmes, the computer-animated gears of Big Ben and the anime that inspired them, Henry Mancini's score, the Eisner-era retitling saga, and Eve Titus's original Basil of Baker Street books. Every answer is sourced from Wikipedia's coverage of the film and the books, so you can check anything that surprises you. Play in sets of 10 and see if you can match the world's greatest criminal mind.
30 of 43 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Great Mouse Detective heralded which Disney era?
Renaissance
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.
Q 02How do Basil and Dawson disguise themselves to enter a tavern used by Ratigan's gang?
As sailors
As sailors they wait in the tavern until Fidget walks in, then trail him to Ratigan's headquarters, only to walk into an ambush.
Q 03Who voices the villainous Professor Ratigan?
Vincent Price
Price said that if anybody but Disney had asked him to audition, he would have been offended.
Q 04What does Fidget steal from the toyshop for Ratigan's plan?
Soldier uniforms
Soldier uniforms let Ratigan's thugs pose as royal guards at Buckingham Palace, where they seize the Queen.
Q 05The mouse detective's first name honours which actor?
Basil Rathbone
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.
Q 06While making The Great Mouse Detective, Disney's animators were moved from Burbank into what kind of building?
A converted warehouse
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.
Q 07Before Olivia was made a little girl, what was she first planned to be?
A love interest
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.
Q 08Where has Dr. Dawson just returned from when he meets Olivia?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan links him to Holmes's Dr. Watson: both served with the 66th Regiment of Foot before coming home from the Afghan campaign.
Q 09How does Ratigan force the reluctant toymaker Mr. Flaversham to work for him?
He threatens his daughter
He threatens his daughter, and to make the threat stick he sends Fidget to snatch Olivia from under Basil's nose.
Q 10What kind of creature is Ratigan's henchman Fidget?
A bat
A bat with a crippled wing and a peg leg: the moment Olivia describes him, Basil knows Ratigan is behind her father's kidnapping.
Q 11Why does Ratigan kidnap Mr. Flaversham?
To build a clockwork replica of the Mouse Queen
To build a clockwork replica of the Mouse Queen, and at the palace Basil later hijacks the machine to denounce Ratigan as a fraud.
Q 12What is the name of Ratigan's pet cat?
Felicia
Felicia was about to be fed the real Queen until Toby chased her over a wall into a pack of Royal Guard dogs.
Q 13Which animal is Toby, whom Basil borrows to trail Fidget's scent?
A Basset Hound
A Basset Hound owned by Sherlock Holmes himself, Toby follows Fidget's scent all the way to a human-sized toyshop.
Q 21Besides cutting its budget, what did Disney's new management demand?
An earlier release
An earlier release moved it from Christmas 1987 to July 1986, so the artists had to work much faster on far less money.
Q 22Which instrument does Basil play in The Great Mouse Detective?
The violin
The violin: the film made Basil an accomplished player, borrowing the habit of the human sleuth who lives upstairs at 221B Baker Street.
Q 23Which longtime voice of Scrooge McDuck also voices Olivia's father in The Great Mouse Detective?
Alan Young
Alan Young, also the star of TV's Mister Ed, was cast as the toymaker for the authentic Scottish brogue he had given Scrooge.
Q 14What is the name of the tavern where Basil and Dawson go in disguise?
The Rat Trap
The Rat Trap is where Basil's chemical tests on Fidget's checklist lead: a waterfront tavern near where the sewer meets the Thames.
Q 15In The Great Mouse Detective's final scene, what makes Dr. Dawson stay at Baker Street?
Basil calls him his partner
Basil calls him his partner just as Dawson is leaving and a distressed new client arrives, so the doctor stays on for more cases.
Q 16What do Basil, Dawson and Flaversham build to chase Ratigan's dirigible?
An airship from a matchbox and balloons
An airship from a matchbox and balloons lets them pursue Ratigan, who has snatched Olivia as a hostage after his coup fails.
Q 17What is Olivia celebrating when Fidget kidnaps her father?
Her birthday
Her birthday celebration ends in terror, and with her toymaker father gone, Olivia goes looking for the great detective Basil.
Q 18Which directing duo, later famous for The Little Mermaid, worked on The Great Mouse Detective?
Ron Clements and John Musker
Ron Clements and John Musker made their directing debut here; Clements had pitched adapting the Basil books back in 1982.
Q 19Which Disney CEO ordered the film's original title changed?
Michael Eisner
He felt the name Basil was too English after Young Sherlock Holmes underperformed in 1985.
Q 20Which Disney classic did a joke memo about The Great Mouse Detective's retitling rename 'Two Dogs Fall in Love'?
Lady and the Tramp
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!
Q 24How was Candy Candido's voice altered to create Fidget?
The tape was sped up
His natural deep voice survives in one line: a character shouting at an eight-legged bum.
Q 25Basil's animators drew on which Gone with the Wind star's performance as Henry Higgins?
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard's Higgins in Pygmalion won out after an earlier Bing Crosby approach to Basil failed to click.
Q 26Ratigan's imposing build was modelled on Disney chief Ron Miller, who had once been what?
Pro football player
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.
Q 27Which future supervising animator of the Beast also supervised Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective?
Glen Keane
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.
Q 28Which Hayao Miyazaki film's clock tower showdown inspired The Great Mouse Detective's Big Ben finale?
The Castle of Cagliostro
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.
Q 29Why did The Great Mouse Detective's research team inside Big Ben work so quickly?
The bells chimed every quarter-hour
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.
Q 30What milestone did The Great Mouse Detective's Big Ben climax mark for Disney feature films?
First extensive use of computer animation
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.