Review of The Great Mouse Detective (1986) by Cj W — 03 Nov 2013

The queen is in danger and the empire is through.

A young mouse who lives with his dad is told by his father one inauspicious night to hide in the closet. While hiding his father is kidnapped by a dubious bat. The little boy steps out of the closet with no dad and no way to survive. He reads a paper with an article about a mouse detective that helped find a missing mouse. The mouse hunts down the detective who is initially reluctant to take the case; but when he hears about the bat, he knows the boy's father has been kidnapped by his arch nemesis. The mouse detective takes the case and hopes to rescue the boy's father.

"I don't have time for lost fathers.".

"I didn't lose him. He was taken from me.".

Ron Clements, director of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, and The Princess and the Frog, delivers The Great Mouse Detective. The storyline for this picture was better than I anticipated and reminded me of the Rescuers. The animation style was also solid for the time (and is also in-line with The Rescuers). The voices are well selected and include Vincent Price, Eve Brenner, Alan Young, Basil Rathbone, and Shani Wallis.

"You know what happens when people upset me.".

I had never seen this until I watched it with my daughter on Netflix yesterday. I had seen this picture, and knew Vincent Price was one of the voices, but never heard much about this picture. I will say this is a bit underrated as I really enjoyed the villains. Both the main villain and the bat were well created, written, and presented. This is an entertaining picture that is worth seeing with your child and may be worth adding to your DVD collection.

"My good pillows!".

Grade: B+.