Review of The Great Mouse Detective (1986) by Chris M — 26 Oct 2013

Purely and simply, The Great Mouse Detective is a charming animated film, and one that doesn't cater to just children but people of all ages. It's hard to imagine animated films today having things like smoking and garter belts in them, but they're there and on full display in this film.

The one thing that I'll count as a strike against The Great Mouse Detective, storywise, is the fact that it doesn't really feature much of a mystery plot in the vein of a Sherlock Holmes story.

To be fair, this is a film that keeps the younger ones in mind and doesn't want to lose that audience because of a complicated plot that they don't understand, but Basil doesn't seem to do a whole lot of detecting.

Again, this isn't a major flaw, but it would have been nice to have a little bit of a mystery going on to keep things more interesting. As is, it's still an enjoyable film. It's not in my top tier of favorites as far as Disney animated films go, but it's charming nonetheless.