Disney is the king of animation. The studio has dazzled with stunning projects like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules. In more recent years, they’ve impressed again with movies like The Princess and the Frog, which is set in New Orleans and twists the classic “Frog Prince” fairy tale on its head. Moana, released in 2016, was said to be the comeback that Disney needed after repeated flops at the box office. All these movies have one thing in common—they were directed by the powerhouse team of Ron Clements and John Musker.

There are some truly talented artists, writers, and directors who work for Disney, but perhaps none have helped shape the studio as much as Ron Clements and John Musker. Many are familiar with their work. However, there’s one project of theirs that has flown under the radar. It’s a fantastically dark movie that is inspired by classic characters. It also happens to be Clements and Musker’s directorial debut. The project in question is 1986’s The Great Mouse Detective. It’s been thirty-nine years since the movie was released, and it remains just as fantastic and captivating. Definitely a must-watch for any Disney fan!

The Great Mouse Detective Is an Animated Rendition of Sherlock Holmes

No conversation about underrated Disney films is complete without mentioning The Great Mouse Detective. The movie follows a young female mouse named Olivia Flaversham, whose father is kidnapped by a malicious bat crony of one Professor Ratigan (superbly voiced by the late Vincent Price). Her father needs to create a robot version of the queen so that Professor Ratigan can secretly be in power behind the scenes. Olivia recruits a famous detective named Basil of Baker Street to help solve the case and find her missing father. Along for the ride is Basil’s colleague David Q. Dawson and a giant Bassett Hound named Toby.

The Great Mouse Detective is surprisingly dark and scary for a Disney animated movie, which is perhaps why it has gone under the radar. Fidget, the evil bat, strikes a menacing profile any time he’s lurking in the shadows. Professor Ratigan is downright sadistic with his plot to impersonate the queen via a crudely constructed robot. There’s even a controversial scene where Basil and Dawson go to a seedy tavern near the docks called the Rat Trap. They are there to follow a lead, but while checking out the patrons, they end up watching the saucy performance of one of the female entertainers—a Jessica Rabbit moment that feels wildly inappropriate for a G-rated movie.

The events in the movie plays like a film noir or a mystery in the vein of Sherlock Holmes. Adults in the audience will recognize and appreciate the similarities and be just as captivated by the film as the younger audience. Overall, The Great Mouse Detective is a family film that everyone can enjoy.

The Great Mouse Detective has a sophisticated story and rich animation. It also explores darker themes that will appeal to fans of other edgier Disney films, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas, or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Professor Ratigan, meanwhile, remains one of the most deliciously wicked Disney villains of all time. He is a giant sewer rat who doesn’t like to be referred to as a rat. At first, he was written to be a skinny, weasly looking character. However, after Ron Clements and John Musker made the wise choice by hiring Vincent Price to serve as the voice-over actor, one of the illustrators on film, Glen Keane, changed up the design.

According to Keane:

“I started doing drawings of a much larger, huge rat character and it fit. So then we actually brought Vincent Price in and headed in that direction.”

Price was 75 years old and at the end of his career as an actor, although his final performance would be seen four years later in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands as The Inventor, a role written just for his talents. The veteran actor, whose extensive filmography includes House of Wax, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Masque of the Red Death, and William Hill’s classic horror film House on Haunted Hill, brings an expressiveness and bravado to his role as Professor Ratigan that can’t be matched. It was the right decision to make the character look tough and menacing. He has become one of the most fearsome villains in Disney history, with the likes of Cruella De Vil, Scar, and Captain Hook.

Casting Vincent Price was just one of the genius choices that Ron Clements and John Musker made for The Great Mouse Detective. Despite its more mature content, the movie remains one of the finest features in the Ron Clements and John Musker canon. The animation is gorgeously dark, the action sequences are thrilling, and the story is captivating.

There’s one sequence in a toy store that stands out as being particularly delightful. It’s from the point of view of the mice, so all the toys seem larger than life. A jack-in-the-box leers down menacingly after Basil, Olivia, and Dawson climb up a ladder through the window. As the scene progresses, the viewers see a birds-eye view of the mice walking across a chessboard. Due to the way the camera is set, the pieces look as though they’re towering over the characters.

This is a prime example of how strong the writing and direction are in The Great Mouse Detective. The audience really feels as though they’re on the same level as the mice that serve as the main characters. Ron Clements and John Musker paid attention to the details and made the world as seen from the vantage point of the mice. It makes everything that much more immersive.

Disney Was in Desperate Need of a Comeback When The Great Mouse Detective Was Released

The Great Mouse Detective was a chance for Ron Clements and John Musker to prove themselves as first-time filmmakers. It all started after Ted Berman and Richard Rich’s The Black Cauldron was a bust at the box office in 1985, earning just $21.3 million against a $44 million budget. The dark fantasy film has since gone on to become a cult classic, but at the time, it was devastating for Disney to invest so much time and effort into a bomb.

Luckily, Ron Clements was there to save the day. He had read a children’s book written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone called Basil of Baker’s Street and thought it would make a great animated feature. He pitched the idea to Disney, who gladly accepted since they needed a movie that would help get them back on their feet.

The Great Mouse Detective rose to the occasion. The film received two thumbs up from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their show At the Movies. Siskel went on to praise the film in The Chicago Tribune, saying it “travels a wide emotional range, taking us from cuddly to scary, from recognition to wonder.”

What’s more, The Great Mouse Detective was a box office success. It was made for a modest $14 million and ended up grossing $50 million worldwide. Ron Clements and John Musker proved to be a dynamic duo, which is why Disney continued to employ them for many projects into the future.

It Will Be Exciting to See What Comes Next for Ron Clements and John Musker

In an interview with Columbia College of Art & Design, John Musker shared more about how he and Ron Clements became the dream team of Disney animation. According to the director, they were the odd men out when working as story contributors on The Black Cauldron. The movie was losing a lot of money, and nothing they pitched could save it from box office doom.

After Ron Clements pitched his idea of adapting Basil of Baker Street, the rest was history. He and John Musker teamed up to co-direct The Great Mouse Detective and were met with critical praise and huge box office numbers. Disney received the proof they needed that Clements and Musker were capable of greatness. The duo has continued to make animated history with films such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog, and Moana.

It just goes to show that success could always be lurking behind a failure. Because of the success of The Great Mouse Detective, Ron Clements and John Musker became mainstays in Disney animation. They went on to write and direct some of the most celebrated movies in Disney history.