The Great Mouse Detective, pages 174-177

Master criminal Ratigan is the head rat, big and strong, with expensive tastes and a mean mind.

Jeffrey Katzenberg³, now chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Roy Disney⁴, vice chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Company, inherited one other picture from the previous management that would cause them problems. It was a picture planned to be quite different, light and fun-filled, with whimsy and charm, and largely influenced by the popularity of the British comedy group Monty Python⁵. It was based on the stories by Eve Titus⁶ about Basil of Baker Street, a mouse who lived next door to Sherlock Holmes and shared many of his traits and talents. There was a villain who was known as Ratigan, a takeoff on Moriarty, Sherlock's nemesis, and there was a mystery to be solved and a gang of villains to be caught. The story had all the right elements: the characters had the necessary appeal; the plot was one that could be easily handled with animation; and everyone felt that while it was not powerful it would be a happy picture filled with the old values that had made the Disney films so successful.

The original title, Basil of Baker Street, gave no indication that it was a story about a mouse who lived in the shadow of Sherlock Holmes, so the name was changed to the more specific, The Great Mouse Detective. A storyman quipped, "They could do that to every film we've made. Cinderalla would be The Girl in the See-Through Slippers."

They had the problems that haunt the production of every film, however, and there was still much to be learned. For one thing, the audience never had a chance to know the characters or their relationships before the story was off and running. In addition, the animators were having their troubles establishing the crucial personalities through the acting. Veteran animator Tom Sito⁷ claimed that the earlier animators had achieved a fine ability to "grasp the acting in a scene...They could synthesize a performance into two key poses. This is what the animators of this generation lack. They have characters flapping theeir arms around, mugging and doing all these superfluous gestures and not communicating their ideas." Overacting and lack of focus have always been problems with lesser actors in the theater.

Ratigan shows his growing disappointment when the mechanical toy in his hand will no longer function.

The personality of Ratigan, the villainous leader of the rat pack, had come not so much from the demands of the story but from a provocative photo found in an old book. Supervising animator Glen Keane⁸ told of how he was thumbing through these "photographs of people of London in the 1800s, of railroad men, and there was this one guy smoking a cigar -- he had a top hat and there was just something about this guy -- this Ratigan...this rat sucking the cigar, completely dressed to the hilt, he was sharp and perfect -- he's a sewer rat dressed like a king and he lives as a king!"

Ratigan is emotional and theatrical and has complete confidence in his ability to avoid being caught and to also rid himself of Basil forever.

Glen came up with another procedure which added to the believability and dimension of his character. He explained: "I wrote of a history of Basil as a child and Ratigan as a child. What kind of kid was Ratigan? Why did he end up going this path? What was it like at home for him? In animating it, it just felt like you were spending some time with this guy -- you weren't just plopping down at this point in history as if there never had been years before.⁹"

Olivia, one of the victims of Ratigan's actions.

Once again Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney tried to breathe more excitement and tempo into this mild-mannered story. They changed the name to The Great Mouse Detective, which was certainly more provocative than Basil of Baker Street. Jeffrey was sure that a way could be found to systematize animation, as in a live-action film, keeping the cost down and properly preparing the material. Storyman Vance Gerry¹⁰ recalled the problem: "The best things in the [older] pictures didn't have much to do with the story. Those were the things people remembered and they [the story crew] should be trying to get these things, and if you did get it, it was one of the first things Jeffrey cut out because it was too vulgar."

The peg-legged bat, Fidget, does Ratigan's dirty work. He is evil and creul, reasonably smart and very capable, but he leads an insecure life trying to constantly please his boss.

Both Jeffrey and Roy knew what they wanted and what the picture needed and it was frustrating trying to find the places that could be patched up to make it all more interesting and exciting. They cut out slow spots, giving up quaintness and subtleties in order to keep the tempo from sagging, but they could not ass the extra entertainment that was needed.

The archcriminal and fast-talker has no trouble making Basil look foolish.

Several years later Jeffrey summed up his reactions to the finished film this way: "Everything about The Great Mouse Detective is at a lever of 80%. Everything about it is pretty good opposed to GREAT. For instance, Ratigan is intimidating -- but not intimidating enough. The music is passable and the characters are...not accessible enough. the story -- a good story, but not great." Then he hastened to add: "I don't want to sound disrespectful to the movie, because I think we couldn't be where we are today without it. That movie us part of out learning curve." Then he added Oliver & Company as another important "learning" film, and concluded "Without those movies, we wouldn't have Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin."