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The
Bedside, Bathtub, and Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes
Original Book by Dick Riley and Pam McAllister
© Continuum Publishing Company, 1991
PARODIES, PASTICHES, AND OTHER FORMS OF FLATTERY
CANONICALLY INSPIRED KID LIT, page 151Eve Titus created a whole series about Basil of Baker Street. In her books, Basil, "the Sherlock Holmes of the Mouse-World," lodges with Dr. David Q. Dawson below the famed human detective, in the cellar community of Holmestead. Basil learns detective lore by listening at his hero's feet and taking notes in shortpaw. Dr. Dawson, also a mouse, has reason to believe that the human Holmes is charmed by his wee imitator in the deerstalker cap. When the Basil mystery was published, Adrian Conan Doyle wrote to Miss Titus, "May I offer you my heart-felt congratulations. It is a simply wonderful creation, and I can assure you that my father would have revelled in every page."
Disney A-to-Z: The Official Encyclopaedia
Original Book written by Dave Smith
© Disney Enterprises, 1996
GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, THE, page 218Animated adventures of a mouse, Basil of Baker Street, who is called on to search for a toymaker, Flaversham, who has been kidnapped to make a robot replica of the queen for the evil Ratigan. Basil, aided by the intrepid Dr. Dawson, helps the toymaker's daughter, Olivia, search for her father. They foil Ratigan's plot and eventually save the queen. Released on July 2, 1986. Directed by John Musker, Ron Clements, Dave Mitchner, Burny Mattinson. 74 min. Featured voice actors were Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Candy Candido, Diana Chesney, Alan Young. The score was written by composer Henry Mancini, who also collaborated on two of the three featured songs with lyricists Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh; the third song, "Let Me Be Good To You," was written and performed by Melissa Manchester. Based on Eve Titus' book, Basil of Baker Street.
After a four-year period of story development, animation took just over one year to complete. This remarkably short production span was possible due to new efficiencies in the production process (such as video tests and computer-assisted layouts and graphics), and an increased emphasis on story development prior to the start of production. A total of 125 artists were involved in making the film. An innovative application of computer technology can be seen in the climactic scene where Basil faces Ratigan in a final confrontation inside the turning and thrashing gear-works of Big Ben. The 54 moving gears, winches, ratchets, beams, and pulleys were literally drawn by the computer, and created a unique background for the characters that had been animated in the usual way. The film was re-released in theatres in 1992 under title The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective. Released on video in 1992.
Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana: An A-to-Z Guide to
the World of the Great Detective
Original Book written by Matthew E. Bunson
© Macmillan, First Edition, 1994
GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, THE, page 96US 1986. Cast: Voices of Vincent Price (Professor Ratigan), Barrie Ingham (Basil), Val Bettin (Dawson). This delightful animated Disney Films release features a brilliant but eccentric mouse, Basil of Baker Street, who resides in the same building as a certain other, albeit human, detective. The entire world of Mousedom parallels that of the humans who appear only briefly in the film, usually as shadows as the mice go about their business. The plot revolves around Basil's search for a little girl's father, a mouse toymaker who has been kidnapped by the evil Ratigan (wonderful voice by Price). He is aided by Dr. David Dawson, a slightly paunchy mouse who will remind aficionados of Thorley Walters. The dog Toby also appears. The animation is superb, assisted by the music of Henry Mancini. The film was based on Basil of Baker Street, a series of children's books by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone.
The Pictorial History of Sherlock Holmes
Original Book written by Michael Pointer
© Brompton Books, 1991
6. THE GREAT AMUSERS AND PERSUADERS, page 124A marginal but pleasantly charming cartoon film made by the Walt Disney Studios in 1986 was Basil, the Great Mouse Detective, based on the children's books by Eve Titus about Basil, the mouse who dwells beneath the floor boards in Baker Street and who, in this film, becomes involved with a rodent Moriarty named Professor Ratigan (voice deliciously supplied by Vincent Price).
Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration
Original Book written by Allen Eyles
© Harper and Row, 1986
11. THE GREAT REVIVAL, page 125The box-office disappointment of Young Sherlock Holmes in America suggests that Holmes has too dated an image to appeal to modern audiences on the scale necessary to support a major and experience production. None of the big-screen Holmes films of the last twenty years have been a huge success. The Walt Disney Company is probably on safer ground with its animated feature, The Great Mouse Detective, which is taken from a series of books by Eve Titus that re-tell the saga at rodent level: Basil, the famous Victorian mouse detective, aided by a bumbling assistant called Doctor Dawson, battles the Moriarty-like Ratigan, "the most dangerous rat since the Black Death."
The World of Sherlock Holmes: The Facts and Fiction
Behind the World's Greatest Detective
Original Book written by Martin Fido
© Adam Media, 1998
6. THE IMMORTAL REPUTATION
PARODIES, TRAVESTIES, AND THEFTS, page 130Basil, the Great Mouse Detective, was the Disney studio's Christmas offering for 1987. In a relatively lean period when they seemed to have lost some of the zest of their better creations, it was thoroughly entertaining cartoon. The evocative animation of 221B Baker Street in foggy London was particularly effective. And nobody protested that there as any impiety in translating the Great Sherlock into a squeaking caricature like the little French mice in Disney's Cinderella.
