The Great Mouse Detective

The Great Mouse Detective (known as Basil, the Great Mouse Detective in the United Kingdom) is the twenty-sixth film in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and originally released to movie theatres on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution.

Main Characters

• Basil of Baker Street - The great detective himself based off of Sherlock Holmes. His main goal is to get Professor Ratigan behind bars and rescue Olivia Flaversham's father while saving the monarchy at the same time. It should be mentioned that there are a few differences between Basil in the book series and in the movie but most notable is that the film version is mercurial in moods and does not respond to setbacks well, tending to fall into deep melancholy, He also plays the violin rather well in the movie. (The book series mentioned Basil's violin playing was atrocious and instead Basil played the flute well.)
• Dr. David Q. Dawson - Previously of the Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan. His character is based upon Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories. He constantly is amazed by Basil's deductions much like Watson is with Holmes. In the movie Dawson meets Basil after bringing Olivia Flaversham to Baker Street. He eventually becomes Basil's associate, friend, and personal biographer. The main difference from the books is that the animators modeled the character after Nigel Bruce in both appearance and character. As a result, Dawson is essentially a fat bumbler who is redeemed by his good heart.
• Olivia Flaversham - A small girl mouse of Scottish descent who seeks Basil's help finding her toymaker father. Basil seems to either have trouble remembering her surname (or just does not care) for he always messes it up somehow when speaking to her. (He gets the surname correct once, but he was speaking to Olivia's father, Hiram.) Her surname is most likely based off of Flora and Fauna Faversham from the Basil of Baker Street book series.
• Professor Ratigan - Basil's arch-enemy based off of Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories. The movie does not explain when the battles between Basil and Ratigan started to take place, but they had clearly occurred for quite some time. He longs for control of the monarchy and to put an end to Basil's meddling for good. In the book series it is revealed his given name is Padraic and that Ratigan is in fact, a mouse. This could be the reason why Ratigan in the movie (who is a rat) takes offense from being referred to as a rat.