While the characters are endearing (even if our hero comes off as bit too stiffly off-putting in his opening scenes), the storyline never quite congeals into the ‘grand mystery’ one would expect from a Sherlock Holmes-inspired tale. The film is undermined by the one element that ultimately makes it stand out, the over-the-top villainy of Price’s Ratigan. Pretty much from the get-go, it is known it is he who is behind the fiendish plot, so there really is no mystery at all to the viewer. The bulk of the story finds Basil merely walking through the paces of the standard detective investigation, eventually finding himself trapped in the ‘secret lair’ of his sworn-enemy and the focal point of an overly-elaborate Rube Goldberg-type device designed to put an end to their rivalry, permanently.

Albeit more akin to Ian Fleming (or Dr. Evil) then Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this set-up and its resolution marks the turning point for the character of Basil, where he finally warms up to the other characters, and thus the audience. With the proverbial tenets of the mystery genre out of the way, the film finally comes alive in a race to save the Queen of Mousedom and defeat Ratigan once and for all.

In its DVD debut, The Great Mouse Detective is granted a spiffy digital restoration, a sparse collection of extras (see below) and horribly cartooney cover art and menus. After the similarly shoddy treatment afforded Oliver and Company earlier this year, it seems that once again the Studio suits have foiled us, depriving Disney fans of a more in-depth and rewarding DVD edition of one of the minor animated classics, thus proving again that it is they, not Ratigan, who are the true villains to Basil of Baker Street, the Great Mouse Detective.

DVD Bonus Features:

The Making of ‘The Great Mouse Detective’ Featurette:   At just barely eight minutes, with faded footage and shoddy production values (for example, superimposing an actor’s name over his face), this featurette would seemingly be a bit of a short-shrift. But Vincent Price again saves the day (and steals the show) in a rare interview that reveals his take on one of his last villainous roles. Plus, footage of Price’s drolly crooning “Goodbye, So Soon” and Melissa Manchester (who wrote and performed the song “Let Me Be Good To You” in the bar scene) in a very That 80s Show outfit.

Sing-Along Song:  Ratigan’s ode to his own megalomania, “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind”, is cut down to a measly two minutes, deleting his soliloquy and Bartholomew’s death by Fluffy.

Animated Shorts:  Two classic shorts with marginal connection to the main feature are included: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy tackle a Big Ben-like clock in 1937’s Clock Cleaners (a horribly grainy, flickering print … stick to last year’s Mickey Mouse in Living Color disc set for this one) and 1945’s Oscar-nominated Donald’s Crime (after Donald snags his nephews’ piggy bank money to fund a date with Daisy, guilt sends him into a nightmarish vision of what happens when you step over to the wrong side of the law.)

The Great Mouse Detective Scrapbook:  Fifteen pages of visual and character development art, storyboard drawings, behind-the-scenes photos and publicity artwork sounds like a lot, but closer inspection reveals glaring shortcomings: only two pieces of Basil’s development? Just one movie poster? A scant two storyboard panels? Come on, this film is only sixteen years old, there’s got to be more of this stuff somewhere … anyone know the number for that great mouse detective?

Toon Talk Rating: B-