FROM "THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE"
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!
"The Great Mouse Detective" is one of my top ten favorite Disney films for numerous reasons, mainly for its hero, Basil of Baker Street, and the film's villain, Ratigan! I know that many would rank the previous villains on my list (like Ursula, Gaston, and Jafar) higher than him on their lists, and I can perfectly understand why. But Ratigan has always held a special place in my heart among the other Disney villains that usually out-rank him.
The best place for me to start when talking about this fiend is the teaser before the opening credits. I know that's an odd place for me to start since Ratigan isn't in the first scene of the movie, and that it's really one of his henchmen who I usually talk about later. But I feel the need to talk about this scene first since it's the first objective to Ratigan's overall plan, and is arguably the scariest opening to ever be shown in any Disney movie. We head closer and closer to a brightly lit toy shop on the dark and foggy streets of London, where inside it's as warm and colorful looking as Gepetto's toy shop, as the toy-maker himself is just as lovable as Gepetto is, who gives his little daughter Olivia a dancing ballerina mouse that he made just for her as a Birthday present. It's as wholesome of a scene as Disney can get, that is until we cut outside to see a peg-leg attached to a bat (who we don't yet see his face), and casts a shadow at the door of the shop that gets bigger and bigger as he hobbles closer to the door while laughing with such horror that makes his presence appear to be ominous. We cut back inside the toy shop, and are back to whimsical nature that the scene brought when we first entered, but all the whimsy dies out when the bat tries to break in causing the door to violently rattle. Unsure of who it is at the door, Olivia's Father hides her in the cupboard when suddenly...
HOLY CRAP, WHAT THE HELL!!!!!
The tensity doesn't come to a stop after this reveal either because after he bursts in through the widow, we get a violent struggle between the toy-maker and the bat that we don't even see, that makes it even scarier. We see their shadows, toys and tables being tossed violently around, hear the bat laugh as the toy-maker cries, and in the foreground of it all is the child watching this in horror. The scene calms down when the fight is over, but now everything gets immediately quiet and depressing when Olivia pushes open the cupboard door to find the toy shop in ruins from the attack with the tables and toys being damaged, the paint being splattered all over the place, and its warm and family friendly environment reduced to looking as dark and gloomy as the scenery outside. And the worst part of it all is the Father is nowhere to be found causing the poor little mouse to look around the shop and cry out for her Daddy that echoes through this shadowy city. That's an extremely very dark way to open a Disney film, especially when taking kids on such an emotional roller-coaster that doesn't come to a halt until the opening credits start rolling as we hear the triumphant theme of the movie letting the kids know that Basil will be on the case. When I saw this as a toddler, I remember being petrified and sad, and still to this day I find it to be just as grim as an opening as I found it when I was a kid. And we can thank (aside from Disney) our villain and his scary henchman for ruining the happiness that we had when we first entered this scene.
When Olivia later tells Basil that a bat took her father, the music begins to build dramatically causing Basil to ask Olivia a few simple questions about the bat, and realizes that it's the same bat working for his arch enemy, "the horror" of Basil's "every waking moment. The nefarious Professor Ratigan!" pointing directly at his picture that Basil has over his fireplace. And once he mentions his name the flames in the fireplace raise up, lightning strikes, and we get a close-up of the picture that's now giving a devilish grin, as opposed to having the sophisticated smile that we just before. I don't know if the image of his picture changing expressions in two separate frames was a stylized choice to heighten the drama, or was a simple continuity error, but either or it's awesome! Basil counties to describe him as a twisted genius as he’s hoping around the room and popping out of nowhere, which is comical, but how Basil describes Ratigan of being "A genius twisted for evil", "The Napoleon of crime", and "worse" makes you feel intimidated by the sound of him that's supported by a dim atmosphere with the sound of lightning making the talk of Ratigan appear as ominous as we first met his henchman. Lightning flashes after Basil's shadow comes near his picture as he talks more about him, where we find ourselves entering the sewer that leads to Ratigan's lair, and find Olivia's father alive but imprisoned in a locked room testing a robot that he's created. Out of nowhere a puff of smoke is being blown onto the poor toy-maker's face and right behind him in the shadows is Ratigan holding his cigarette holder chuckling and pinching the sad mouse's cheek asking if he's proud to be part of his "ingenious scheme" in a patronizing tone.
Before I talk about his skills, scheme, henchmen, and what not, I have to start talking about the guy voicing him who is none other than the famous horror movie star...
MR. VINCENT PRICE
Growing up as a kid who loved the horror genre, the first horror actor who I ever became attached too and knew about in a heartbeat before drawing attention to Karloff and Lugosi was Vincent Price. Though I was first exposed to him through Ratigan and Irontail in "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", I wouldn't know him by name or see him on-screen until I saw "House On Haunted Hill" who I loved watching the more I viewed the film for his classy and sinister personality, and yet maintaining a charming presence and having a fun dark sense of humor. I'm not going to act like that I saw all of his classics, or saw most of them all the way through, but I still enjoyed watching him in pretty much anything that he's in, such as "House of Wax", “Last Man on Earth” and "Twice Told Tales" for example. And when I saw him appear in a few Tim Burton films such as "Edward Scissorhands" and the short film "Vincent" (since I was a big Burton fan growing-up), and discovered that he voiced some of the villains after I was introduce to them at an early age during childhood, I just began to love him more than I ever did before, finding him to be the coolest horror actor that I've ever seen. And his performance out of all the things that he's done aimed for kids and families is my 1 number personal favorite in that particular category.
It's been reported that this was Price's favorite role for many reasons (one of them being that he always wanted to voice a character in a Disney film), and every line of dialogue that he delivers proves that he has having nothing but absolute fun playing up the villain’s sinister and flamboyant personality. Through Price's voice work and the animation emoting it, this villain clearly enjoys every single solitary second of being evil since he's always shown to be prancing around laughing (and humming occasionally) as he praises himself for what a smart and nasty villain he is, as well as enjoying the praise that his henchmen give him. Ratigan even gets a few funny pieces of dialogue, particularly his sarcasm towards his number one henchman who's not even a mouse. He's just a delight to watch for how comical and full of himself he is, that doesn't stop being enjoyable until we get to the film's climax.
Though as enjoyably silly and sophisticated as his presence is, much like say Hades or Captain Hook, he still keeps an intimidating approach to keep his henchmen in line and for viewers to fear him. Half of the time he'll just joyfully taunt the people working for him by holding a shiny bell that will mean death to those that upset him once he rings it; or will act happy to keep his henchman's guard down before stabbing them in the back. But when he gets nasty, this fiend shows no mercy at all! Sometimes he'll just burst out yelling the second you piss him; other times he'll remain silent before snapping. My favorite scene when it comes to Ratigan's outbursts is when he threatens the toy-maker. Discovering that the toy-maker will willingly die since he's the only one in London that can help Ratigan carry out his plan, Ratigan brutes for a few seconds as he's smoking, to smiling again accepting his decision until he winds-up Olivia's ballerina toy informing him that he'll be bringing his daughter in, and mockingly telling him that he'd "spend many a sleepless night if anything unfortunate were to befall her" as he watches the doll dance. He then picks up the doll and crushes it with his hands as his eyes begin to bulge out making him look savage until the doll's head pops-off. Ratigan silently gives a mock sorrow, and then suddenly shouts for him to finish the device! He doesn't say exactly say what he's going to do to her, but we know that Flaversham will never see his daughter ever again, and how he can just constantly swing back and fourth from comical to brutal in a matter of seconds makes him appear to be quite unpredictable.
But as unpredictably threatening his mood swings are, they still most of the time come across as laugh out loud funny as say Hades' mood swings. It's not necessarily his outbursts that are funny, it's how he'll just brush it all off and go back to being the jolly well-mannered villain that we know him for, acting as if he's never behaved the way he just did. I also love the bits when he tries so hard to repress his rat instincts since he's so in denial that he's really is one (up to the point when his face turns red) and tries to pass himself off as an elegant mouse despite his unusual size, long pink tail, large crooked nose, and having the word RAT in his name, which is another funny concept given to his character.
Much like Ursula, the best scene combining most of Ratigan's nasty traits, and the sequence where the voice actor seems to be enjoying himself the most by emoting all of his characteristics is his villain song titled "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind" (which is what the villain Egghead was called during the Second Season of the 60s Batman show, who Price also played). I'm not going to act like that the song is up-there with say "Poor Unfortunate Souls", "Be Prepared", or "Hellfire", but I do think that it's highly underrated, because of its twisted lyrics, catchy melody, harmonizing vocals from the thugs, visuals and style that satirizes a Busby Berkeley musical numbers as if it were done by a villain, and above all, Price's performance (who also loves his role because he gets to sing 2 villain songs that were written just for him). I guess the reason why the song is not as recognized as the others mainly has to do with the fact that the villain doesn't sing much, since most of his henchmen do all of the singing, as Price just sings one verse and talks whenever each verse of the song is finished, when with the iconic villain songs that we're all familiar with, the villain does all of the singing. So with that in mind, and how the film itself gets overlooked by many, it’s not hard to understand why it’s not remembered by many. But let's focus on the scene itself.
All of Ratigan's mice henchmen and Bill the Lizard gather in Ratigan's treasure chamber...AND WAIT JUST A MINUTE?! Did I actually write that Bill the Lizard from "Alice In Wonderland" is part of Ratigan's crew? Am I not imagining it?
HOLY COW, he is! Well...on the bright side it makes me feel less bad for him for when Alice sneezed him out of the chimney after being so terrified to go down there. I guess he wasn't as friendly and innocent as he seemed.
Anyway, Ratigan pulls out his cigarette holder expecting everyone to light it (which they do so very quickly), takes a quick puff, and tells everybody about his scheme. Much like how we didn't know exactly what the toy-maker is making for Ratigan, or what will happen if Ratigan rings the bell on poor little Olivia, but in the long run know that it's something awful; Ratigan presents his scheme in a pretty similar fashion. We understand that he plans to overthrow the Queen and kill her at her jubilee based on the bit of dialogue that we're given, and how he burns her picture with his cigarette that causes his minions to gasp; but we don't know yet how he'll achieve it. All we know for sure is that it involves the robot that Flaversham is creating for him. Ratigan then crumples up the paper and releases his madness for when he tells them that he'll rule all of Mousedom that causes him to mess up his hair and collar while everybody cheers for him. But when the applause dies down, Ratigan goes back to looking and acting like his elegant self by calming down, fixing his collar and hair, and taking a top hat and cane to lead us into his song.
As Ratigan sings and dances, he plays on his ego by singing and showing all the things that he's stolen that shook up London, such as a whole mountain of jewels that he slides down on, and a giant wine bottle that he pours into a fountain. And if you think that him being a master of theft isn't wicked enough, his henchmen sing about all the poor widows and orphans that he's drowned! Yes, you read it right! Ratigan has apparently slaughtered dozens of poor women and children! Why? We'll never know. All we can assume is it was either part of his heists, or simply for fun. If you're shocked that Disney has kept that dark lyric in, well it's much more tamed than the deleted second verse expanding on the "Tower Bridge Job" revealing that he's kicked several civilian mice into the river and shot any of them who attempted to surface. And for all we know, Ratigan's more than likely has a long list of civilians and people that he's killed since he's shown to be so ruthless. But getting back to the song itself, as he sings about his previous crimes (or his personal favorites since I'm guessing that he’s pulled-over dozens of jobs for how smart and respected he is in the criminal underworld), he claims that they were fine for their time, but his next scheme will be the topper of them all, that causes his henchmen to sing and dance with him with the excitement for his new plan and praise his "Criminal mind".
The song comes to a halt when the lighting turns blue as Ratigan plays the harp thanking everybody for singing about how great he is. But he tells them that it "hasn't all been champagne and caviar" since Basil has always been on his tail. This is the first time in the film where he reveals his personal hatred towards Basil, and supporting his hate for him is a doll of a toy mouse wearing a detective outfit with needles all over it like a voodoo doll, that is shown from the very second when he says his name. His mention of Basil causes his henchmen to "Boo" at the detective, to sighing with Ratigan when he gives a mock cry and poses in Shakespearean fashion of how Basil would never leave him alone. But all of this playful drama changes when the lightning turns red, as he once again acts viciously assuring everybody that Basil won't stop him, and orders them to bow and sing for him. Everybody toasts for him while singing the second choir of the song, that is until it is ruined by a drunk thug (ironically voiced by the same actor who voices Basil) who calls him "the World's Greatest Rat", causing Ratigan to spit out his wine in shock, and the others gasping. Ratigan angrily asks the poor mouse what he called him, picks him up by the collar shouting that he's not a rat, and tosses him out, all while ignoring the pleas from his thugs. Ratigan playfully pities the poor mouse for upsetting him, but dramatically reminds him what happens to those that do as he pulls out his bell from his pocket and rings it.
So what exactly does the ring of the bell do?
It summons his giant pet Cat Felicia who slowly enters the room pounding her feet against the ground behind the poor drunk, proceeding to pick him up and devour him, as the others cover their eyes except for Ratigan who's just simply enjoying a cigarette. Ratigan comes to clean up her lips and hugs her asking if his "little honeybunny enjoyed her tasty treat", as she responds with a simple loud belch. Ratigan turns around knowing that their won't be any more interruptions and asks them to sing or else he'll ring the bell again, which causes them to sing louder than before and kisses up to Ratigan even more by singing and performing for him, handing him a royal robe, a diamond topped scepter, and a crown to make him feel royal, and giving him one last big toast, as Ratigan just sits there enjoying every single second of it! The fact that Ratigan somehow has a pet cat that is considered to be very lethal to the mice world and uses her as his enforcer is incredible! I mean really, he himself could be cat chow, and yet he manages to have her working with him faithfully, that's one smart and twisted r
Even though Ratigan has plenty of low-lives working for him, his "number one guy" and the one we spend the most time with is Fidget the bat who is a master thief. Fidget does bring a few other good jump scares after his first scene in the movie, such as how he suddenly appears outside the window of Basil's apartment in front Olivia; when he reveals himself to be dressed up as Olivia when Basil and Dawson think that it’s her trapped inside a bottle; and his second most frightening scene in the movie that always makes me jump is when he's in a toy baby cradle hiding under the covers wearing a bonnet. But for the majority of his appearance in the film, he's mainly played out laughs for being clumsy, accidentally leaving things behind, getting hit by others (including little Olivia), and having a comical personality. But as silly and foolish as he is, he for the most part is a henchman worth having. He still steals everything that Ratigan needs for his plan (and apparently proving to be good at tracking people, since he somehow knew that Olivia is at Basil's apartment without any trace of evidence); is quick enough to escape, jump-out when you least expect him too, steal, and outsmart his foes; loves bringing misery to others without hesitation; and his overall design is quite creepy at times when he's not getting himself into trouble. I also admire the actor that they got to voice him who is Candy Candido, who you may recognize his deep raspy voice as Maleficent's pig-like henchmen or the Indian Chief in "Peter Pan", only here his voice was sped up to match the character's goofy personality, but they still kept enough of his deep voice to make him sound intimidating.
In many ways Ratigan is identical to his foe Basil. They're both egoistical, sophisticated, over the top, flamboyant, and intelligent masterminds, only Basil uses his skills to benefit others, while Ratigan uses it for his own selfish needs. Not to obviously mention that Basil is good at heart, while Ratigan is well...pure evil. It's been implied that the two have been using their wits to outwit one another for years, and despite Basil being so close to getting Ratigan, Ratigan always finds a way to escape from his grasps. The best scene of Ratigan outwitting Basil with his "Criminal Mind" is when he sets up a trap for him. After discovering that Fidget left the list behind knowing that Basil will find him, it angers him until he realizes that he can end his feud with him once and for all. When Basil enters his lair, rather than say having his men jump out of the shadows and grab Basil and Dawson, he instead throws him a mock surprise party, with a giant sign welcoming Basil as balloons and confetti drop while his men shout "Surprise" and cheer. Ratigan shows up laughing and applauding for his success at capturing Basil, but wonders why he was so late since he was expecting him earlier. A shocked and angry Basil calls him a sewer rat for it, which doesn't phase him in the very least since he has him right where he wants him, and instead mocks his ego of being the world's greatest detective and yet can't figure out that he's smart enough to set-up a trap for him that breaks Basil as all the others laugh at his failure. With Basil finally in his hands, he creates a death-trap that plays a taunting song recorded by Ratigan on a record player called "Goodbye, so soon" (that Price sings with such evil delight as he did for his first song) that's attached to a cord that will release a metal ball when the song ends, that'll roll down triggering the trap causing them to be killed by a mouse-trap, a gun, a cross-bow, an ax, and an anvil. And when they're dead, a camera will automatically go-off so that Ratigan can have a picture of it. I don't think I can ever think of a Disney who can create a death-trap as cleverly crafted and grotesque as Ratigan. Even the villains from the 60s Batman show has never come close to making a death-trap as awesome as this. Yes, I know that he does the typical foolish villain mistake by leaving them behind which will cause them to escape, BUT that doesn't stop me from being blown-away for how marvelous his trap is, and the imagination of what it'll look like if they didn't escape. Oh and let's not forget that you have A KID witnessing all this, so imagine how poor Olivia would feel if she saw this bloody mess, this would traumatize her for life!
The hints and clues to Ratigan's scheme all come together when he strikes at Buckingham Palace. The toy uniforms that Fidget stole are for Ratigan's henchmen to sneak inside the palace (and have probably killed a good amount of the Queen's Royal Guards to get as close to her as they did). The robot that Ratigan forced Flaversham to create is designed to look like the Queen to take her place at the Jubilee. Ratigan deposes the Queen by having Fidget feed her to Felicia, after using the robot to attack her and send her away. And Ratigan gets his position in power by using the robotic Queen to fool every mouse who attends the event to name him the new ruler. Now aside from a few flaws like how could no one catch on that the Queen is a robot for how uncanny she looks, or why no one questions why the Queen would put a criminal mastermind in power since he’s so well known for his evil deeds; it's still a "delightfully wicked" scheme if you have a good suspension of disbelief. He's killing royalty as a means to take over London (well the mice's world of London) and plans to change things for the worst by carrying a mile long list of his plans, such as taxing against the elders, the infirmary, and "little children" (which is item 96 on his long list, and he isn't nowhere at the half-way point, nor shows any signs of him adjusting the list when we cut away from him for a bit). And considering how heartless and wicked Ratigan is who's reputation makes people shutter when they hear his name, and runs his criminal empire like a dictatorship, think about him doing that to all the innocent mice in the whole entire Kingdom. Felicia would probably be the fattest cat in the entire world for all the innocents she'll eat if they rebel against him or call him a rat. That moment when he takes away a crippled mouse’s cane that protests against his demands and snaps it in half claiming that he has the power to do whatever he wants which makes his eyes turn red, to later casting a giant shadow over the terrified civilians while laughing menacingly is just as uncomforting as learning about today's politics. In fact watching Ratigan, along with Biff Tannen in "Back to the Future Part 2" by modern standards, they’re more threatening to watch now than they ever were in the past. Oh and by the way, I just love how Ratigan comes storming in as soon as the robotic Queen introduces him by name and starts posing in a royal outfit that's much more flashy than the one that we have seen him wear earlier.
When Basil foils his plans by rescuing the Queen, using the robot to beat him up and revealing itself to be a machine, and calling him a sewer rat that causes him to cry like a spoiled child, as well as Ratigan being without his men to aid him (except for Fidget) and Felicia being mauled by the Royal Guard Dogs, aside from one or two little moments of comedy or him behaving fancy, most of his humor and dignity is tossed out the window. Right after when Fidget grabs Olivia during the riot, and Ratigan takes her away to his blimp powered by bike pedals, despite still looking fancy, his face looks nastier than it's ever been, and he behaves a little more violently by losing his patients and bursting out at poor Olivia, and driving wildly to shake off Basil. He doesn't think rationally as he did either. As soon as Fidget gets tired of peddling and tells him to "lighten the load" meaning that Olivia should be thrown off and would end the chase, Ratigan throws Fidget off himself where he falls to his (supposed) death, and Ratigan decides to peddle himself, only to find himself, along with Basil (who has jumped aboard) and Olivia to crash into the Big Ben clock-tower since he wasn't steering. The air chase with Basil and Ratigan is good, but it's the whole sequence at the Big Ben clock-tower that's the true highlight. Basil awakens to find himself on one of the gears of Big Ben with no sign of Ratigan or Olivia at all, and without any kind of warning is Ratigan appearing right behind Basil’s back with Olivia in his arms ready to knock him off the gear to be crushed by the gears below. Olivia bites him to prevent him from doing so, giving Basil the chance to attach his cape into the two moving gears behind him. But that doesn't stop Ratigan for kicking Olivia to suffer Basil's supposed fate. But of course he's foiled again by Basil and watches them get-away.
This angers him so much that he breaks free from the gears and finally unleashes the monster within.
I talked about how most of his charm and humor is gone when he fails to become the "supreme ruler of all Mousedom", but when he sees Basil get-away and become the rat that he truly is, that's officially when all of those characteristics are gone without a trace! He now becomes furious, behaving only on his rat instincts that make him appear more and more rat-like and deadly, by crawling and chasing after Basil on four legs in a hunched position. His eyes looking horrifying for how enraged he is! His clothes are all torn apart revealing how strong and big he is. His fur gets darker and darker as he gets closer to his enemy. He loses his gloves revealing his ugly rat hands that grow into long sharp claws. And he barley says a word when he chases and fights Basil. Being that Price is known as a horror movie star, watching Ratigan change his appearance by ripping his clothes, growing claws, seeing his fur change color, and behaving like a vicious wild animal reminds me of watching a person changing into a Werewolf in a classic horror films like “The Wolfman” for instance. His reveal of his true form also kind of reminds me of "House of Wax" when Price reveals his hideous deformed face that was hidden underneath a mask made of Wax. Watching Ratigan go after Basil and beating him senselessly has to be one of the most violent scenes to ever be put in a Disney film. There's no blood, but looking at Ratigan's nightmare inducing design, the atmosphere and music supporting the scene, the look of pain on Basil when he's getting scratched and hit, and having sound effects that sound extremely harsh and brutal, just shows that you don't always need blood to make a fight scene become violent and intense (at least for an animated film).
Basil is knocked off the hands of the clock-tower causing Ratigan to cheer for his victory as thunder and lightning strikes, until he hears Basil's voice and discovers that he's hanging on his blimp and holding his bell, making him realize that he's lost again. The timing for him realizing this defeat doesn't do him any favors either because the clock strikes after he notices his bell missing and the vibrations from the bell inside the tower causes him to lose his balance and fall to his death. But he doesn't just fall to his death. He takes Basil with him as his last attempt to out-do him before dying. How often do you see a Disney villains do that when they know that they're screwed?! He just never gives up since he is that determined to finish off Basil. But of course, Basil finds a way to save himself, as Ratigan on the other hand doesn't, making him the second main Disney villain to simply fall to his death. Sure Maleficent fell, but she was stabbed and was already considered to be a goner before she fell off the cliff. Fidget was thrown off to his death, but he’s a henchman, not the primary villain of the film. And the Bear that fell down the waterfall in "The Fox and Hound" was more of an obstacle as opposed to being an actual villain. So not since Disney's first animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" did we ever see a Disney villain being killed by the forces of gravity, resulting with this becoming a trope for the deaths of Disney villains that would get more and more disturbing and even poetic at times, and we have the death of Ratigan to thank for bringing back this particular demise.
I don’t care if Ratigan is not usually on the popular top 5 or top 10 list of best Disney villains because for me, he’ll always be one of my top 5 favorites! The schemes that he comes up with and succeeded, thanks to his “great criminal brain” are ingenious. How he manages to have such a huge reputation for his crimes causing everyone to gasp or sing a catchy song for him is remarkable. The fact that he has a predator of his own species working for him to intimidate and kill others is beyond impressive. His henchman Fidget walks a perfect line of being goofy and scary and still manages to be a big help with Ratigan’s plan. And his transformation to becoming a fierce and hideous blood-thirsty rat is one of the scariest final forms that you’ll ever see a Disney villain take. But as awesome as everything I just mentioned about him is, my real enjoyment goes to Vincent Price’s voice work. I suppose that a part of that has to do with my love and enjoyment for the actor, but the main reason is that he gives this villain so much personality that it’s hard not to enjoy getting invested to the character for how evil and comical it is, from the way he laughs and plays on his ego, to his fancy and mocking approach, to his hostel and nasty outbursts, that’s all expressed greatly through the animation. Ratigan is not just one of my top 5 favorite Disney villains of all time, but it’s even one of my top 5 favorite performances from Vincent Price of all time as well, and blending Disney and a famous horror actor together, through the writing, design, and animation is a grand combination of two of the many things that I loved growing up as a kid, that was awesome then, and is still awesome now!
“Oh, I love it when I’m nasty”
-Ratigan
Well, I checked out some more when I got the time, and again, I'm impressed with your thorough analysis of my favorite childhood villains.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, growing up I enjoyed "The Great Mouse Detective" more than a few of the Disney Renaissance films, even though I'm a 90s kid. In fact, even though it's not a musical, the music in the movie was more amusing to me than a lot of the Renaissance films too. Like I unironically loved "Goodbye, So Soon."
But I haven't seen it from start to finish in over 15 years. This article makes me want to revisit it because I don't remember Ratigan feeding the Mouse Queen Victoria to his cat.I thought for sure Basil saved her.
I agree, Ratigan is a really underrated Disney villain, and also interesting for how ridiculously excessive he is, yet you never stop taking him seriously like the 60s Batman villains.
Thank you for reading this.
DeleteHe didn't feed her to his cat, I was simply implying how messed up the idea of it is. Sorry for giving a false impression. And you should see the film again, because its better than I remember it.
Basil and Ratigan are so amusing as characters that it pains me that they are sooo overlooked.
Another Disney film that I feel is highly underrated is "Rescuers"(1977). And I didn't even grow up with that one like "Great Mouse Detective", I was impressed with it in adulthood.
ReplyDeleteI mention that film because I feel like it's overlooked for the same reason : not everyone is into the whole "Mice & Rats in their own little world" cartoon trope, as they see mice as disgusting vermin. I never viewed mice or rats that way, so if anything I find the trope charming and creative.
Then there's this current generation of "I'm a victim" culture that wants to delegitamize 80s kids films because they're a little darker and not so PC (in particular the blue mouse stripper in this movie, and the casual references to murder)
I mean, you have a right to choose what you want your kids to be exposed, or sheltered from, but it doesn't mean the film is any less great, or every Disney film *has* to have a moral for kids, and the characters must be perfect role models.