The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures. The twenty-sixth animated feature in the official canon, the film was directed by Burny Mattinson, David Michener, and the team of John Musker and Ron Clements, who later directed Disney's hit films The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. The film was also known as The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective for its 1992 theatrical re-release and Basil the Great Mouse Detective in some countries. The main characters are all mice and rats living in Victorian London.

Based on the children's book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus, it draws heavily on the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with a heroic mouse who consciously emulates the detective; Titus named the main character after actor Basil Rathbone, who is best remembered for playing Holmes in film (and whose voice, sampled from the Red-Headed League was the voice of Holmes in this film, 19 years after his death). Interestingly, Sherlock Holmes also mentions "Basil" as one of his aliases in the Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of Black Peter".

After the failure of the Disney animated feature film The Black Cauldron, this simpler film proved to be a success upon its initial release in 1986. As such, the new senior management of the company were convinced that their animation department was still a viable enterprise and this set the stage for the Disney Renaissance.

The Game is Afoot! I put a heavy burden on Great Mouse Detective to save the 70s and 80s era of Disney (Aristocats is ok, the rest are very meh or even worse like The Black Cauldron), but luckily Basil was on the case. TGMD not only came through with a late game touchdown, but actually rockets all the way to the top of my old (pre-90s) Disney list.

What's not to like here? We have several compelling, but highly flawed characters. A villain that is as despicable as they come, yet also kinda sympathetic due to Species Shaming. Several thrilling sequences , especially in the toy store. You can see the influences for Toy Story there, and Ratatouille everywhere else. The shadow of the cat eating the drunk mouse is, imo, scarier and darker than anything in The Black Cauldron. The music and animation (though cheaper than TBC) are very on point.

It's really like everything that went wrong over the past 20 years finally came together and produced a diamond in the rough. If this truly is the picture that saved Disney animated, sparking the 90s renaissance, then it fully deserves that honor. For that, and everything else, I give The Great Mouse Detective a strong A.

I skipped Aristocats and Robin Hood because they're the only older ones I had seen in the past few years, but I might go back for them, might as well make it a complete run if I'm gonna watch 75% of the list anyways. I barely remembered any of these other ones if at all though. Dalmations I thought I wrote a review for, but I liked it alot.

The only ones left that I have not seen are Oliver & Company, The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, Brother Bear, Home on the Range and Meet The Robinsons.