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FILM · 1986 · USA

The Great Mouse Detective

23 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

23 Interesting Facts About The Great Mouse Detective

Interesting Facts (18)

  1. #001

    With this film, Vincent Price fulfilled a lifelong dream. He had always wanted to voice a character in a Disney film.

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  2. #002

    Ratigan was initially designed to look thin and weak, but when Vincent Price was cast to play the role, his appearance was changed accordingly.

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  3. #003

    When Fidget screams off-screen while Felicia is being fed, the scream is not actually Candy Candido. Instead, it is a sound effect that went unused for the Haunted Mansion ride.

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  4. #004

    Basil was initially modeled on Bing Crosby, but the animators ultimately drew inspiration from Leslie Howard.

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  5. #005

    The first meeting between Basil and Dawson, in which Basil deduces that Dawson has come from Afghanistan and offers an elaborate explanation of how he reached that assumption, mirrors the first meeting between Holmes and Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, where Holmes does the same thing.

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  6. #006

    Dumbo, the Disney character from the 1941 film of the same name, stands out as a toy figurine in the toy store scene.

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  7. #007

    Olivia was initially going to be older and was deliberately intended to be Dawson's love interest. She was later changed into a little girl so that audiences would sympathize with her more.

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  8. #008

    The clock tower scene was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki and TMS Entertainment's Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979).

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  9. #009

    CASTLE THUNDER: It is heard every time lightning flashes during the storm in this film, and a slowed-down version of it is also heard several times. This was the last Walt Disney Feature Animation film to regularly use the Castle Thunder sound effect. Beginning the previous year with The Black Cauldron (1985), Disney had started experimenting with newer, digitally recorded thunder sounds. However, The Little Mermaid (1989) would also use this sound effect, semi-continuously interspersed among new thunder effects during its two storm scenes. In addition, Oliver & Company (1988) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) briefly used the effect once or twice, interspersed among new thunder effects during their own storm scenes.

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  10. #010

    Norway banned the film for children under 12. The studio considered releasing it directly to video, since video cassettes were not edited at the time. Danish censors demanded a 30-second cut. Finland and Sweden released it without any restrictions.

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  11. #011

    While searching for a map in his flat, Basil opens one and looks at it very briefly. It resembles a stereotypical treasure map, but one of the locations reads: "Downtown Burbank."

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  12. #012

    In real life, Queen Victoria's actual Diamond Jubilee took place on 20 June 1897, but it was celebrated on 22 June 1897, almost at the same time as the Mouse Queen's Diamond Jubilee in this film.

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  13. #013

    Michael Eisner wanted Michael Jackson to voice a character who would enter the hall, confront Basil and sing in the tavern.

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  14. #014

    When Basil learns from Olivia that a bat stole her father, he asks whether the bat's wing is broken. It turns out Fidget cannot fly, meaning he is unable to. At the climax, when Ratigan throws him off the airship, Fidget screams "I can't fly!" and presumably falls into the Thames and drowns.

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  15. #015

    Ratigan is the only non-human character with five fingers on his hands.

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  16. #016

    The reason Toby takes an immediate dislike to Dr. Dawson was explained in an earlier scene: to mend his arm, Dawson had used a unique Afghan catgut known for its "peculiar pungency," which left him smelling strongly of cat in Toby's eyes.

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  17. #017

    The film uses a recording of Basil Rathbone in the role of Sherlock Holmes. Rathbone's first two films as Holmes were released by 20th Century Fox, which Disney acquired in 2019.

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  18. #018

    It is one of two non-musical Disney animated films to contain at least 3 songs; the other is One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

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Production Story (1)

  1. #019

    Pre-production began while Disney's previous animated film, The Black Cauldron (1985), was still in production. Ron Miller, then president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, favored this project because animators John Musker and Ron Clements had been taken off "Cauldron" and Miller wanted to give them something to work on in the meantime. Fellow Disney animator Rob Minkoff later said Miller was against making the film because it looked too "old-fashioned" compared with "Cauldron," though Minkoff was convinced it represented what audiences wanted to see at the time. ("Cauldron" became an expensive flop.) In late 1984 Miller was fired from Disney and replaced by Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, both of whom backed Musker and Clements' ideas and eventually put the project into production.

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Characters & Cast (1)

  1. #020

    While Vincent Price recorded his lines, the animators sketched his exaggerated Shakespearean gestures and worked on animated poses for Ratigan.

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Easter Eggs & References (2)

  1. #021

    The box Olivia sits on to cry is "Gaston's Liver Pills," a reference to one of the artists' fathers.

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  2. #022

    After its initial release, the film was blocked from premiering on home media before a reissue because of the risqué theme of the barroom scene and Miss Kitty Mouse's show melody. That home media ban was lifted after the reissue. It should be noted that this is cited as the reason the film was overlooked and never spawned a franchise, despite its critical and financial success.

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Deeper Meaning (1)

  1. #023

    This is one of the few Disney films shot entirely at night. No scene in the film takes place during the day. That said, judging by the pinkish-grey sky, the sun also appears to be rising when Fidget carries the bag containing Olivia onto the roof of the toy shop and Basil discovers the list Fidget accidentally left behind. The next two scenes — Fidget bringing Olivia to Ratigan, and Basil and Dawson determining where the paper the list was written on came from — are also implied to take place during the day. However, because both scenes take place in hidden spaces with no windows, the situation remains ambiguous.

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Related pages

  • Treasure Planet — The Great Mouse Detective comes up in the facts on that page

Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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