The Great Mouse Detective/The Rescuers Down Under

Now that December has started again, it’s time for the second year of “Disney Month.” This year I will be looking at all of the sequels to the classic Disney movies from their Renaissance period. However, first I need to talk about a certain movie that I didn’t review last year, but didn’t see until earlier this year. That is none other than the 1986 classic, “The Great Mouse Detective.”

After a small girls (Susanne Pollatschek) toymaker father (Alan Young) is kidnapped, Basil (Barrie Ingham), this film’s version of Sherlock Holmes, takes this case, which first takes him to a rather poor bat and then to one of the scariest villains in Disney history, Professor Ratigan.

Ian Nathan of Empire mentioned in his review, “A better than you remember entry from the corridors of Disney animation during their wan years following Walt’s death and before the success of The Little Mermaid. The film is often written off as it failed at the box-office, but it reveals a rare vibrancy and attention to detail, not to forgo its daring leanings toward a Looney Tune style mania, that had all but been stamped out due to growing costs and a general lack of effort.”

Computers being invented are one reason that the background energizes again, a beautiful Victoriana touching base will every tourist guide’s appeal to London memorabilia. Nathan said, “Two of the tumble of directors, Ron Clements and John Musker, were forging ahead, twisting the enemy microchips to their own uses and measuring up a future for the medium.” They would become the reason for the success with The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. What they had was that kids had changed a bit from when Walt Disney was around, and while they wanted a good story, they also wanted crazy. Nathan mentioned, “This Basil works less in the Basil Rathbone mould than the Basil Fawlty, a hyperactive pipsqueak, never quite in control. One dazzling helter-skelter escape sequence has the rodent hero defy any number of choppers and anvils, to catch a photo-op with perfect precision at the end.” It’s also great to hear the deep chant of Vincent Price’s immortal voice as this film’s version of Moriarty, Professor Ratigan.

The music is never forced on us, leaving the story to bring us along the right, actually a little too briefly, to its climax in and around Big Ben, a part where there is no short supply of actual excitements. Nathan mentioned, “Compared to the lumpy, over-laden efforts that finally put paid to Disney’s animated arm a second time around, this is a real treasure.”

The truly amusing and appealing Disney animation that everyone doesn’t seem to remember of this movie, but it’s actually a classic. This is an underrated movie that I would highly recommend everyone to see.

Now that we have that review done, let’s get started on the Disney sequels with the 1990 underrated classic, “The Rescuers Down Under.” Planned as an easy, low-budget production, “The Rescuers Down Under” may look out of place on Disney’s official list of their classics. This film was Disney’s first animated sequel, and it continues the adventures of Bernard and Bianca, the mice members of the Rescue Aid Society, our favorite characters from the 1977 classic, and they’re both reprised by Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor.

This time, we bring the two mice back together right when Bernard is about to propose to Bianca. His proposal is interrupted when they are sent on an urgent mission to Australia to rescue a boy named Cody, voiced by Adam Ryen, a kid who spends every day helping local animals who need it. He is kidnapped by McLeach (George C. Scott), a cruel thief who wants to learn the location of a rare eagle called Marahute (Frank Welker), so he can capture it and become, you guessed it, the richest man alive. In their mission, Bernard and Bianca are joined by the brother of the albatross from the first movie, Wilbur (the late John Candy), and outback-knowledge kangaroo-mouse Jake (Tristan Rogers) (he also falls in love with Bianca when they are on this journey).

Jack Seiley is right when he mentioned in his review, “While the first Rescuers came off mostly as a detective story, Down Under is much more an adventure movie. In fact, there's no clues to follow or mysteries to solve: the goal is just to brave the Australian wilderness to rescue Cody and Marahute.” Since the story is pretty easy, there’s a little filler material in the duration. It takes some time to get to the actual rescuing, and a few random jokes and misadventures are thrown in the film.

Seily admitted, “While fans of the original film may consider this to be a letdown, I feel Down Under, despite its imperfections, is a superior sequel. It's much more cinematic and energetic than the first, which I felt was pretty lackadaisical. There are some ridiculous elements, such as little Cody climbing a mile-high sheer rock face or riding on the back of a soaring eagle.” However, when nice, it allows this sequel to show off some exciting animation, cinematography, and camerawork, played to the magnificent score by Bruce Broughton. Besides the adventurous journey in Australia, the “love triangle” with Bianca, Jake and Bernard (who keep wanting to have a moment to propose) makes for some hilarious character interaction.

Seily went on to say, “All in all, The Rescuers Down Under is a very fun experience, and one that I think is quite underrated. It seems most that aren't die-hard Disney fans have forgotten about this one. While its reputation is underwhelming, I would highly recommend the movie to pretty much anyone.”

I agree with Seily when he said, “One of the few Disney selections I feel is tremendously underrated, The Rescuers Down Under provides a nice continuation of the '70s original while soaring to new heights in energy, adventure, and fun.”

In the end, I would say that you should watch this movie and give it a chance because it is actually a really good sequel. I do agree that this is underrated and people don’t seem to remember it, like they do with “The Prince of Egypt,” but I think that you should watch this and see for yourself, you will like it.

After how bad this movie did at the box-office, Disney Toon Studios made the sequels, which were mostly direct-to-video. Disney Toon Studios also did the animated TV shows. Let’s see how they sequels are as we go on in “Disney Sequel Month.”