I love Sherlock Holmes, but I haven't always loved the film adaptations to the classic mystery stories. I did love this one, though. Disney managed to capture the essence of the stories, but make the characters all rodents. In the case of Moriarty, the transition seemed perfect, since his role as lord of a crime syndicate always made him feel sort of rat-like to me. As I expect from Disney, the artwork is astounding, and they managed to convey both sides of London's turn of the century society. It wasn't all streets well-lit by gas lamps and the warm glow from brownstones, some of it was dark and a bit gritty, even by modern standards.
In some ways, this is pretty standard Disney fare: the anthropomorphic treatment of animal characters, the dazzling array of colors in the artwork, the occasionally tame subject matter, and the adaptation from classic literature. In many ways this reminds me of one of my favorite Disney classics, The Adventures of Mr. Toad. It has similar themes, and Mr. Rat from Toad even looks a bit like Basil (no doubt named for Basil Rathborne, who played the great detective for so many years) from The Great Mouse Detective. What sets this apart from other Disney films is that it's a little dark, a stamp that seems to have been displayed on Disney movies between The Black Cauldron in (I think) '84 and ending more or less in '91 with The Lion King.
It's a little spooky for the smaller kids, as I remember my cousin Jason's response to the movie, which was abject terror for most of Ratigan's scenes. Few people can do a villain the way Disney animates one, so I don't blame him too much, and I think he would have been five or six when we saw this together.
All-in-all, this isn't one of Disney's better pictures. It's kind of middle of the pack, but it hearkens back to the studio's roots, rather than reaching towards a new future. I wish the studio would pull a retro-themed film every so often even now. But, the kids will love it, and with a Disney picture, that's really what counts.
