When I learned that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment planned to release a digitally restored special edition of The Great Mouse Detective in April 2010, I was really looking forward to watching it with my 6yr old son. This was a Disney film that I had missed the first time around in 1986. Well to my surprise, as the movie was starting, my son told me that he had seen this film before. I was so perplexed because he rarely watches movies with anyone else aside from my husband and myself.Well, even though it was not a first I could share with my son, we both enjoyed this DVD very much. One aspect of this movie that really drew me in was the similarities between the sleuth Basil and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes.
The variety of characters is what really makes this movie great. Where else can you find a diabolical rat (Professor Ratigan played by Vincent Price), a peg-legged bat, and a life-size robotic replica of The Queen of England?
Please take a moment to view a clip of one of my favorite scenes from this film:
Although I would say that this DVD is perfect for children 6 and up, younger children would still find it enjoyable. I'm sure our 3yr old twins could not follow the storyline, but they did enjoy the individual scenes, especially the ones with the cat and the hound dog. Our 3yr old son kept asking us "What's going to happen next?" throughout the entire movie and it was clear that the movie kept his interest continuously from beginning to end.
The bonus feature titled "So You Think You Can Sleuth Challenge" was fairly interesting. It gave us a summary of the history of great detective work. We learned that Scotland Yard was the first to use fingerprinting as a method of collecting evidence. Then there was a mini mystery presented to us to see if we could solve the case about who stole the cookies from the cookie jar.
Currently, you can find The Great Mouse Detective - Mystery in the Mist Edition at the Disney Store and other retailers of Disney movies.
Thank you to Click-Communications for sending us a sample DVD free of charge to base this review upon.
