Yes I have Disney on the brain lately as I am going to Disney World next week so I apologize for all the crazy blog posts lately. But in ramping up for the trip, I decided to re-watch THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, a film I had not watched since I was a kid in the Santa Anita Mall. I was watching it because in considering buying a new sweatshirt for my trip, I came across a bunch of options, one of which was a very stylish GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE sweatshirt. And it reminded me of a film that I once liked a lot but had, like probably a lot of others, forgotten.
So I rewatched it yesterday and thought it was a solid film. Sure, it had some flaws, but it also had a ton of potential. At the end of the film, while I watched the credits, I realized that the film was not an original Disney interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes series but that it was actually based on a series of book, the “Basil of Baker Street” book series written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone (remember this) that first appeared in 1958. Much like the churning gears in the Big Ben-set finale of THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, this revelation really got my wheels turning. The film itself (which does have name recognition especially in the crucial Gen X and Millenial Disney base) is also based on a pre-existing IP. Such a title could lend itself to one of Disney’s new live-action (ok I get it, these are “live-action” in name only for a good majority of the titles like JUNGLE BOOK and THE LION KING where they are really photo-realistically animated with CGI, but I digress) or Disney Plus series. But would Disney even consider a lesser known title like THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE? They should.
Back in the day, Disney’s decisions were not driven by how well their films did. In fact, many times it was the opposite. Instead, Disney drove to monetize films in the form of ancillary programming or attractions by whether or not they fit the greater theme – explaining attractions like the Matterhorn (based on Disney’s little seen THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN which was based on the book “Banner In The Sky”), Tom Sawyer’s Island (based on the book – which would not get a Disney adaptation until 1973, 18 years after the attraction opened at Disneyland), Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (based on the sleeper hit animated film THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD) and Sleepy Hollow restaurant (also based on THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD), and of course the now defunct Splash Mountain (based on SONG OF THE SOUTH, an IP which laid mostly dormant in the 1980s when the attraction was created). In all of these cases, IP actually fit whatever Disney Parks Imagineeers were trying to thematically accomplish at Disneyland, as a way to help the IP itself and not the other way around.
Attraction theming would help sell more merch, DVDs, and would theoretically sell more Disney Plus subscriptions in current times. Re-releasing and remaking Disney films is also not entirely dissimilar to theatrical re-releases and TV airings back in the day. Disney also used TV re-airings of films on “Wonderful World of Disney” or (WAY back in the day) film re-releases to prop up their lesser well-known series. They didn’t bury their library, they pushed you to like it – whether the film was a hit or not. Sure, they re-released SNOW WHITE a million times, but any kid of the 80s will tell you how many hundreds of times they saw UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL or THE APPLE DUMPLING GAME or any number of the HERBIE sequels either on TV, at school on a rainy day, or back in the theaters on a weekend afternoon.
Disney badly needs a return to this philosophy. It made me happy to see them re-releasing films for DISNEY 100 last fall and their series of Pixar re-releases this winter. Even though they didn’t do blockbuster business, they got these films back into the public consciousness for a fairly cheap price tag and which also acted as a way to indirectly advertise Disney Plus. And there are plenty of films that are not currently being utilized that are great and could offer new stories, new experiences – and for Disney new merch opportunities and subscribers. Why go see THE LION KING in live-action when you love the 1995 version so much (I wrote about why the live-action remake’s sequel MUFASA is a make-or-break moment for Disney last week HERE)? And while this film was successful, certain entries into Disney’s live-action remake series have seen diminishing returns, including 2020’s MULAN and even this summer’s THE LITTLE MERMAID (which I actually liked a lot). And now Disney has announced a live-action remake of MOANA. I mean – WHAT?!
Instead, why doesn’t Disney turn to some of their lesser known properties for live-action remakes or Disney Plus series. And one of those titles is THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE. It’s a property that can be a live-action remake or a Disney Plus series – or both – and offer new stories and new ways of storytelling to a new generation – instead of the same old, same old.
THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE follows Basil of Baker Street – a Sherlock Holmes-like detective – in 1897 London. The mice world and pet world (a cat and a dog also factor into the plot) live below the human world and have a whole society that mirrors the human one. Basil is assisted by his friend Doctor Orson (a stand-in for Watson) as they try to stop Rattigan (a stand-in for Moriarty, are you starting to get the picture?) from pulling off various crimes. In this film, a young mouse named Olivia comes to Basil for help when her father, a toymaker, is kidnapped by Rattigan for reasons unknown. It soon becomes apparent that Rattigan is using Olivia’s father to develop an automaton robot version of the mouse queen (a stand-in for Queen Victoria) who will take the Queen’s place and allow Rattigan to rule the city.
As a live-action film, the property could work for a few reasons both expected and unexpected. While I loved the original, it has issues, but it also has a pedigree. It comes from a great team of directors John Musker and Ron Clements (who would later go on to direct (THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN, and PRINCESS AND THE FROG) and it is based on a classic series of books. Think of it as a way to rediscover a classic. And, importantly, the original books had a series of memorable illustrations, courtesy of Paul Galdone, that had a much more realistic take on the mouse characters of the film. These classic illustrations could be used as a way to create the live-action characters in a homogenous way to the remake. The film also has a few interesting set-pieces, thanks to Musker and Clements, including one set in a toy shop and the climax inside of and on top of Big Ben that would make for a potentially incredible live-action translation. Moreover, why not pick a solid property where a live-action adaptation could improve the title and not be an exercise in futility?
I would also argue that Disney’s most successful (critically at least) live-action adaptations were ones which saw the original film re-interpreted (THE JUNGLE BOOK) or re-fashioned from another’s perspective (CRUELLA and MALEFICENT). Some form of rediscovery and reinvention should be an additive to the adaptation and not just a regurgitation like other Disney live-action adaptations.
Let’s say Disney does not want to go with an expensive live-action remake? Well, how about a Disney Plus series? Again, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE was based on a classic series of books “The Basil of Baker Street” that has five original titles published from 1958 to 1982. But get this, the series was revived three decades later when a new work was published in October 2018, written by Cathy Hapka and illustrated by David Mottram. And in this newest reincarnation, they have been rebranded as THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE and packaged as such and conveniently sold on Amazon and at Target. So the title already has name recognition in the literary front now in addition to its previous film (although the series also has new illustrations that I am frankly not as fond of).
Two more new book adventures followed in 2019 and 2020. So a whole new generation may already be getting familiar with this series! Did you hear that, Disney? Now you could do a live-action series or a more stylized CGI series on Disney Plus that already has a built-in serialized format with numerous books that could take a season or so each.
Even if Disney does not choose my beloved THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, I think they could use some of these lesser-known animated titles from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and even early aughts to be outside-the-box choices for redevelopment for live-action or for Disney Plus. Titles like ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE (which I actually wrote about a few years ago HERE), OLIVER AND COMPANY, THE BLACK CAULDRON, heck, even a film that was fairly well-received and known like THE RESCUERS could all be titles that would offer audiences something new and freshen up the general audience reception of the general idea of live-action Disney remakes and Disney Plus series.
WhatWhich lesser-known titles would you want to see Disney redevelop that might outside of the box? If you liked this essay, please give it a like and if you did not, let me know in the comments what you think.
HEAR ME OUT is a recurring column in this blog featuring uncommon schemes, suggestions and propositions that some might think are a little far-fetched, but which might still be a good idea.
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