tealin | The Napoleon of Crime!

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The Napoleon of Crime!

I just finished watching The Great Mouse Detective for the first time in what feels like ages.

And it struck me (not for the first time): why hasn't Disney tapped this movie for sequels? It's made for sequels! The ending practically sets it up for a whole franchise! It's got interesting characters and an interesting setting and you could have no end of fun with it. On top of all the intrinsic franchisability just in terms of the story, to be brutrally honest, the production values set a fairly low bar. The animation is very good, but the Sequel Studios (or what's left of them) have gotten just as good if not better, and as for art direction and background painting, most of the cheapquels are an improvement. Not only would a Great Mouse Detective sequel not be a travesty upon the original (depending what they did, of course – they'd probably insist on throwing a romance in there, the blaggards), but the original is practically crying out for a sequel. I can think of two reasons they haven't got one on the slate already:
1. Eve Titus' estate is being persnickety with the rights (though if the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate let them make Tarzan II, I can't see how they wouldn't be able to overcome it).
2. The original is so overlooked by the purchasing public that it hasn't even registered on the Disney board's collective mind.
The only reason I, personally, wouldn't greenlight it is if they couldn't get Barrie Ingham (or a perfect replacement) to do Basil's voice. That is an essential ingredient.

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I love Great Mouse Detective and always have, but then I am a sucker for Sherlock Holmes in all his forms, rodent or not.

And word on Barrie Ingram's voice.

Ah, such a treasured memory of mine, that movie. I watched it every day in kindergarten! I don't know about sequels ... I've been burnt out on them entirely. But if they could get Barrie Ingham ... him as Basil = GODLY.

We never buy Disney sequels for that reason. Most of them are stupid, anyway, and we get sick of them. (With the exception of "The Rescuers" ones. We have both of those...)

ps: I love your icon. John Lennon (and that entire movie!) rules.

Danie

Well, The Rescuers Down Under was done as a feature film that happened to be a sequel to one they'd done before. It got the full feature treatment: story, animation, everything. This was back when the people who knew what they were doing were still allowed to be in charge of making movies, so of course it's good.

I put forth the suggestion of sequelizing The Great Mouse Detective only because they seem set on sequelizing everything they can get their hands on, but yet have somehow missed the obvious one for which it might actually work..

Damn that song for being so catchy!!

Maybe they want to save their sequels (if such a concept exists) for the better known originals, so they rake in quick cash from the top names. Basil isn't (and wasn't, if I'm thinking clearly) a Disney goldmine, despite it's wonderfulness.

No, sadly enough, this was (and is) a very overlooked and forgotten yet hopelessly entertaining piece of film.*

If they're going for blockbusters, then, which I'm sure they are, why haven't they touched Hercules? Of all the recent movies it seems most set up for a sequel: Hades is a god, so being thrown into the whirlpool of the dead won't have much effect on him, and meanwhile Hercules is off being a hero on Earth – he's got to be doing something. You don't have heroes just wandering around doing nothing, that goes against narrative imperative! They had the TV show, but that was when Herc was a teenager, it didn't take advantage of the open ending of the movie at all.

Baffling, I tell you. I have no idea how these people's minds work.

Maybe they can't do Hercules because they've butchered the myth so much already that sooner or later, they'll have to be semi-true to it. He's got a girlfriend now, he's finished the Labors, so the sequel: being murdered by his girlfriend with a cape that sets him on fire, then shot by a trusted advisor. Now that's a Disney plot soccer moms might be a little ticked at...
What about the old Sword in the Stone? They could do a little more with that before it gets depressing.

Well, butchery of the original story didn't stop them making Pocahontas II or Hunchback II ... why suddenly take up accuracy for the sequel? Besides, both superheroes and Greek mythology are very in nowadays.

Not that I'm advocating the whole cheapquel thing... I just think that if they're going to make them anyway, they might as well make the ones that make sense.

Sadly "Disney" and "Sense" are words that parted company a long time ago.

But as I say, Pocahontas and Hunchback were successes, whereas Basil's probably been filed under F for Flop and now no one can remember what they did with it. It's sad, I really would like to see more of Basil and co.

The Great Mouse Detective actually signalled the turnaround of the Disney animation unit after the uncontested flop of The Black Cauldron; they made it on an extremely low budget and in a phenomenally short period of time, and since it was actually good, it made a profit.* It just got overshadowed by the following, much larger successes of Oliver & Co. and especially The Little Mermaid.

(Treasure Planet: um, only my most favorite movie ever.)

Hey, I never proposed that box office results reflected quality of the movie...

On the other hand, I could have done without the last five minutes of that film.

[reflection]

Definitely could have done without the last five minutes.

Hee. It was marketed badly. And the DVD cover was hideous. But I loved it anyway. You know, it's the reason I even got an LJ in the beginning. :O To join a Treasure Planet community. xD

Oh, man, you mean the "silver lining" bit?

Well, that takes the cake, but it's accompanied by nauseatingly cute baby catdogs, robot stepdancing, and some irritatingly bad animation of Jim's mom, and that's just what my traumatzed brain can remember.

I'm hardly one to talk, though... the main thing that got me online in the first place and is primarily responsible for my choice of career is Hunchback a film that is not without its flaws.

xD But it had fiddling! Everyone loves fiddling!

Okay, okay, the whole movie had its share of very sour bits. But on the whole I loved it anyhow. :O

. . . I never really liked that movie. :( I think deep down on some subconscious level it terrified me, although I've only ever seen it about once — years ago.

In Finland (that's were I'm from), it's called "Basil-hiiri mestarietsivä", so it's for english something like: "Basil-mouse, best detective". I'm just 12-years old, so my english is not so good. Please don't laugh at me.

I'm still waiting a sequel for that movie. GMD is movie, what Needs a sequel. That's my comment.

You English is a lot better than a lot of Americans' of the same age. And it is certainly better than my or virtually anyone here's Finnish. Example:

Where does Hades wash his face in the morning? In his hell-sinky.

I recently watched Mulan 2. Eugh, that was a mistake. My mum and I love the first movie cos it's really funny especially with Eddie Murphy providing the voice of Mushu (he's not in the sequal :( )

I hate the way sequels never have the same animation quality as the first movies (with the exception of Rescuers Down Under and possibly The Return of Jafar) It's just daft. I saw an episode of the Aladdin cartoon series the other day and it was AWFUL so so terribly terrible. The drawings looked hardly anything like the original characters, especially Jasmine, and it just looked shoddy in general.

Blah.

I used to want to be a Disney animator, back when I was good at drawing.

I regret to announce that I've never seen this movie. I did see parts of it. It looked good, what I saw of it. And the animation itself was pretty good (though it's quite obvious it wasn't dazzling like The Lion King, The Iron Giant, Aladdin).

I don't remember enough of Return of Jafar (I saw it last when I was about seven, I think). I like most of the cheapquels, I'm sorry to say. And I've always thought that The Lion King 2 had decent animation. I've always liked The Lion King 2, and Stitch: The Movie was rather dumb, but it was still entertaining none the less. What really bugs me about cheapquels is the actors aren't the same. Zazu wasn't the same for The Lion King 2.

One Saturday earlier this year our school's yearbook was putting on a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre, and I had to work it (seeing as my aunt's the yearbook teacher :/) and during shows we watched Mulan 2. We all cracked up. It wasn't horrible. It was, at least, entertaining, but it was no where near Mulan. Or any Disney original, for that matter. I think the fact that it was most amusing was becuase it WAS so bad.

My feelings exactly. Since many of the Disney movie storylines are already butchered, the least they could do is to ensure that the animation and plot remain of good standard... Otherwise, it would be totally immoral to make viewers part with their money to watch some mediocre Hollywood action. :P

I rally like GMD, having seen it again in January after nearly 7 years of not having seen it. It's actually a very good movie; it's a pity more people haven't seen it. The animation and the voices (I really liked Basil and Olivia, Ratigan is a close third) are very nice.

I wish Disney would just return to the production values of this and other movies. I remember seeing commercials for "Home of the Range" and hating the train. Computer animation within traditional animation movies only works wll when it is used as it was in the clock gears scene in GMD and the ballroom scene in "Beauty and the Beast." Thank God ABC and Disney Channel are showing classic Disney movies -- "Bambie"! *hugs it* But I think Disney's main problem is poor writing, not the public's interest in traditionally animated films.

(I have stalked your art site for ages and recently began snooping through your LJ. I LOVE your art. So much.)

Writing and other storytelling concerns are definitely the downfall of recent Disney movies. That and its closely related nemesis, interference by businessmen who think they know better than actual story people.

3D can work in 2D films ... It just has to be done right, in a way that doesn't stand out. Large vehicles do well in 3D, where you don't have to rely on the draughtsmanship of the effects animator. Props do not, as evidenced by the music box in Anastasia. 3D is very useful for areas of the backround that have to move, rather than having that oh so obvious I'm-going-to-move look of a held cel. Just... toon render things that should be toon rendered. Is it such a difficult concept?

I'm in the middle of an enormous Sherlock Holmes kick and this entry has excited me far beyond the realms of reason. :O

A sequel would be sweeeeet. (I could still see it somehow getting screwed up, though. I am as cynical as can be when it comes to Disney. :( )

Oh yeah, it's cynicism central over here. All the same, maybe this time....

Almost any sequal is doomed to faliure in my opinion, apart from Toy Story 2. That I liked. But the Disney sequals? Most of them are awful, Little Mermaid 2, Lion King 2, Cinderela 2...the list goes on and none of them have the...the magic that the originals have.

They don't seem to be able to make their characters grow up realisticaly, Ariel in her 2 movie was nothing like her younger counter part, I can not imagine her doing the things that she did in that film.

I haven't seen Mulan 2 and quite frankly I don't want to, I adore the Mulan Movie, the songs, the plot, the characters and I couldn't bear to see them destroyed.

Hey I just realised that the title of this is from Macavity the Mystery cat.

The resurection of The Great Mouse Detective would be similar to the resurection of Sherlock Holmes. Though the continuing stories would be loved nearly as much as the original first, there would be something missing. And, with Disney's new and wonderful leader slowly cutting away from 2-D animation and leaning towards the new and world beloved 3-D animation (which angers me greatly because it's cutting me out of the job I've wanted since I was young) there wouldn't be nearly enough effort put into a sequel to satisfy Holmes fans like myself.

ah well.. didn't stop to read that so many other people responded in a similar way... hahahaha ^_^'''

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The Napoleon of Crime!

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English?

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Cheapquels

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Reason 3, I suppose

Re: Reason 3, I suppose