The Napoleon of Crime!

[tealin]

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.

Comments

[inkblot-fiend.livejournal.com]

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.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

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.

[(Anonymous)]

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.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

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.

[inkblot-fiend.livejournal.com]

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.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

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.

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

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

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

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.

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

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?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

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.

[gabbysun.livejournal.com]

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.