The Great Mouse Detective

Animated feature from Disney in which the one true rival to the old coke-fiend lives down in the basement of 221b Baker Street. Basil, like his alter ego, plays the violin; he also has his Moriarty, in the shape of the magnificent Professor Ratigan, a Napoleon of crime with the wardrobe and neurotic wit of a Nineties dandy, and the absolute conviction that his rat-like form is one of nature's mistakes. Donning his best mousestalker, Basil takes to the mean streets once more, in aid of an eight-year-old Scots mouse whose toymaker father has been abducted. As usual with film noir, however, it is the villain who steals the heart and one is rooting for in the breathtaking showdown high up in the cogs and ratchets of Big Ben.