The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

New episode out now! We’re back to our regular schedule with a dive into the world of Disney animation, covering 1986’s The Great Mouse Detective. We learn how it adapts a children's book which in turn mirrored Sherlock Holmes, wonder at the world-building of mice parallels to human monarchies and war, and don’t really understand the rules concerning which animals get to talk. We also discuss the state of Disney animation in the ‘80s leading to the disjointed development of this movie in particular, as well as how the animators felt about it. Most of us agree that the songs don’t really slap, but we all fully agree that Vincent Price gives a masterful villain performance. Katy makes guesses about the history of the British monarchy, Carrie establishes the roots of a childhood fear, Maddy is only interested in mouse capitalism, and Mack gives us all a passionate lecture. We also debate if this movie is the beginning of Skynet, discuss the awful ways cartoons villainize fat people, wonder why we assign gender to types of animals, and realize that taxes are a shortcut for evil in kids movies. Listen to hear us talk about drag queens, octopus eyes, harmful princess culture, and babysitter stories! Enjoy!

TW: Monarchies, fatphobia, capitalist systems causing harm

Show Notes

Information about the Boston art installations Carrie was talking about can be found here in Boston Magazine and here in the Boston Globe.
The Kate Beaton “The Case of the Two Watsons” comic can be found here.
The leaked internal Disney memo Mack mentions can be seen here on Letters of Note.