Research Guru
Posted:
Jul 3, 2011, 1:13 AM
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Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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Exactly 25 years ago, on July 2, 1986, Walt Disney Studios and Silver Screen Partners II released The Great Mouse Detective.
All of the moving clock gears were created in a computer "room" and then the hand-drawn characters were added, making this the first Disney film with computer-animated elements.
The story and planning took four years, but the actual animation was completed in only a year. This remarkably short production span was possible due to new efficiencies in the production process (such as video tests and computer-assisted layouts and graphics), and an increased emphasis on story development prior to the start of production.
Costing $12 million to make, The Great Mouse Detective grossed $38.6 million in North America alone.
Besides the extensive use of computer-animation, the film marked several other firsts for Disney.
It was the first animated film greenlit by Jeffrey Katzenberg. It also marked the directorial debuts of Ron Clements and John Musker, who would direct many Disney feature films afterwards.
This was Disney veteran Burnett "Burny" Mattinson's first work as a producer on an animated feature film. (He had previously produced and directed the holiday featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol.)
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Jul 4, 2011, 8:15 AM
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Re: Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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Actually, the more inferior "Black Cauldron" from 1985 was the first to use CGI, but mostly for glittering effects and stuff like that. "The Great Mouse Detective" was the first Disney movie to take advantage of the technology.
But besides that, the film remains a classic to this day. I mean, look at the large online fanbases despite Disney not marketing it that much!
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"Being a genius certainly has its advantages."
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Member
Posted:
Jul 24, 2011, 7:54 PM
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Re: Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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I actually think that Great Mouse Dectective foresees the renaissance in many ways. Firstly it has compelling personalities, a truly frightening villain with great comedic timing and persona to go along with it, is also more ambitious than Black Couldron as well, with better literary material to work with. However despite a huge jump in quality the future is uncertain for Disney until the 1989/1990 production season. By the dawn of the nineties it becomes evident that Creator Driven Programming, and features are here to stay.
I however feel that they are still trying to emulate The Secret of NIMPH in cloying anthropomorphized rodents. This was based on Basil of Baker Street, had they made a straightforward adaptation with humans when concerning this famous sleuth, than the renaissance might have taken place three years earlier.
Despite this the Great Mouse Dectective is one of the most underrated films to a somewhat overrated company, despite the companies importance Disney is a hit and miss feature company, this is a hit obviously especially as of 1986 animation was at its zenith of the Dark Ages.
By the way in analyzing Couldron the film suffers in many aspects including story structure, and developed fleshed-out characters this improves on those flaws. The literary material that Disney is adapting is completely unlike them it was like Bashki trying Lord of The Rings out of their element.
Disney's forte was never modern folklore. It was elaborate adaptations of childrens fairy tales. In my opinion exploiting CGI and Technarama is a last ditch effort to save an otherwise suffering picture, they believed it might raise the production value. Black Couldron remains one of the worst Disney Features of all time that this is such a relief.
(This post was edited by TheOriginal on Jul 24, 2011, 8:02 PM)
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Apprentice
Posted:
Nov 12, 2011, 7:47 PM
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Re: Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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"I wish you would step back from the ledge, my friend..."
Stan: Oh my god, Third Eye Blind killed Ratigan!
Kyle: You Bastards!
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Zinc Saucier
Posted:
Nov 13, 2011, 9:52 AM
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Re: Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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<groan>
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Apprentice
Posted:
Nov 26, 2011, 4:58 PM
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Re: Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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I wonder what the voice of Olivia is doing these days. I'm afraid of search engines, and no known photos of the acress were shown.
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Supervising Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Nov 27, 2011, 7:44 AM
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Re: Happy 25th birthday to The Great Mouse Detective!
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Skipping past the hundreds of automatically generated "sites" full of zero information, it would seem that this was Susanne's only notable venture into showbiz. She was an 8 year old schoolgirl from Glasgow with no formal acting training when she was 'discovered' by Disney scouts, and all her dialogue was recorded in London. Either she later changed her name, or else, like many child voice artists who were selected because of their 'naturalness', she just grew up to be a normal person with a proper job! (No offense intended to professional voice artists )
Despite a rumour proliferating on the web, IMDb does not list her as the narrator of next year's "TinkerBell: Secret of the Wings" DVD.
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Back by popular demand -
"La-la-La-la.. I can't hear you!"
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