Cartoon Vault: Basil the Great Mouse Detective

I must be in a good mood because I have another Disney film for you, this time Basil the Great Mouse Detective.

Right at the beginning, a young mouse girl named Olivia witnesses her father's kidnapping at the hands of a bat, and seeks out Basil of Baker Street a famous detective in London, in her search she meets up with Dr David Q Dawson a veteran army medic of the Afghanistan war who is looking for a place to stay, upon finding Basil they deduce that Olivia's father was kidnapped by Professor Ratigan who is trying to use the expert toy making skills of Olivia's father to replace the Queen with an anatomic clone of whom he can manipulate into declaring him king, so it's up to Basil to save the day.
I came into this film expecting more or at least a spectacle that may not look much on paper but is fun enough to enjoy.
Unfortunately I found the film a bit lacking in a lot of places, don't get me wrong it's still a good film I just expected a lot more from it, my big issue is that the big climax was spoiled by what I could describe as serious sound issues, it seemed to suffer from the 80s dark age animation syndrome where everything is rotoscoped to add a gritty realistic feel to it but can look cheap in places, which was fine for Don Bluth with Land Before Time and Secret of Nimh but not for Disney who were already feeling the pain from the Black Cauldron and while Basil restored a little bit of faith it would take another film before returning to fortune with the Little Mermaid.
The stuff I liked including the voice acting, characters and story was really effective, I just feel a bit cheated in terms of quality, the 80s seems to suit other animation houses better than others and the 80s just simply wasn't kind to Disney.
Overall Basil the Great Mouse Detective is still enjoyable but you may find the quality a bit lacking from this 30 year old film.

End