he output of Walt Disney Animation Studios–currently totaling 54 full-length films–has been cherished by audiences young and old for almost 80 years. In this weekly online feature, arts and entertainment editor Nathan Tucker will review and rank each of them.

Maybe low expectations influenced my opinion of The Great Mouse Detective. The film Disney released before it was a disaster. It is itself not terribly well-known or remembered. The title is, to be frank, positively stupid. The Great Mouse Detective could have been a bland piece of fluff and it still would have exceeded any and all expectations I held for it. However, I would argue that Detective is much better than the bare minimum: it is an honest-to-goodness hidden gem.

That luster is the result of a clever and enjoyable attitude that cannot help but infuse the final product. Any audience can see how delighted the animators were when they storyboarded, say, the clocktower climax: the framing and composition pop off the screen. Barrie Ingham and Vincent Price are equally aplomb as hero/villain duo Basil and Ratigan. Price’s performance, in particular, is some of the most delicious scenery-chewing in Disney so far, easily holding its own against a Captain Hook or Cruella de Vil.

All this energy is tied together into a prolonged and loving riff on Sherlock Holmes, although, admittedly, this is only held together through sheer force of will. The film’s entire premise is questionable: if there is a mouse Queen Victoria and a human Queen Victoria and a mouse Holmes and a human Holmes in the same story, than does every human in London have a rodent doppelganger? There is also, strictly speaking, no actual mystery for our great mouse detective to solve: the film is really more of an adventure flick. Most unfortunate is the simple fact that no amount of enthusiasm on the part of the animators can hide the reduced budget Detective was saddled with. The characters still look flat, their designs could have used more love. The desire to make a perfect movie does not necessarily result in a perfect movie.    

But The Great Mouse Detective cares little for your qualms and objections. Being a torpedo of cartoon mirth is enough for it and, more importantly, is enough to make it eminently watchable.  

 The List:

1. Bambi
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
4. Lady and the Tramp
5. The Jungle Book
6. Alice in Wonderland
7. Fantasia
8. Pinocchio
9. The Great Mouse Detective
10. Robin Hood
11. The Rescuers
12. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
13. Peter Pan
14. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
15. Cinderella
16. Dumbo
17. The Aristocats
18. The Fox and the Hound
19. The Sword in the Stone
20. Melody Time
21. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
22. Fun and Fancy Free
23. Saludos Amigos
24. Make Mine Music
25. The Black Cauldron
26. The Three Caballeros