Favorite Characters: The Great Mouse Detective

Basil of Baker Street, the Great Mouse Detective, examines a clue in this first in a series (hopefully) of some of my favorite movie characters.

I am old enough to have seen The Great Mouse Detective during its original theatrical run. In fact, I was a teenager at the time. While I had seen some other Disney animated movies in their first run (The Rescuers, The Black Cauldron), as well as others when they were re-released (Snow White, Pinocchio, and probably others), The Great Mouse Detective was the one that I enjoyed the most, at least until later movies were released. And since that time, I have always had a fondness for Basil of Baker Street.

So I decided to start a new series of favorite characters, and Basil was the first one to come to mind, for rather obvious reasons. Stay tuned to see who comes up next!

Imitation

You know the old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And considering how many times that phrase has been repeated, whoever came up with it should feel quite flattered.

However, imitation is also a great way to learn. One of the best ways to succeed at something is to find someone who does that something well and then do what they do. Of course, there does come a point when you have to take whatever it is and make it your own. That is when you move up from learning to excelling.

I am still in the learning phase of drawing. And I might always be. Who knows? But that does not just apply to drawing. It applies to everything.

Want to learn how to best love each other? Look at how Jesus did it, and then do what he did. That is another area of lifelong learning. But it is definitely worth the effort.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” - John 15:9

About the Artwork

One of the reasons to start this series was to practice drawing by drawing other characters. While I have drawn my own in the past, I thought I might could learn a thing or two by practicing on some other characters.

Basil here is based on a scene from the movie. Dr. Dawson was standing beside him in the movie, but I just drew Basil here. This very closely copies Basil’s original pose, but I did draw it all myself.

The background style is very reminiscent of the background in the earlier post Mobius the Goat Goes Surfing. I think I am going to try something different next time, but I thought this worked well here.

By the way, Basil of Baker Street was based on a book of the same name by Eve Titus. And the movie was originally supposed to have the same name as well, until upper management changed it to The Great Mouse Detective, which rather irked the animators. And John Musker and Ron Clements, two of the four directors, went on to direct The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog, and Moana. A rather impressive track record!