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As Disney aficionados can tell you, the 1980s were a rough time for the company's animation department. They had a sizable hit in 1977 with "The Rescuers", but Disney just couldn't recapture the magic. The 1981 film "The Fox and the Hound" cost a hefty $12 million, but brought in only $14.2 million domestically, which was not horrible, but not great. Notoriously, the 1985 fantasy epic "The Black Cauldron" lost a bucket of money, made for $44 million (!), and earning only $21.3 million. "The Black Cauldron" was such a bomb, there was some buzz that Disney might shutter their animation department altogether.

At least Disney racked up a modest hit the following year with "The Great Mouse Detective," a $25 million hit from a $14 million budget. That film was a Sherlock Holmes story, but posited that Holmes' apartment was the home of an anthropomorphic mouse named Basil (Barrie Ingham), a clever creature that, in observing Holmes, became a star detective for mice.

This article contains spoilers for Moana 2.

Disney has been a trusted brand for producing family-friendly all-age films. From original stories to classic fairy tales, many Disney movies are widely loved and long celebrated. Magical creatures and friendly animals make most stories less frightening despite tackling dark themes. The promise of love between a princess and a prince is also able to gloss over the disturbing truth underneath their union.

In fact, many classic Disney movies are more problematic than fans noticed. The portrayal of romance goes wrong in many movies. From Snow White to Moana 2, what seems like a magical journey about empowerment and adventure might have some very disturbing details lying in between the lines.Most Love Is Instant

Disney loves an instant love story. From Snow White to Cinderella, love at first sight is Disney's style. What's gluing two characters together is rarely explained in a Disney movie,...

In recent years, more animated Disney films have received live-action theatrical remakes, but a few untouched beloved classics might work better as live-action TV shows. The response from critics and audiences to Disney's live-action remakes varies, but with the right filmmaking and creative team behind live-action projects, fan-favorite films getting such a transformation is exciting. So far, many of the remakes don't stray too far from the original plot of their animated inspirations. However, with the TV format, the story of films like The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective can be expanded upon across a limited or multiple-season series.

Live-action TV series also benefit certain movies over others when it comes to films with big casts, such as Meet the Robinsons or Encanto — stretching out a story over multiple episodes allows for more attention toward breakout supporting characters. Additionally, the vast setting of these films can be transformed into breathtaking live-action sets,...

I love Christmas. It’s been my favorite time of the year as far back as I can remember – which, these days, may be last week. I think, in many ways, it was the run up to Christmas, also known as Advent, that I loved the most. It was the anticipation that made it special; what presents would we get, buying the present we would give, the Advent Wreath and the Advent Calendar. The day itself could be a bit of a let-down because it as never as good as the dream, the anticipation. How could it be? So long as it was a dream, it was perfect. The reality of something is always less than the dream of it.

While I was in grade school, each Christmas Eve I wound up at Midnight Mass (did I mention I was raised Roman Catholic?), singing in the Boy’s Choir. We...

Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective re-imagined the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed Sherlock Holmes series as a playful adventure of sleuthing rodents. When a young mouse’s father is kidnapped, Basil of Baker Street, the great mouse detective, is called in to solve the case. Who could the villain be but none other than Professor Ratigan, Professor Moriarty’s pint sized, rat-faced doppleganger.

The Great Mouse Detective may not have the following of more popular Disney movies like Cinderella or Snow White, but it’s delightful adventure doesn’t skip a beat on the Disney magic. What the movie lacks in musical numbers, it more than makes up for with top-notch voice acting. Horror master Vincent Price voices Ratigan. Also, Alan Young, who voiced Scrooge McDuck on Duck Tales, appears as kidnapped father, Hiram Flaversham. You can’t beat that.

The closing scene where Professor Ratigan...

Disney is re-releasing the 1986 animated feature The Great Mouse Detective on DVD. If you missed it during its original release or its theatrical re-release in 1992, it’s cool. A lot of people did. Under-appreciated and largely forgotten, The Great Mouse Detective wasn’t even the biggest animated mouse movie

of 1986 (Universal’s An American Tail beat Mouse Detective by $22 million that year) though in retrospect, the movie was pivotal to the studio’s animation department coming off of their disastrous feature, The Black Cauldron. The Great Mouse Detective put the studio back on track and helped usher in a new golden age of Disney ‘toons including The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

The Great Mouse Detective was one of the first animated Disney features to include CGI technology.

Basil of Baker Street (voiced by TV veteran Barrie Ingham) is the world’s greatest mouse detective and lives under the not-so-humble abode of Sherlock Holmes.

.I am not a rat!. The game is afoot and the feet are mouse sized. Disney.s Holmesian pastiche is based on the books of Eve Titus but it.s pure Conan Doyle. Therefore a wonderful time revisiting those fog shrouded streets with the delightful voice cast and that Disney touch. In 1897 London, Olivia Flaversham (Susanne Pollatschek) is celebrating her birthday with her toymaker father (Alan Young). The celebration is interrupted by peg-legged bat Fidget (Candy Candido) and her father is kidnapped. Olivia escapes the clutches of the fiend and goes in search of the detective Basil of Baker Street. She gets lost and is come upon by Dr. David Q. Dawson (Val Bettin) who assists her...