Professor Ratigan is the main antagonist of The Great Mouse Detective.
He was voiced by the late Vincent Price.
History[]
Ratigan is a villain responsible for such crimes as the Big Ben Caper and the Tower Bridge Job.
A genius criminal mastermind whose ego is matched only by his lust for power, Ratigan's latest mad plan is to kidnap a toymaker, force him to make a robotic duplicate of the queen, and use it to publicly proclaim him king in her place. Only one thing stands in Ratigan's way: "That miserable, second-rate detective, Basil of Baker Street." Ratigan lives in a secret underground hideout where he has countless henchmen sing his praises, light his cigarettes, and cater to his every evil whim. At the end of the movie, Ratigan finally snaps out in extreme anger, and he shreds his clothing, extends his apparently retractable claws through his gloves, and attempts to kill Basil, slashing at him in an uncontrollable rage, any pretenses of mouse civilization abandoned. The battle ends with Ratigan falling off of Big Ben.
Although he is a rat, he hates being called one (preferring the description of a "big mouse") as rats have a reputation of being base, dirty creatures. To eliminate any possible signs of lower breeding, he presents himself as a sophisticated dandy, sporting a full black tuxedo suit with a orange and purple cravat, white dress shirt with collar, dark gray tuxedo vest, black suit pants, white gloves (like the kind worn by Mickey Mouse), a black and red cape (similar to Dracula.) and a gold cigar holder. He also has pet cat named Felicia, whom he adores, and therefore he treats with love and respect, since Felicia is loyal to him.
Like all the greatest villains, Ratigan has a taste for the theatrical and has a tendency for throwing himself into melodramatic poses and giving lengthy and verbose speeches. Despite this, he is prone to explosive bouts of violence, after which he must switch back to his dandified persona. Two examples would be feeding a drunk mouse named Bartholomew to his cat (named Felicia) for calling him "the world's greatest rat", and fatally tossing his lead henchman (a peg-legged bat with a crippled wing) off the side of his personal zeppelin to "lighten the load". He is also notable for being the only character played by Vincent Price to have said actor sing. Ratigan was based on Sherlock Holmes' archenemy, Professor Moriarty. He appeared in an episode of House of Mouse (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) when he set a trap for Basil, who thwarted it. He ranked #17 in the Top 30 Disney Villains (One better than Shan Yu but one under Madame Medusa).
Ratigan
Personality[]
Ratigan believes he is superior to everyone around him and as such, he expects the rest of the world to act as a chorus that sings his praises. He loves every minute of being evil, gloating, "Oh, I love it when I'm nasty." In addition, he has no scruples whatsoever, threatening women, children, old men and even royalty and taking a remorseless pride in his actions. Despite his vicious nature, Ratigan presents himself as a cultured and elegant dandy, but this is only a facade to hide the raging, insane monster within. His henchmen are scared of him for this reason and do their best to please him or experience his wrath. Ratigan's vanity is shown by his pretense at being "a big mouse" when in fact he is a sewer rat. It could be that his insatiable ambition and his expensive tastes are as a result of trying to distance himself from his undesirable background.
Trivia[]
- Ratigan was the first Disney villain to sing his own song since Kaa in 1967.
- He made a cameo appearance in House of Mouse with Basil and Dr. Dawson when he made a trap for them. He was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
- Ratigan shares many similarities with Captain Hook from Peter Pan.
- Both are male antagonists to the male protagonists with a female deurtagonist (Ratigan; Basil and Olivia, Hook; Peter Pan and Wendy)
- Originate from the United Kingdom.
- Both wear suits that later got destroyed in the climax.
- Have incompetent henchmen that do most of the work and insult them (Ratigan; Fidget and his Thugs, Hook; Smee and his Pirate Crew).
- Sing songs that praise themselves with their henchmen joining.
- Threaten to hurt someone if they don't get what they want (Ratigan threatens to have Felicia eat Olivia if Hiram doesn’t finish the robot version of the Mouse Queen, while Hook threatens to leave Tiger Lily drown and later make the Darling children and the Lost Boys walk the plank if he doesn’t get what he want).
- Kidnap children (Ratigan; Olivia, Hook; Wendy, John, Michael, Lost Boys, and later Jane)
- Fight the protagonists in high areas.
- The only difference is that Ratigan is a rat and Hook is a human.
- Ratigan also shares many similarities with Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.
- Both of their films involve the male (and only) protagonist (Basil in Ratigan's case, Pongo in Cruella's case) and the deurtagonist same to their gender (Dr. David Q. Dawson in Ratigan's case, Perdita in Cruella's case) with help from a dog (Toby for Basil and Dawson, Colonel for Pongo and Perdita).
- They both live in London, England.
- Smoke cigarette poles
- Have incompetent henchmen whom intimidate and turn against them for their betrayal that are responsible for kidnapping a principle character (Ratigan: Fidget and Bartholomew, Cruella: Jasper and Horace Badun).
- Smash the doors real hard.
- During the climax of their respective films, they develop red eyes in the climaxes while chasing the protagonist, and gradually reveal their true personalities: utterly violent and insane.
- However, the only difference is that Ratigan is a rat and a male while Cruella is a female and a human.
- He also shares similar traits with Madame Medusa from The Rescuers.
- Both of their films involve mice (Bernard and Miss Biancia in Medusa's case, Basil Of Baker Street, Dr. Dawson, and Olivia Flaversham in Ratigan's case) on a rescue mission, were first released to video in 1992 as part of Walt Disney Classics. Both trailers for the 1992 releases (as part of Walt Disney Classics) for their films were seen on the release for the previous movie to be released to video for the first time in 1992 as part of Walt Disney Classics (The Rescuers: The Great Mouse Detective, The Great Mouse Detective: One Hundred And One Dalmatians).
- Both kidnap little girls (Medusa; Penny, Ratigan; Olivia Flaversham).
- They both live in anglophone countries (Medusa lives in the United States while Ratigan lives in England).
- They talk gently to their victims but also yell at them.
- Both threaten to take away their victim's loved ones if they don't give them what they want (Madame Medusa threatens to take away Penny's teddy bear if she didn't give her the Devil's Eye, while Ratigan threatens to kill Olivia if Hiram Flaversham doesn't build his Clockwerk Queen).
- Both have beloved pets opposite to their gender (Madame Medusa has Brutus and Nero the crocodiles, Ratigan has Felicia the cat).
- Both have a male sidekick they make do most of the work and abuse them (Mr. Snoops for Madame Medusa, Fidget the bat for Ratigan)
- Both double-cross their own sidekick (Madame Medusa keeps the Devil's Eye to herself instead of sharing it with Snoops and Ratigan throws Fidget off his blimp "to lighten the load").
- Both chase the protagonists (Medusa, Bernard and Miss Bianca: Ratigan: Basil).
- Ratigan also shares a few traits with Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
- They both live in Europe (Gaston; France, Ratigan; England).
- Sing songs that praise themselves with their minions joining along.
- Threaten to hurt someone if they don't get what they want.
- Reveal their true natures as violent and insane.
- Fight the protagonists on a high area.
- Fall to their deaths and are not seen again.
- However, like most Disney henchmen, the major difference is that Ratigan's minions obviously fear him (only continuing with their praising song for Ratigan when he gave the implied threat of feeding them to his cat, Felicia, if they didn't), while Gaston's minions and the villagers do not fear him at all, though they did to some extent in the live action remake.
- Ratigan is very similar to Mortimer Mouse from Mickey Mouse and friends franchise. Both are villainous rodents, who always like to torment mice protagonist (Basil the Baker Street and Mickey Mouse). For their defeat, Ratigan has been fallen down, whilst Mortimer Mouse has been thrown over by his archrival.
- Ratigan's songs, "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind" and "Goodbye So Soon" were written specifically for Vincent Price so he could as campy and over-the-top as possible.
- The Basil of Baker Street book series, which the film was based on, adds some more context to Professor Ratigan:
- In Basil and the Pygmy Cats/Cave of Cats, he is revealed to be a mouse with rat-like traits.
- In Basil in Mexico, his first name is revealed to be Padraic, whih wasn't mentioned in the film.
- His depiction in the book series cannot be considered a Complete Monster, as he never succeeded in killing anyone, some of his defeats are played for comedy (such as being tied up by his own tail), and he is shown to respect Basil's genius and detective skils.
- In several European comic books, he is revealed to have survived falling off of the Big Ben by landing safely on top of a moving carriage, then plotting his revenge against Basil. However, these comic books are likely not canon.