Professor Padriac Ratigan (1951-1986) is the main antagonist of The Great Mouse Detective. He was voiced by Vincent Price.
History
Ratigan is 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 insane 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. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! Only one thing stands in Professor Ratigan's way: "That miserable, second-rate detective, Basil of Baker Street". Professor 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 to his death 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 with a pink and purple cravat, white opera gloves (like the kind worn by Mickey Mouse), a black and red cape (similar to Count Dracula's) 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 that 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.
- He was based on Professor James Moriarty, the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes.
- Ratigan shares a few similarities with Cruella De Vil from One Hundred One 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 are the main antagonist, live in England, smoke cigarette poles, intimidate their henchmen (Ratigan: Fidget and Bartholomew, Cruella: Jasper and Horace Badun), smash the doors real hard, develop red eyes in the climaxes while chasing the protagonist, and gradually reveal their true personalities: utterly violent and insane. However, Ratigan is a male while Cruella is a female.
- Ratigan also shares a few traits with Gaston. They both 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, and fall to their deaths and are not seen again. A major difference between them, however, 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 do not fear him at all.
- According to a deleted lyric in World's Greatest Criminal Mind; The Tower Bridge Job involved hurling several innocent mice within the Thames River, and then shooting whoever attempts to come up to the surface.
- Vincent Price, the voice of Ratigan, said that doing Ratigan was his favorite role.
- The Nostalgia Critic listed Ratigan as Number 7 on his "Top 11 Disney Villains" list and the best 'funny villain'. His female counterpart, The Nostalgia Chick, also listed him as Number 6 on her "Top 10 Evil Nostalgia Characters" list.
- Ratigan shares a few similarities with Madame Medusa from The Rescuers. Both of their films involve mice (Bernard and Miss Bianca in Medusa's case, Basil Of Baker Street, Dr. Dawson, and Olivia Flaversham in Ratigan's case) on a rescue mission. Both kidnap little girls (Medusa; Penny, Ratigan; Olivia Flaversham). They both are slender. They live in anglophone countries (Medusa lives in the United States while Ratigan lives in England). Both 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 is also similar to Carface from the non Disney Animated Feature All Dogs go to Heaven both smoke cigars and are criminals and have lairs Ratigan in the sewer of London Carface in a casino in New Orleans and both kidnap young girls Ratigan Olivia and Carface Anne Marie and both yell at their henchmen Ratigan Fidget and Carface Killer and decide to have them executed for their failures Ratigan has Fidget fed to Felica and Carface has Killer lowered in the piranha pit but then spare their lives after they come up with brilliant ideas Ratigan spares Fidget's life when he has a scheme to lower Basil to him and Carface pulls Killer out of the piranha pit when he tells him he has a raygun he can use and they both kidnap the girls near the end of their movies and their henchmen leave them Ratigan throws Fidget out of the gilder and Killer desserts Carface and are both killed at the end of their films Ratigan falls off Big Ben to his death while Carface is eaten by King Gator off screen and wides up in heaven swearing revenge despite Annabelle's protest difference is that Carface made an appearance in the sequel the series and third film and reformed while Ratigan was not seen again. Coincidentally they both have been voiced by the deceased italian voice actor, Glauco Onorato, who also voiced Sykes, Kron, Captain Gantu, and Kazar.
- 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). The happening of their torment was on 20th June (Ratigan's case: 1897, Mortimer Mouse's case: 1936 (due to release date and year)). They both appeared with the year ---6 (Ratigan's case: 1986, Mortimer Mouse's case: 1936). For their defeat, Ratigan has been fallen down, whilst Mortimer Mouse has been thrown over by his archrival.
- Ratigan shares the same similarities to Meowrice from the Non Disney film, Gay Purr-ee. They are both villainous animals that make crimes and live on a city, Meowrice is a Tuxedo Cat and lives in Paris while Ratigan is a rodent and lives in London. They also sing thier own song with thier henchmen, Meowrice sings The Money Cat with his Shadow Cats while Ratigan sings The World's Greatest Criminal Mind with his thugs. They are also defeated by a protagonist and have thier own fate, Meowrice gets beaten up and locked up in a crate by Jaune Tom while Ratigan got defeated by Basil when he ring the bell when the clock makes noise and fell off the Big Ben. They both appear in one film and never seen again.
- Despite Toby being Ratigan's enemy, they never interacted with each other.
- Ratigian'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.