The Great Mouse Detective was my first introduction to the Sherlock Holmes genre. My paternal grandmother owned a copy on VHS, and I would delight in watching the capers of Basil of Baker Street and his new friend Dr. Dawson every chance I got when we visited her in Ohio. The movie had everything: anthropomorphic mice running around human-sized stores and streets, Victorian clockwork toys, evil machinations of a slimy contemptible sewer rat, performing girls (AND a performing octopus) in a seedy bar, Basil's chemistry set, Basil's disguises, Basil's violin, Basil's awesome fight scene through the gears and clockwork of Big Ben, Basil's saving the girl and her father. And that's not to mention the music! Because it wouldn't be a Disney cartoon without a few big musical numbers.

Years later, when I started reading the original Sherlock Holmes books in high school, it was this movie I kept thinking of, recognizing the characters and events paralleled in the original. I recognized my old friends, Basil, Dawson, and even Toby the dog, and I was introduced into a whole new series of adventures. And then if I hadn't gotten to enjoy the books, I might never have enjoyed the modernized BBC version of Sherlock, either.

I'd heard weeks ago that a whole bunch of Disney movies had been put up on Netflix, but it didn't occur to me what some of the implications of that were. Over the summer, I'd found myself at one point with a craving for The Great Mouse Detective, but nowhere to get it easily. I think I'd checked Netflix at the time, but it wasn't there. Today, however, when I was browsing through Netflix, I came to the "Exciting Movies" category, and there it was! My family was somewhat less excited at the news than I was—apparently I'm the only one who remembers Grandma's VHS copy—but they agreed to watch it with me anyway.

So now if you'll excuse me, Professor Ratigan has set his Goldberg-esque deathtrap for Basil and Dr. Dawson, and is about to pull the greatest criminal feat the world has ever seen. Gotta find out whether Basil can still pull out of it and save the day, or if this really is "Goodbye So Soon"!