Ratigan
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Professor Padraic Ratigan is the main antagonist in Disney's 1986 feature film The Great Mouse Detective, voiced by the late Vincent Price. He is the story's version of Professor James Moriarty from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and serves as the adversary to the Sherlock Holmes counterpart, Basil of Baker Street. He has cited "The Big Ben Caper" and "The Tower Bridge Job" as 2 of his most notorious criminal operations.
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Personality
Ratigan has a variety of henchmen that follow him, including his overweight pet cat, Felicia, Bill the Lizard, a small mouse named Bartholomew, and his right-hand man, a peg-legged bat named Fidget. Personality-wise, Ratigan is very charismatic, calm, and calculating, but can easily be sent into a violent rage at the mention of Basil or by the incompetence of his minions. He has a very dark, malicious sense of humor and an inflated ego. Unlike most Disney villains, Ratigan is an ebullient, lip-smacking jester who has a tendency towards big movements and long rants or speeches.
Even though he is one, Ratigan detests, above all else, being referred to as a rat, preferring the description of "a big mouse," and fed Bartholomew to Felicia when Bartholomew calls him "the world's greatest rat" while intoxicated. He can easily be identified as a rat since he has 4 fingers and a thumb on each hand while all the other mice have 3 fingers. Also, the mice in the movie have much smaller, thinner tails than Ratigan, who has a long, fleshy tail. In the Basil of Baker Street book series, Ratigan's first name is revealed to be Padriac, and he is in fact, portrayed as a mouse (in contrast to his depiction in the movie).
Appearances
The Great Mouse Detective
Ratigan makes plans to take over Mousedom by replacing the Queen with a robotic fake built by a toymaker named Hiram Flaversham, whom he has Fidget kidnap. He will then have the real Queen fed to Felicia, ensuring his reign as permanent King of Mousedom. However, Basil and Dr. Dawson foil these plans with help from the toymaker's daughter, Olivia. Unfortunately, Ratigan, with help from Fidget, kidnaps Olivia and threatens to kill her if they attempt to stop his escape. Basil, Dawson, and Flaversham pursue Ratigan above the Thames River on hot air balloons. Fidget, who is pedaling Ratigan's blimp to speed it up, cannot take the extra weight and tells Ratigan they have to lighten the load, meaning to throw Olivia off the balloon. Ratigan out of sheer bad temper throws Fidget (who can't fly) off the blimp and into the Thames River instead. Then Ratigan ties to pedal the blimp himself, Basil jumps onto the blimp and it crashes into Big Ben.
Inside the clock tower, Basil and Ratigan fight atop the gears of the clock tower, and with help from Olivia, Basil traps Ratigan by throwing his cape in the gears. The two mice then escape, finally sending Ratigan over the edge. Breaking free from the gears, he pursues Basil, tearing his clothes in the process and transforming from a very formal, composed rat to a highly savage one. Ratigan leaps into Basil and they both tumble onto the clock's hour hand, Ratigan stops Basil from reaching the others. Finally, he extends his long and strong fingernails, poking through his gloves, and begins scratching Basil continuously, ripping his clothes and clawing his flesh. Suddenly the clock bell tolls causing Ratigan to lose his balance, and plunge off the hand, taking Basil with him. Basil manages to save himself while Ratigan falls off Big Ben to his death.
Oliver & Company
Ratigan makes a cameo in Oliver & Company. During the song "Perfect Isn't Easy", he appears on a black-and-white photo at the very back of Georgette's portrait collection.
House of Mouse
Added by Hey1234Ratigan's most notable cameo on House of Mouse was in the episode "Donald's Lamp Trade", in which he tries to lure Dr. Dawson with cheese on a mousetrap, but Basil stops Dawson and tells him it's a trap, at which point Ratigan groans "Curses!" He is also seen with several other mice in "House of Scrooge".
Disney Parks
Ratigan was once a walkaround character at the Disney parks during the film's initial release. But he has been retired, rumoredly because he frightened children. His last appearance was at a special event at the Magic Kingdom in 2004.
Trivia
- Ratigan shares a few similarities with Cruella De Vil. They both live in London, smoke cigarette poles, intimidate their henchmen, develop red eyes in the climaxes.
- 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, fight the protagonists on a high area during a storm, 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 Villians" 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 is similar to Shere Khan. During the final fight of their film they fight a nhero and start to kill them by clawing them to death.
- Ratigan is the first Disney villain to fall to his death since The Witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first feature length film. Maleficent's death included falling, but she already suffered a fatal wound from the Sword of Truth piercing her heart before falling to her death.
Gallery
- For more pictures and screenshots of Ratigan, click here.
| The Great Mouse Detective |
|---|
 Characters: Basil of Baker Street | David Q. Dawson | Padriac Ratigan | Fidget | Toby | Olivia Flaversham | Hiram Flaversham | Mrs. Judson | Miss Kitty Mouse | Miss Kitty Mouse's twin sisters | Ratigan's thugs | Felicia | Bill the Lizard | Bartholomew | Sherlock Holmes | John Watson | Queen Mousetoria | Unidentified woman mouse Locations: Ratigan's lair Songs: World's Greatest Criminal Mind | Goodbye, So Soon See also: Darkwing Duck |
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