Oh Ratican! The world's greatest...well you know.

Everyone has their favorite Disney movie. My favorite was the Great Mouse Detective (1986). The story of Sherlock Holmes depicted by a mouse name Basil. Basil has his trusted companion Dawson (Watson), and his arch nemesis, Professor Ratican (Moriarty). Even though the protagonists are very good, what really makes the movie is Professor Ratican. As I watch this movie now, I never noticed how much Ratican was a developed character. He is truly an intelligent mad man, with a temper. Throughout the movie you can see small traits that he is trying to maintain his mannerism. Throughout the movie, Ratican does not want to be labeled as a rat, even though it is made very clear in the climax of the movie, that you see who he truly is as his stereotype. Just a heads up, this will have a lot of spoilers, and I strongly recommend you watch the movie before reading this so there isn't some confusion.

Why Ratican is different.

Lets begin with his physical form. As we can see in this picture, Ratican is the biggest character in the movie (with the exception of the Cat and Dog). This could show power, which explains why he has so many thugs in his gang, also lets view his attire. He is dressed in very nice clothes, and even has a top hat and white gloves. There is a reason behind his attire, but we will discuss that later. 

I know it may be difficult to spot, but if you look at the hands on the three main characters (Basil, Dawson, and Olivia) they only have 3 fingers and a thumb, yet Ratigan has four fingers and a thumb. Ratigan is the only character to have an extra finger in the entire movie. This just proves more that Ratigan is very different then the other characters in the movie. 

Finally, the last physical difference is his tail. Ratican is the only character in the movie to have a pink fleshy tail, all other animals have a thin tail that is the same color as their body. This is all clear evidence that the directors were trying to make Ratigan to be different then all the characters, He is the only rat in the movie. 

Ratigan's anger and denial.

This is made clear in the movie, that Ratigan does not want to be labeled as a rat. He literally feeds one of his lackies to his pet cat just for accidentally calling him a rat. Just like in many cultures, Rats are considered vile creatures, especially sewer rats, which Ratigan is called in by Basil in one scene in the movie. With being labeled such a vile creature, it makes sense why Ratigan wears such nice outfits. This can also explain his lust for power, trying to become king. He doesn't accept the fact that he is a rat. This can be seen as one of his thugs trying to calm him down by stating that Ratican was, "just a really big mouse". Ratigan tries to act like a mouse until the very end of the movie, which we will discuss later in the post. 

Near the beginning of the movie, Ratican kidnaps the toymaker, and demands him to make a creation that will overthrow the queen. When the toy maker refuses, Ratigan threatens to cause harm to the toy maker's daughter. After this, there is a brief scene where Ratigan squeezes a small doll crushing it. From a split second you can see this face followed by a face of remorse for acting out. With Ratigan being a narcissist and a criminal mastermind, I don't think he was sad for breaking the toy, but that he lost his cool.  

In this scene around 2:00 you can see Ratican began to lose his cool when he finds out Fidget lost his list. Ratigan begins to turn red, and the next minute of the clip is him feeding Fidget to his cat, and trying to calm down. 

In the final scene of the movie, you finally get to see Ratigan is his true form, a rat. Around 1:10 of the clip, you see Ratigan lose his cool, with his eye turning red. At 1:17 of the clip, you can see him going through the gears and begins to lose his fancy clothing as he becomes more beastly by crawling on all fours. Which brings us to the final infamous fight between Basil and Ratigan at 2:00. Ratigan is a tattered hulking rat, using brute force to kill Basil. He is able to jump back and forth and at 2:09, you can see his massive claws tear through Basil's coat. After slicing Basil up a bit more, Ratigan then knocks Basil off the clock, and begins to dance in joy that he finally "won". As Basil is hanging from the crashed glider in the clock, Big Ben rings the bell, and Ratigan falls. Just before he falls to his death, he grabs Basil desperately trying to either save himself, or take Basil down with him. 

Ratigan is my overall favorite Disney villain. Representing the mastermind Moriarty, Ratigan's character is a amazing example of brilliance and madness. With him having the greatest plans to take over the kingdom, yet struggling with the acceptance that his is a sewer rat just makes him more of a interesting character.