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KnightA3 — Animation- Basil of Baker Street
#2d #animation #basil #detective #gif #mouse #pencil #penciltest #test #traditional #traditional_animation #basilofbakerstreet #basilthegreatmousedetective #greatmousedetective #thegreatmousedetective #traditionalanimation #mousedetective #2d_animation
Published: 2017-05-06 06:20:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 2999; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 3
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Description
This is my first real attempt at an animation. And more like a little pencil test. I feel like it could use at least one more frame, some others to help make it more fluid would be helpful too, but oh well. I’m just happy it was this successful. I don’t have any animation programs, so I used nothing but pencil, paper, and a clipboard. I don't have a peg bar or light table cuz I apparently hate myself.
I chose Basil of Baker street for my subject because The Great Mouse Detective(such an underrated movie) is my current obsession and he’s relatively simple to draw. I've been drawing him a lot lately. Oh, and I drew him with five fingers cuz I just don't like drawing characters with four. It looks weird to me. So they get five. I'm pretty sure mice actually have five anyway, right?
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Comments: 20
This is so freaking awesome. Such an underappreciated movie.
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I love this little movie. The characters, the soundtrack, it was all wonderful. It's a really important movie in Disney history too. Without Basil, there would have been no Disney Renaissance.
I actually hadn't seen this when I was a kid. If I had, I didn't remember it. So I watched it for the first time recently and was immediately stunned by how underappreciated this movie is. Then watched An American Tail and wondered how that beat the Great Mouse Detective in the box office.
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I know, right? I didn't see it either. For some reason, Disney's tried to forget about this movie. Even my old VHS tapes never did trailers for it. All I remember doing was watching it on Netflix or YouTube and being like "wow, this is actually really cool." It's not like my favorite Disney movie, but it's starting to grow on me a bit the more I watch it, especially Basil. I really like his character for some reason (maybe I have a thing for eccentric oddballs).
As far as competing with Don Bluth, maybe it was the fact that An American Tail was working with original plot? I mean, not to say the Great Mouse Detective didn't have its own thing going on, but the premise, like most Disney movies, is by basing it on something already existing, like Sherlock Holmes. Bluth kind of already has the warmth and memorability that Disney strives for in creating its characters, which makes sense since Bluth used to work at Disney before he left, but with his own style and creative freedom.
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All I really knew before watching it was that it was Mouse Sherlock(didn't even know Basil's name), Ratigan was supposedly a great villain, and there was a Big Ben climax. The actual plot of the movie is secondary to the characters, mostly Basil and Ratigan. Ratigan's evil plan was sorta weak, honestly. But I didn't care about that when I was watching it. Basil was just so much fun(The eccentric ones are the best). The crew managed to do so much with a small budget and short time frame(they only had a year to make it, and it was do or die for the animation department).
I watched An American Tail as a kid, but remembered very little. I just remembered a mouse kid running around trying not to die and an orange cat. So I rewatched it maybe a week after seeing The Great Mouse Detective and just...didn't enjoy it much. Critics thought Basil was better too. The plot was not focused and I thought a few of the character designs were just an eyesore(I'm not a fan of sticking long hair on a mouse's head like a wig, it looks terrible. Bridget and Tony come to mind first). And there's a limit to how much you can try to kill the main character before it starts getting annoyingly frustrating. It had the potential to be good, but I think they tried to put too many elements into it. It was just hard for me to think this was by the same guy who did Secret of NIMH(which I thought was really good).
I watched the sequels not long after that. Fievel Goes West was alright. That one was worth watching purely for the "Laaaaazy Eye" part at the climax; it took me so long to stop laughing.
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I remember seeing a picture of Basil on one of the clockgears, but that was pretty much all I knew about the Great Mouse Detective. My roommate grew up with it tho. When you like something Disney, you learn to love/accept the flaws of your favorite movie, despite the criticism. That's why they call it a guilty pleasure. Seems like Disney back then was always do or die. Thank god for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.
I think Fieval Goes West is the only one I can remember (and the only one I own). I haven't seen NIHH but it's on my bucket list. I've seen most of Bluth's other work tho.
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Yeah. No movie is perfect.
What can be irritating is that some people call themselves Disney fans, but don't ever acknowledge the movies outside of the Renaissance and the most recent ones. The Disney Dark age is completely forgotten. I dunno, I just think to be a true Disney fan, you've at least got to enjoy more than just the most popular and famous ones. I, for one, want to go on a marathon and watch every Disney animated movie.
Haha, yeah, I guess. Animation is expensive and they didn't always have so much backing it up. But The Great Mouse Detective as even more important than a lot of the others. After the failure of the Black Cauldron and still reeling from the death of Walt, the Disney company was seriously considering pulling the plug on the animation department. The Great Mouse Detective was just barely successful enough to convince them to keep animating. So if there was no Basil, there'd be no Ariel; and without Ariel, there'd be no Disney Renaissance; and without the Disney Renaissance, there'd be no Disney animated films today.
Fieval Goes West had a more focused plot than the first movie(still had moments I didn't really understand why they happened, but whatever), but was less emotional. Don Bluth didn't work on the sequels either. Steven Spielberg stuck around for them though.
Secret of NIMH is good, I highly recommend it. There are a few things at the end that some people will criticize, but I think it was foreshadowed well enough to be passable. It definitely leaves some questions. But overall, I think it was good.
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YEAH! I bet people don't even remember there even being a Black Cauldron! Talk about a lost Disney princess... Though I will admit that Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie of all time, I don't disregard the days before Menken and Ashman. The art in Sleeping Beauty is gorgeous, and it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I realized that the majority of its soundtrack is from Tchaikovsky's ballet.
I'll take your word on it. Basically, I love all things Disney, and that includes the animators that leave and go off and do their own thing.
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I haven't even seen it all the way though yet. I've seen bits and pieces, but that's it. I don't even remember it well. Which is why I want to do a Disney marathon. But it can be a little hard when Netflix doesn't have all of them.
Beauty and the Beast was a great movie. I haven't seen the new one but have little interest in it. I hate the concept of live action remakes, I just can't bring myself to support what feels like something that reinforces the notion that live action is better and more mature than animation. Anyway, I didn't mean to get sidetracked right there.
Ah, yeah, Sleeping Beauty is great to look at. The colors and the animation are so pretty. Really? I hadn't noticed that. I haven't seen it for awhile either, but still, I didn't realize it was Tchaikovsky. Another reason for a Marathon.
Disney has some great stuff. They also have some...not so great stuff too(the 2000s were a rough time...there are some great ones in there, but there are also some of the worst).
I've been watching Aaron Blaise's videos on Youtube the past few days. He's a former Disney animator from the Renaissance. He's got some neat art tips.
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Aww I am such a big fan of this little guy. And you animate him so amazing! 
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Aw, thank you so much!
I love Basil too. He was a joy to watch in the movie.
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Aw you are so welcome!
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I hope to. But it may take a long time. Pretty soon, I'll be going on a 18 month trip where I will have absolutely no access to DeviantArt. The most I might be able to do is email stuff to my cousin to upload for me. So, haha, it may be awhile before I'll be doing anything.
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Wow a 18 month trip : O That is long.
But you don't have to tink of the animations then, boy!
Just enjoy your trip.
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Haha, yeah. It's a rather dedicated excursion. I'm leaving next week.
I was just starting this new animation hobby too. It'll just have to be put on hold.
Thanks.
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Thank you! I'm rather proud of it. 
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Thank you.
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