| NOTE: This page is only about the Disney verison of Professor Ratigan, as his depiction in the Basil of Baker Street books was not voted Pure Evil. Thus, only the Disney version of the professor should be mentioned here. |
| “ | My friends... we are about to embark on the most odious, the most evil, the most diabolical scheme of my illustrious career. A crime to top all crimes, a crime that will live in infamy! Tomorrow evening, our beloved monarch celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. And... with the "enthusiastic" help of our good friend, Mr. Flaversham... it promises to be a night she will never forget. Her last night... and my first, as supreme ruler of all MOUSEDOM! | „ |
| ~ Ratigan announcing his plan to his minions. |
| “ | My dear Bartholomew, I’m afraid you’ve gone and upset me. You KNOW what happens when someone upsets me. | „ |
| ~ Ratigan killing a drunk Bartholomew for calling him a rat. |
| “ | Perhaps I haven't made myself clear. I have the power! I am supreme! This is my kingdom! | „ |
| ~ Ratigan rising to power as Britain's King. |
Professor Padraic Ratigan is the main antagonist of Disney’s 26th full-length animated feature film The Great Mouse Detective, which is based on the children's book series Basil of Baker’s Street by the late Eve Titus and the late Paul Galdone.
The Napoleon of Crime that dominated Britain's criminal underworld, Ratigan is the self-proclaimed "world's greatest criminal mind" in which there is no depravity he wouldn't commit and is the arch-nemesis of the famed detective, Basil of Baker Street. By the time of the film, he kickstarted his most dastardly plot to extort Hiram Flaversham using the life of his daughter to kill the Queen to rule Great Britain and run it down as a dystopia.
In the original film, he was voiced by the late Vincent Price.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He is the gleeful Napoleon of Crime that has no limits on the depravity he is capable of and is always out to commit even worse crimes than what he has committed on the past to the point that many of his crimes made their way to infamy and gained nefarious nicknames, such as "The Big Ben Caper" and "The Tower Bridge Job".
- During his villain song, it states that he has murdered several widows and orphans by drowning them. This establishes how he has no qualms on hurting even children.
- He had Fidget kidnap Hiram Flaversham and threaten his life to create an animatronic copy of the Queen, and when Flaversham became defiant, Ratigan orchestrated the abduction of his young daughter, Olivia to have her life threatened to force Flaversham's compliance.
- While his followers constantly praise him, they do so because they fear his wrath.
- When one of his men, Bartholomew, drunkenly called him a rat as part of a compliment, Ratigan had him fed to Felicia out of annoyance in front of the rest of his men to set an example, making a huge spectacle about it as he then threatened to unleash Felicia to devour the rest of them should they disappoint him.
- Considering his other repeated attempts to feed animals to Felicia, such as Fidget or the Queen, Felicia's overall well-fed, overweight appearance, the horrified reactions of his other minions as soon as Barthomew calls Ratigan a "rat" and that Ratigan tells Barthomew that Barthomew knows what happens when someone upsets Ratigan just before he calls Felicia with a bell to eat Barthomew, it is clear feeding rodents to Felicia is just routine for him.
- While the reason he fed Bartholomew to Felicia is because he insulted his personal insecurities about being called a rat when he prefers to be called a "really big mouse", this does nothing to excuse him killing him especially since Bartholomew was drunk when he said it, and he meant it as a genuine compliment to how brilliant Ratigan is.
- Upon luring Basil and his companion, Dr. Dawson, to a trap, Ratigan took his time to break Basil psychologically to gloat how he outsmarted him, then strapping both of them to an incredibly sadistic death trap where the two of them will either be shot by a gun or arrow, chopped by an axe, crushed by an anvil or a mousetrap.
- He also made it so the trap would only be activated after Basil was forced to listen to a song where Ratigan gloated about his victory, breaking Basil further to the point where Basil would rather let himself be killed in such an unusually cruel way than try to save himself.
- Ratigan would have stayed to watch the gruesome display but Basil arrived 15 minutes late so he set up a camera to go off after the mice are killed.
- He planned to use Flaversham's decoy of the Queen to announce himself as Britain's new King and then turn Britain into a dystopia, which the story portrays as worse than when he drowned widows or orphans or "made London a sob" by organizing the Tower Bridge Job, with the least of the people's worries being him imposing a crippling tax against the elderly, the infirm, and even little children, all for the sake of committing the ultimate crime.
- His intended tax policy, according to the storybook, is likely 100%, which would thus deprive them of financial resources.
- He threatened to toss Olivia to her death to force Basil to not follow him, and when Fidget got tired and suggested to lighten the load by throwing Olivia off, Ratigan betrayed him by tossing him out of the blimp, despite knowing he is crippled, leading to his presumed death.
- When Ratigan accidentally crashed the blimp at the Elizabeth Tower, he tried to have Olivia crushed to her death to get Basil out of his way.
- When he sees Basil and Olivia making their escape, he loses all sense of civility, turns feral, and proceeds to attack Basil with his bare claws. When he seemingly knocks Basil to his death, he prematurely celebrates having killed his nemesis.
- While he has many comedic moments, none of them detract from his villainy and are just part of his hammy exterior as this civilized mastermind, with his crimes being played horridly straight and by the time of the climax, when Ratigan abandons his civilized exterior, any and all comedy is dropped to have one of the most nightmarishly brutal final confrontations in Disney film.
- While he does pet his cat Felicia while calling her his "precious", his "baby", and "daddy's little honeybun", it's only to make a spectacle of feeding Bartholomew to her, as his sweet smile (admittedly understandably) fades to a disgusted grimace when she burps at him, he only treats her as a weapon for the rest of the movie, and when his plan goes under by the climax, he doesn't lift a finger to ensure her safety and just tries to save his skin, which (even assuming he didn't know about the dogs) proves that, at the end of the day, Felicia was merely another pawn for him.
Trivia[]
- In the Basil of Baker Street book series, on which the film is based, the professor is not considered Pure Evil. He is sometimes played for comedy, never succeeded in killing anyone, does not abuse his minions, and he respects Basil's detective work and his genius. He is merely more greedy than megalomaniacal or murderous.
- In a deleted verse of his villain song, "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind", Ratigan gives more details about the supposed Tower Bridge Job, stating that it involved him throwing several civilians into the Thames river and shooting those who did not drown on their own.
External Links[]
- Professor Ratigan on the Villains Wiki
- Ratigan on the Disney Wiki Wiki
- Professor Ratigan on the The Great Mouse Detective Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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