Professor Ratigan

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.

Pure Evil

Full Name

Padraic Ratigan

Alias

Professor Ratigan

Ratigan
Napoleon of Crime
King Padraic
The World's Greatest Criminal Mind
Lord Ratigan

Origin

The Great Mouse Detective

Allies

Unnamed mouse gang

Fidget (formerly)
Felicia

Powers / Skills

Genius-level intelligence

Manipulation
Charisma
Leadership
Intimidation
Great strength
Agility
Cunning

Goals

Usurp Queen Mousetoria as the ruler of Mousedom

Kill off Basil of Baker Street and David Q. Dawson in order to protect his plans
Kill Olivia for his own amusement (all failed)

Moral Event Horizon

Massacring various mice, most notably by drowning those widowed and orphaned.

Feeding Bartholomew to Felicia for a drunken mistake.
Attempting to have the Queen assassinated to permanently end the monarchy and begin a totalitarian regime.
Throwing Fidget off their blimp and into the Thames River, presumably killing him.

Kill Count

Dozens

Worst Crimes

Terrorism

Mass murder
Attempted regicide
Attempted usurpation
Psychological abuse
Torture
Extortion

Type of Villain

Power-Hungry Crime Lord

“	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 having a drunk Bartholomew killed 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, often referred to by his surname, is the main antagonist of Disney’s 26^th 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" and is the arch-nemesis of the famed detective, Basil of Baker Street. By the time of the film, he kickstarted his plot to extort Hiram Flaversham using the life of his daughter to have the Queen killed to rule Great Britain and run it down as a dystopia.

He was voiced by the late Vincent Price, who also portrayed King Richard III in the 1962 film adaptation of The Tower of London.

What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]

He is the Napoleon of Crime that has no limits on what he can do and is always out to commit even worse crimes than what he has committed on the past to the point that many of them made their way to infamy and gained nefarious nicknames, such as "The Big Ben Caper" and "The Tower Bridge Job". As Basil himself puts it, there's no evil scheme he wouldn't concoct and no depravity he wouldn't commit.
He had Fidget kidnap Hivam Flaversham and had Flaversham create an animatronic copy of the Queen, and when he became defiant, he orchestrated the abduction of his young daughter, Olivia, to force his compliance.
When one of his men, Bartholomew, drunkenly called him a rat as part of a compliment, he had him fed to Felicia out of annoyance in front of the rest of them to set an example, making a huge spectacle about it as he then threatened to unleash Felicia to devour them should they disappoint him.
- Considering his other repeated attempts to feed animals to Felicia, such as Fidget for inadvertently leading Basil to their hideout, the Queen as part of his plan to overthrow her, and having threatened to do the same to Flaversham if he failed to make the copy, Felicia's overall well-fed, overweight appearance, the horrified reactions of his other minions as soon as Bartholomew calls him a "rat" and him warning the mouse of the penalty for crossing him just before he summons Felicia with a bell to eat him, it is clear that 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 his other henchmen hesitantly called him a "really big mouse", this does not hold up in his act especially since Bartholomew was drunk when he said it, and he meant it as a genuine compliment to how brilliant he is.
Upon luring Basil and his companion, Dr. Dawson, to a trap, he took his time to break Basil psychologically to gloat how he outsmarted him, then strapping both of them to a death trap where the two of them will be shot by a gun and arrow, chopped by an axe, crushed by an anvil and a mousetrap.
- He made the trap be activated only after Basil was forced to listen to a song where he gloated about his victory, breaking Basil further to the point where he would rather let himself be killed.
- He initially planned on staying to watch the event unfold but due to Basil arriving 15 minutes late, he set up a camera to go off after the mice have been killed.
He planned to use Flaversham's decoy of the Queen to announce himself as Britain's new King and then turn it into a dystopia, with the least of the citizens’ worries being him imposing a crippling tax against the elderly, the sick, and children, all for the sake of committing the ultimate crime.
He threatened to toss Olivia to her death to force Basil to not follow him. However, when Fidget got tired of pedaling their blimp and suggested to decrease load by throwing Olivia off, Ratigan betrayed Fidget by tossing him out of the blimp, despite knowing he is crippled and into the Thames River.
When he accidentally crashed the blimp at the Elizabeth Tower, he tried to have Olivia crushed to death by the gears in order to get Basil out of his way.
When he saw Basil and Olivia making their escape, he lost his sanity and proceeded to attack Basil with his bare claws. When he seemingly knocked Basil to his death, he prematurely celebrated having killed his nemesis.
When Basil revealed himself to be alive and the clock rung, he tried to take Basil down with him when he lost his footing and fell to his death.
While he has some comedic moments, none of them detract from his villainy.
While he does treat his cat Felicia with affection, it's only because she does as he tells her to do, as when his plan is foiled, he doesn't bother to ensure her safety while escaping, which proves that at the end of the day, Felicia was merely a pawn to 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.
He is the only Pure Evil to appear in a Disney Animated Features Cannon film that was released after Walt Disney's lifetime that doesn't come with a Pure Good hero.