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Original Production Animation Drawing of Fidget and Olivia Flaversham from "The Great Mouse Detective," 1986


Original Production Animation Drawing of Fidget and Olivia Flaversham from "The Great Mouse Detective," 1986
Original Production Animation Drawing of Fidget and Olivia Flaversham from "The Great Mouse Detective," 1986

Original production animation drawing of Fidget and Olivia Flaversham in blue and graphite pencils from "The Great Mouse Detective," 1986, Walt Disney Studios; Numbered 31 in pencil lower right; Size - Fidget & Olivia: 3 x 3 1/2"; Sheet 12 1/2 x 20 1/2"; Unframed.

"Stop! Let me go, you ugly old thing!" - Olivia Flaversham


Eve Titus wrote a series of stories about Basil of Baker Street; a mouse that lived next door to Sherlock Holmes and who shared many of his skills and traits. Walt Disney Studios adapted the Titus stories into a wonderful feature film that was still able to maintain the Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes characters, even though they were transformed into a mouse world. The resulting film "The Great Mouse Detective" was directed by Ron Clements, music by Henry Mancini, and was released on July 2, 1986. Although the script took about four years to develop, the animation only took a year with an estimated total budget of $14 million.

"The Great Mouse Detective" begins in London in June of 1897; when a young mouse, Olivia Flaversham, is with her toy maker father celebrating her birthday. Suddenly, a peg leg bat breaks into the toy shop and kidnaps Mr. Flaversham and Olivia sets out to find the famous Great Mouse Detective, Basil of Baker Street. Unfortunately she loses her way, but meets a retired army surgeon mouse, David Q. Dawson who has just returned from Afghanistan. Both of them make their way to Basil's residence, only to find him busy at work. Basil initially ignores them until Olivia mentions the peg leg bat. Basil realizes that the bat is Fidget, a henchman to Professor Ratigan, the criminal mastermind that Basil is looking to apprehend. It is revealed that Ratigan had Mr. Flaversham kidnapped in order for him to create a robot replica of the Queen Mousetoria, so that Ratigan can be named "Supreme Ruler of all of Mousedom."

Fidget suddenly appears in Basil's window but quickly vanishes. Basil, Dawson and Olivia take Toby, Sherlock Holmes' pet Basset Hound, in order to trail Fidget's scent. They track Fidget to a human-sized toy shop. There Dawson finds Fidget's checklist and Basil discovers Fidget has been stealing clockwork mechanisms along with toy soldiers' uniforms.

Fidget, the peg legged and one wing crippled bat, is the right hand henchman to Professor Ratigan. Glen Keane was responsible for the character design of Fidget; and he was voiced by Candy Candido, the veteran radio performer who also had a long career at Walt Disney Studios. Candido portrayed the Indian Chief in Peter Pan, one of Maleficent's goons in Sleeping Beauty, the Alligator Captain of the Guard in Robin Hood, Brutus and Nero in The Rescuers, the deep voiced escaped convict (Gus) in the Haunted Mansion attraction, and of course Fidget the peg-legged bat that would be his final role before his death. Since Candido normally has a deep, croaky voice; his voice track had to be digitally sped up in order for Fidget to sound high-pitched. Olivia Flaversham was animated by Mark Henn and voiced by Susanne Pollatschek, a Scottish actress from Glasgow, when she was only eight years old.


This is a wonderful original production animation drawing of Fidget and Oliva Flaversham from "The Great Mouse Detective," 1986. The drawing is used for the scene when Fidget is stuffing the kidnapped Olivia into a glass bottle, and then sealing it with a cork. This is an action packed drawing, showcases animation at it's best, and would be great addition to any art collection!


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