Disney Rejected A Crossover Between Some Of Its Cutest (And Tiniest) Characters

As Disney aficionados can tell you, the 1980s were a rough time for the company's animation department. They had a sizable hit in 1977 with "The Rescuers" (which made about $15 million domestically upon its initial release, on a $7.5 million budget), but Disney just couldn't recapture the magic. The 1981 film "The Fox and the Hound" cost a hefty $12 million, but brought in only $14.2 million domestically, which was not horrible, but not great. Notoriously, the 1985 fantasy epic "The Black Cauldron" lost a bucket of money, made for $44 million (!), and earning only $21.3 million. "The Black Cauldron" was such a bomb, there was some buzz that Disney might shutter their animation department altogether.

At least Disney racked up a modest hit the following year with "The Great Mouse Detective," a $25 million hit from a $14 million budget. That film was a Sherlock Holmes story, but posited that Holmes' apartment was the home of an anthropomorphic mouse named Basil (Barrie Ingham), a clever creature that, in observing Holmes, became a star detective for mice. His Watson was a mouse named Dawson (Val Bettin), and his Moriarty was a rat named Ratigan (Vincent Price). "The Great Mouse Detective" had a lot in common with "The Rescuers," another film about heroic anthropomorphic mice (played by Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor) living in the human world. It also notably used some CGI, a first for Disney.

Seeing as Disney's two biggest hits of the decade were both about heroic mice, it stood to reason that the Rescuers should meet the Great Mouse Detective at some point. Sadly, the idea was too ambitious for 1980s-era Disney to handle, but it was eventually developed into a TV series, as revealed by storyboard artist and director Tom Caulfield on his Twitter/X account. The series, to be called "The Rescue Aid Society" was developed in the late 2010s, but was ultimate scrapped. 

According to Caulfield's tweets — and the accompanying art he displayed with it — "The Rescue Aid Society" was going to be a Disney version of "Mission: Impossible" or "Kingsman: The Secret Service." Miss Bianca, the Eva Gabor character from "The Rescuers," was to serve as the R.A.S.'s chief, appearing only on video screens to issue missions to her team. One of the drawings features a frizzy-haired mouse putting on a deerstalker, looking very much like Basil. This character was to be one of Basil's relatives, a child, or perhaps a niece. Caulfield pitched the series to Disney alongside Bill Motz and Bob Roth, the creators of "The Ghost and Molly McGee." 

Sadly, "The Rescue Aid Society" was rejected because — he theorizes in his tweets — Disney already had another similar project in the works. It seems that the 2022 Disney+ film "Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers" was already cornering the market on brave animated rodent spies. He hadn't seen "Rescue Rangers," but it seems logical that Disney wouldn't want to have doubled-up with a revival of Chip and Dale at the same time they were reviving both "The Rescuers" and "The Great Mouse Detective." 

Of course, "The Rescuers" did get its own sequel in 1990 called "The Rescuers Down Under." Basil from "The Great Mouse Detective" hasn't become widely revived in Disney marketing, but his archrival, Ratigan, has turned up in ancillary Disney projects, board games, and Halloween specials, so there is a contingent of people who do at least know about him. It certainly helps that he was played by the inimitable Vincent Price, a celebrated actor and collaborator of Tim Burton (he almost played Santa in "The Nightmare Before Christmas"). 

Disney would bounce back from "The Black Cauldron" with "The Little Mermaid," a film considered to be the opening salvo of the Disney Renaissance.