Professor Padraic Ratigan is a malevolent rat and the arch-villain of the classic Disney animated film, Basil the Great Mouse Detective. Voiced by the late Vincent Price, Ratigan is the arch-nemesis of Basil of Baker Street. Much as Basil is based on Sherlock Holmes, Ratigan is Basil's equivalent of Professor James Moriarty. He is a Machiavellian mastermind who takes a twisted pleasure in causing pain and misery to others. While he is also vain and egotistical, he despises being referred to as a rat (even though he clearly is one).
Information[]
In the film, Professor Ratigan plans to dominate all of mousekind by replacing her majesty the Mouse Queen. To this end, he abducts toymaker Hiram Flaversham and commands him to build a robotic duplicate of the Queen. He later has Hiram's daughter Olivia kidnapped as well to insure that the toymaker accomplishes his task, but this attracts the attention of Basil. Ratigan prepares for Basil's eventual intrusion and his thugs ambush Basil and Dr. Dawson when they find Ratigan's lair. Ratigan builds a complex and completely over-the-top death trap to dispose of his hated foe while he and his minions head out for Buckingham Palace.
With Flaversham operating the robot Queen, Ratigan has the real Queen taken away to be fed to his cat Felicia. The fake Queen announces to everyone attending the Diamond Jubilee that she has chosen Professor Ratigan as her royal consort and grants him effective control over all mousedom. However, Basil and his friends escaped from Ratigan's lair and arrived in time to thwart Ratigan's scheme. Ratigan makes his escape and takes Olivia hostage, threatening to kill her if anyone follows him. He escapes on his blimp but Basil, Hiram and Dr. Dawson pursue him using several balloons tied to a matchbox as a makeshift aircraft. The chase comes to a halt when both parties crash into Big Ben.
Death[]
Basil and Ratigan face each other amongst the gears within the Big Ben clock tower and Basil narrowly manages to rescue the captive Olivia. Enraged, Ratigan goes berserk and pursues Basil, giving in to his savage, murderous side. His clothes are torn as he scurries between the clock gears and his normally sophisticated demeanour is all but gone. Ratigan attacks Basil on the face of Big Ben while Olivia, Hiram and Dr. Dawson look on from the matchbox balloon. Ratigan has Basil cornered until Big Ben chimes as it strikes the hour. The noise and the vibrations cause Ratigan to lose his balance and he plummets off the tower to his death.