ANI-MOVIES, *Sherlock Holmes And The Great Escape

Surprisingly not being a remake of Hayao Miyazaki's Sherlock Hound anime TV series from the 80s, this production from China is based on the light novel series by Lai Hao and Yu Yuen Wong, The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes. The books tells cases of the opium-addict investigator in an anthropomorphic universe, which only differs from Sherlock Hound as all the characters in that were all dogs. Sherlock is still a canine person in a world of other various animal people, even though the horses are still just horses. This CGI movie is an adaptaion of the second of the 5-volume series, each one acting as its own seperate story.

Set in 19th Century London, Sherlock is on the hunt for the gentlemanly thief White Storm, who is like a Robin Hood stealing from the corrupt rich to give to the downtrodden. Sherlock deduces the thief is Mack, an illusive man who secretly visits his orphened daughter every year on her birthday, and captures him on his annual visit. Mack then spends the next four years in jail, with his daughter now old enough to get married to her childhood sweetheart, so he escapes from prison to attend her wedding. This fires up the hatred of fellow prisoner Scarface as he used his own escape plans without him, and manages to evade the hapless police to get his petty vengeance, even though he managed to break out of jail on his own! Sherlock and Mack team up to capture Scarface who has captured Mack's daughter. There's a ending teaser where Sherlock realizes that this whole four year affair was really the machinations of the mastermind Moriarty, hinting at a sequal that so far doesn't seem to be happening.

Sherlock Holmes And The Great Escape has some impressive 3D animation, keeping the look of illustrator Wong's character designs. The character designs and mannerisms are token anime-themed, as several Chinese productions are inspired by Japanese entertainment, most especially in the scenes where Sherlock describes how a crime scene played out. The plot itself deviates severely from your standard Sherlock Holmes mystery as its made fairly clear who the original suspect was, and then adding a large thug as the main bad guy for the 2nd act. If you're looking for enjoyable Sherlock movie with talking animals for your kids to watch, then you might be better off watching The Great Mouse Detective, or at least catch the Sherlock Hound anime that this is clearly ripping off.