Highly Overrated But Still Good

Absolutely the worst movie.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Of the four Sherlock Holmes series of animated films made for Australian TV, This is the best.All of these films have two major positive qualities - They are true to the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the voice of Holmes is that of legendary actor Peter O'Toole, who does a splendid job bringing a light touch of wit to the character of the famous detective.All four films also share two major failings: the animation is shoddy and the pacing is slow.Somehow, these failings are not so intrusive in this version of the Hound of the Baskervilles; my guess is because the original story is by far the most leisurely and most convoluted of the Holmes narratives, with a denouement that is simplicity itself. Consquently it is easy to remove unnecessary slow moments from the story before finishing the script, and to use the major 'clew' to compress the finale - this worked for Hammer in their Peter Cushing version as well. Consequently the version here actually feels tighter than the original.Won't impress fans of recent animation, but a worthy view for an off-hour for Holmes enthusiasts.

I've been a lifelong fan of mysteries, as was my father before me, and it's a tradition I've tried to pass down to my nieces and nephews. I recently came across these four animated Sherlock Holmes specials from the early 80s with acting legend Peter O'Toole voicing the greatest detective of all time. I'd never heard of these before, and boy was I in for a treat! Peter O'Toole has an amazing vocal quality that brings the right amount of sincerity and wit to the role, and his ability to have fun within character makes him a real treat for children. The animation is on par with any Hannah Barbera production from the era, and it reminded me of one of my other all time favorite animated shows, Scooby Doo, only with the higher quality writing of the Arthur Conan Doyle original stories. I can't wait to see these again, as I've heard a DVD release is pending. Wonderful family entertainment, and a great way to get kids reading. Highly recommended!

These Four Sherlock Holmes cartoons, as well as the literary adaptations done by Burbank Studios Australia, are fun little pieces. They were made in the 80's, and played on TV, sometimes on Saturday mornings, but mostly on school holidays to give kids an alternative to Soap Operas in the days when there were only three channels from which to choose.For kids raised on anime, these will seem boring, they also lack all the high pitched screaming and shrieking prevalent in the cartoons on TV today. The cartoons give a nice representation of Victorian England both in locations and in the characterizations.Definitely recommended for fans of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and cartoon adaptations of literary classics.

Never have I been so bored watching a movie as I was while watching this one. I'd seriously rather watch paint dry than to expose myself to this piece of crap again. For the first time ever I nearly fell asleep while watching a film - and I was wide awake when I started watching. The animation is terrible, the lip movement doesn't match the audio, the actors are all doing terrible jobs at making the dialog sound interesting. It is, on a completely different note, interesting to hear that Peter O'Toole is the one that sounds LEAST interested in the job he was doing of them all - he probably realized too late that what he had taken upon himself to do was complete garbage! The film is terribly slow paced, the dialog terrible and talked at such low speed you've nearly forgotten what they started saying in the first place once they reach the end... The original story by Doyle is excellent, but the treatment it has received here makes it look like SH*T! There isn't one single interesting or exciting part in the whole movie, and that is actually quite an accomplishment considering the material they had to work with... This is the worst offense anyone has ever done to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and should be avoided at all cost. Watch any other adaptation of the legendary book, and preferably the excellent 1939-version with the ultimate Holmes and Watson; Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce!This film deserves negative marks, but seeing as that's not possible, it gets a very solid 1/10!