elementary, my dear watson.

I've read a lot of books in my life, but honestly, the tales and adventures of Sherlock Holmes are probably some of the most interesting stories I've ever read. I have several versions of them, but for Xmas I had gotten a huge thick book that contained ALL of the Sherlock Holmes stories published in 'The Strand', back in the late 1800s. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sure was a fantastic writer; it's engaging, funny, and very intelligent. I always get wrapped up in them, and they're also pretty short, so you can blaze through a few every time you pick up the novel. I've recently started to re-read them, and they're all soooo goooood. The Hound of the Baskervilles is probably one of my favourite novels, period. If you have never read them, I definitely recommend it.

Sherlock Holmes definitely has seen so many different incarnations over the years. There are three that stand out to me, personally: the Disney version ('The Great Mouse Detective'), the cartoon television show ('Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century') and of course the most recent version, the movie with Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role, simply titled 'Sherlock Holmes'.

The cartoon, even though I look back on it fondly, was pretty bad. Holmes was a cyborg of some sort, and so was Watson, I think....I just remember everything they did involved lasers and being able to fly. It was quite ridiculous, though I'm sure 'elementary, my dear Watson' was used more than its fair share of times. Ah well. The Disney movie, though, was so awesome. Because it's the Great MOUSE Detective, the movie focused on the animals...the main detective was Basil of Baker Street, and Basil had his house (which is very well furnished) underneath Holmes' actual house on Baker Street. We even get a glimpse, via their silhouettes, of Holmes and Watson, though the story focuses on Basil and Dawson (Watson's mouse-counterpart). Of course, where would a Holmes story be without its Professor Moriarty? Again, there is a mouse role for Moriarty...the dastardly Professor Ratigan, who is, as the name might suggest, a rat. Funnily enough, since this movie came out in the 80s, there weren't very many famous people to voice the characters, like later Disney movies so often did. Indeed, Ratigan had the only truly famous voice, with Vincent Price (if you don't know who he is, you need to look no further than Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'; he's the creepy voice at the end of the song, hehe) giving him life. It was pretty awesome, I have to admit, and was definitely one of the movies I've seen the most, in terms of Disney movies, right up there with Aladdin/Lion King/Beauty and the Beast/Rescuers.

Finally, the recent Sherlock Holmes movie. Robert Downey Jr. really has been cranking out the blockbusters since Iron Man, eh? IM, IM2, Sherlock Holmes, Tropic Thunder...soon to be in the Avengers, Sherlock Holmes 2, it's crazy. The Holmes movie, though, was pretty good. It focused more on the analytical aspect of Holmes while still keeping in line with the character who loved to drink and smoke, and who was also a fine actor/person of creating disguises, as well as someone who was more than a capable fighter. It combined fantastic acting (Jude Law was also great as Watson, and Mark Strong is just always a fantastic villain, in this capacity as Lord Blackwood) with a great set piece (we got to see London Bridge being built!), and awesome music as well. We even got Rachel McAdams (yeah, wasn't going to forget her), who is ultra fine, as Irene Adler, and were introduced to a certain Professor...the moment I saw him, even though he was wreathed in shadows, I got even MORE excited for the next movie. Moriarty has long been one of my favorite literary characters, and I can't wait to see how they portray him. I hope he doesn't get ruined, though the movie was good enough that it gives me hope for the next one to be, at worst, alright.

I was going to talk about bunch of other things, concerning girls and all that...but, you know what? I'm done talking about that. Clearly, it does no good, since the results are all the same ANYway, soooooo, I'm just going to end that train of thought once and for all, at least on the blog. I'm sure there are more interesting things to talk about, anyway.

Completely unrelated, but, if you've never heard 'Start Me Up' by The Rolling Stones before, then I highly encourage you to go listen to it. w00t!