In regard to Burbank's Sherlock Holmes adaptations I do like them. None of them are perfect with all of them having similar flaws to the rest but they have pretty much the same pros as well. A Study in Scarlet is one of the better animated adaptations, for me second to The Baskerville Curse. It is not easy to translate a literary source to television let alone for animation, and A Study in Scarlet does laudably in that regard. The animation is at times rather shoddy- some of the backgrounds are handsome but the character designs look stiff to me-, some scenes come across as pedestrian and some of the line delivery for the side characters is on the monotone side. However, the music here is an improvement on The Baskerville Curse, it is much more subtly used and not as overbearing. The dialogue is intelligent, and the story is surprisingly very faithful with the crucial scenes at least having degrees tension and suspense. Holmes and Watson continue to be interesting characters, and Peter O'Toole's voice work as Holmes is splendid. Overall, a thoroughly decent animated adaptation, though not one of my favourites. 7/10 Bethany Cox
