Peter O’Toole is the voice of Sherlock Holmes in “Valley of Fear” (1984) – reviewed by George

Once again the balance of sound elements is bad, but here it is the worst of this short series of four cartoons. The music actually came within a hair of drowning out the dialogue completely on several occasions.
Holmes receives a letter in code, a book code, only it’s been so long since this correspondent wrote that Holmes has forgotten which book the code is based on. Well, the first number given is over five hundred, so it has to be a big book, and a common one. It can’t be the Bible because there are so many editions. Eventually Holmes decides on a book and the message becomes clear. He and Watson leave for a country estate where the clues include a missing barbell, and the victim has no face.
This is inferior in every way to the Arthur Wontner version, which was called “The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes” (1935), review posted December 23, 2016. In that review I wrote that we would see another version of “Valley of Fear” in the 1980’s, and this cartoon is that version. Too bad it stinks; I hated it. And I don’t think the short length of the cartoon has anything to do with it; the cartoon is 0:48 and the Wontner feature is 30 minute longer at 1:18, but Wontner adds Moriarty as the mastermind behind the American gang, as well as most of the serious crime in England and Europe.
Voice of Dr. Watson by Earle Cross, Adaptation by Norma Green, Directed by Warwick Gilbert, Di Rudder, and Alex Nicholas.