Although there are many talented animators in Hong Kong, there is not much of a local animation industry, making feature-length animations extremely rare. The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes—The Greatest Jail-Breaker, based off the popular illustrated children's book series by Lai Ho, is one of these rare efforts. Created on a limited budget with a small team, co-director and screenwriter Toe Yuen, the director of My Life as McDull (2001), delivers a high-quality adaptation of two books from The Greatest Jailbreaker series. While Yuen made some additions to the plot, he preserved the original illustrator’s anthropomorphic character designs, as well the original series’ detective. Set in London during the Industrial Revolution, the film is fast paced, skillfully combining jokes, sentimental scenes, suspense, and action. The character design and art direction are fresh and novel. The original score, performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, ties the whole production together. While it met a difficult time when first released four years ago, Sherlock Holmes and the Great Escape is a praiseworthy local production, perfect for family viewing.

Toe Yuen (b. Hong Kong) is a director and writer of feature-length animations. After graduating from film studies in Hong Kong Baptist University, Yuen became known for directing My Life as McDull (2001) and its sequel McDull, Prince de la Bun (2004). He later directed CJ7 – The Animation (2010), and co-directed A Decade of Love (2008).

Matthew Chow is a veteran producer of animation. After completing his education in Australia, he returned to Hong Kong, where he entered the animation production industry from the 1990s onwards. In 2005 he founded Simage Animation, which has created numerous animated films, television series, and advertisements. He has won many international animation awards.