[.ca] The Secret of NIMH (Widescreen Special Edition)

From Amazon.com:
In his book, Robert C. O'Brien called his brave widow mouse "Mrs. Frisby," but Disney escapee animator Don Bluth must have thought kids would laugh the wrong way at that. They renamed her "Mrs. Brisby" for NIMH. That acronym stands for the National Institute of Mental Health, and the rats that live near Mrs. Brisby came from NIMH--they have strange ways. But they're the only ones who can save her house and her children, so Brisby seeks them out with the help of a humorous crow (Dom DeLuise). The magic gets laid on a little thick but this is Don Bluth's most successful attempt to achieve a complete, sincere, animated film. It's often forgotten, but it's a true surprise and a rare treat in the vast wasteland of insubstantial children's fare. --Keith Simanton

filled with wonder:
As a kid in the 1980's, this was a favorite film of mine. I remember thinking how cool and imaginative this was compared to the sludge of rerun 80's tv cartoons (did anyone else have to suffer through the "USA network cartoon train" as a kid?) like "The Flintstones." Don Bluth, like Tim Burton, was a very talented artist and animator who broke away from Disney. Both Burton and Bluth could not stand redrawing the same animation cells for other people all day long. Burton found profit, Bluth, sadly, did not. However, that is not to say that Bluth did not create some very fascinating films along the way. This is a tale of wonder and imagination. Watching this film is almost like seeing the equivalent of an American film with Miyazaki style and presentation. If you have ever seen "Spirited Away" or "Kiki's Delivery Service" there is an obvious similarity here between Miyazaki and Bluth. However, Bluth is very much an American, as is the setting for this imaginative tale. It is a tale of rats who were experimented on by humans, who became very intelligent, strange, and different as a result of what the humans had done to them. Eventually, these creatures managed to escape their bondage from humans, and formed their own kingdom far out in the country. This is the tale of Mrs. Brisby encountering this strange race of rats, but it is so much more. Please check it out and experience one of the more unique animated films ever made. This is not Disney, this is a new and different style. Sadly, these films just didn't catch on with the 80's crowd and Bluth was forced to go underground and now, today, makes a living in the straight-to-video kid market (He churns out those Land Before Time sequels just about every month).

The box art fails terribly at doing this movie justice!:
There are two movies I remember as a child that gave me a sense of intense wonder and awe. One was the Last Unicorn, and the other was the Secret of Nimh. Both movies displayed an unprecedented level of maturity when tackling their respective storylines. The Secret of Nimh is much like the Last Unicorn in the sense that the plot is intelligent, and at times necessarily dark. It's a haunting movie by many standards, but strikes a better balance between comedy, excitement, and foreboding than the Last Unicorn does. A rather simple premise opens the door to a much larger world when one watches the Secret of Nimh. The plight of Mrs. Brisbee and her children is just something one would expect to see on any farmland, especially during plow season. But when Mrs. Brisbee seeks out help from the woefully dangerous Rats of Nimh, she discovers an entire world she never knew existed. There are many intelligent plot twists that come together nicely in this movie. A family in peril, government-funded animal experimentation and even a bit of unexplained mysticism all work together to draw the viewer in. Anyone expecting an animated film designed purely to maintain a hold over the short attention spans of toddlers will be in for a surprise. The film is absolutely gorgeous to watch, more so for its lush imagination than its actual artistic quality. Every ounce of this film drips with uniqueness, and I challenge anyone to find a movie that has the same feel as the Secret of Nimh. It is a bit less serious and melancholy than the Last Unicorn, but it still manages to eschew frivolous silliness in favor of some real depth and emotion within its characters. Highly recommended for all ages!

Not the same as the book, but just as good anyway!:
While this movie is a bit more fantasy-like than the book, I think it's just as good. The first time I saw this was several years ago when Nickelodeon used to play movies on Sundays. Once I saw it, I immediately went after the book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Told in the style of Poppy or Watership Down, both the movie and the story have the same main plot: A family of mice must move out of their home before the tractor comes for the yearly harvest. The problem is, little Timothy mouse is sick with pnemonia (forgive my spelling) and if he goes out of the house, he will die. Now Mrs. Frisby must look to the Rats, a race of intelligent rodents, to help them to be able to survive the tractor without leaving their home.

A worthwhile film... just don't expect the book:
This was one of my favourite films as a child. My grandmother had it on video, and I watched it at every opportunity. Surprisingly, it still holds up as an adult too. Next to today's animation standards, it's a simply made film, but the painted animations are increadibly beautiful, and the characters are endearing. The overall tone is pleasantly and eerily suspenseful, but lightened throughout by humour. (But I recall my five-year-old cousin finding it too scary, so parents may want to judge for themselves). There are moments of subtle humour I didn't notice as a child ... the farmer on the phone, telling NIMH scientists "I don't know about any strange behaviour", in reference to the rats, while an organized gang of rats sneaks past his window sill, carrying away an entire set of christmas lights from their house. A warning to readers of the book: As much as I feel a warm sense of nostalgia watching this film, I must admit that my love for this film lessened a fair bit after discovering the book at thirteen. It's just as well that the film abandoned the (admitedly dull) name of the book (Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh) - this film really should not be called a remake of the book at all. The film employs the characters and a rough approximation of the story, but rewrites the story beyond recognition from there. This is not just a case of needing to shorten a complex story: the film is blatenly untrue to many of the basic themes of the book. The book is an allegorical critique of science, and of attempts to build rational, moral, self-sufficient societies. In some ways, the book is almost Lord of the Flies in reverse. It asks the question: what would happen if an unsocialized, unorganized group of rats were given human-level intelligence and left to build themselves a perfect society from the ground up? The rats, at the point where Mrs Frisby meets them face a dilemma: should they continue to live an easy life, living at the farm, relying on the resources provided by humans, but with an ever-increasing risk of exposure... or should they take the harder choice, leaving the farm to build a new civilization in a secluded location where they can be self-sufficient and live honestly without stealing their resources. In a way, the story could actually be likened to some of today's environmental choices, though I hadn't seen it that way before. The film reverses the emphasis and puts Mrs Frisby's story at the forefront, then seemingly worries that our heroine, Mrs Frisby, has too little to do, so it introduces a magical locket with which Mrs Frisby is ultimately able to save her family herself rather than relying upon the rats. In fact, this change of perspective is present throughout the film: even the description of the rat's imprisonment at NIMH and the experiments they are subjected to, is given a magical air. The rats, are given injections, "then one day, we looked at the words on the cage... and understood them" intones Nicodemus, as though a magical transformation had taken place, transplanting the ability to read into their minds.... rather than the gradual process of learning to read through a long series of experiments. A small detail, but symptomatic of the entire change in tone. In fairness, though, the sense of magic was part of the appeal for me as a kid, to the point of completely misinterpreting some scenes: the owl intones at one point "Go to the lee of the stone." in such mystical sincerity, that I assumed this a very deep instruction, and was a little disappointed to later learn that "lee" just means "sheltered from the wind"... very sensible directions from the viewpoint of a bird, I suppose, but not nearly as impressive sounding. Most upsetting, the filmscript writer seems to have felt that an ending wouldn't be an ending without a cliched battle of good against evil, in the form of a rat who, being power-hungry decides to threaten the life of Nicodemus, the leader of the rats. This entire sequence is banal in its simplicity, and frustrating in its morality: we already have far too many children's tales that contain cardboard-cut-out irredemable bad-guys. There's at least a little good in all people, and I find it disturbing that we seem so intent on teaching children that some people are bad through and through. And sadly, this entire sequence was completely unnecessary to create a sense of climax in the film. So, take this film for what it is: an appealing, if imperfect, tale. But for readers of the book, do not expect this to be a film adaptation thereof. At best, it's a different fanciful tale about the same characters.

A childhood classic:
This had been my favorite cartoon movie since I was six years old. I knew every line Mrs. Brisby spoke. This is the stuff that flying dreams are made of and will always be treasured in my heart. A great tale of bravery and overcoming the odds with a touch of magic.