Duckyworth's Thoughts: The Secret of NIMH~1982

Jan 10, 201331 min read

Deviation Actions

Duckyworth

Published: Jan 10, 2013

4.5K Views

Gallery Watch Me Note Me Journals

Hello my friends, and welcome to the next installment of Duckyworth's Thoughts!

By popular demand, here is the review of my personal favourite of the Don Bluth films - The Secret of NIMH!

DT 45 - The Secret of NIMH by Duckyworth

Yep, I think, along with many other people, that this is one of the most underrated films of all time.

Not only is this film dark, well animated and filled with great characters, but I had been searching for this film for over 4 years, and it was last summer that I finally got to see it.. And it was worth the wait.

So, let's not waste any time, let's dive in!

The film is based on the novel Mrs Frisby and The Rats of NIMH written by Robert C. O'Brien. Yeah… Mrs FRISBY?!

Don Bluth said that he changed the name to Mrs Brisby, because he felt that people wouldn't take the film as seriously if Mrs Brisby was called Mrs FRISBY.

And I don't blame him…

I haven't actually read the book, so I don't know if the film follows it well, but as a film on its own, it's an unforgettable experience.

First of all… the story.

Mrs Brisby (voiced by Elizabeth Hartman, and she sounds an awful lot like Felicity from Felidae and Hyzenthlay from Watership Down… and it goes without saying that the voice sounds BEAUTIFUL

) is trying to help out her poor son Timothy who is diagnosed by pneumonia by the wise and skilled Mr Ages (voiced by Arthur Malet – and, is it me, or is this the same guy who voiced the Sultan from Aladdin and Dr Dawson from Basil the Great Mouse Detective?

Even if not, the characters do sound very alike…

) She discovers that she needs more time for her son to heal, which is problematic because the farmer who owns the field that the Brisby family lives in is about to plow the field… And her search for a way to protect her family drags her into a world much bigger and more diverse than she had ever dreamed of…

Yep… Somehow, I've heard that some people believe the story is where the film falls flat.. WHAT?!

True, the story at times may have too many twists and turns, but I see this story as being similar to the style of the plot in The Rescuers Down Under.

And besides, many people believe that any changes from the book have been for the better in this case.

Okay, now let's move on to the characters. Mrs Brisby is one of my favourite female characters of all time… She isn't brave, she isn't looking for adventure, and she isn't wisecracking or witty at all, she's simply searching for a way to protect her family from the dangers of the world…

I also like the fact that when she sees Nicodemus, she admits that she can't read as well as her children.... This film takes things that some films may not work well into a main character, and makes her one of the most likeable characters I've ever seen.

And we follow her through the film and her fear is our fear… She goes through numerous dangerous encounters, and we see the character gradually muster up the courage to go on… As scared as she is, she's willing to sacrifice everything for her family. SEE, DENETHOR AND PRANCER?!

Look at Mrs Brisby as an example – SHE is what a parent is SUPPOSED to be like… You can't say she commits any huge parenting mistakes in this film – because her children have a nanny to look after them while she's away… A very… strange nanny...

Auntie Shrew...

Voiced by Hermione Baddeley (who also voiced Madame in The Aristocats, Mrs Cratchit in the Christmas Carol version with Alastair Sim, and The Domestic in Mary Poppins), Auntie Shrew is, in my opinion, the Shrew version of Treebeard for the field that the Brisby family lives in… she seems to be in charge of keeping everyone safe… I just love the way that she tries her best to keep calm, but we see many times throughout the film that she loses her temper quite rapidly…

Speaking of the Brisby family, the children are quite sweet.

We have Teresa, Cynthia, Martin and Timothy Brisby - and I love how well the child voice actors did with them.

Especially Martin - funnily enough, he's voiced by Wil Wheaton, who also played Wesley from Star Trek and voiced the Robobrains from Fallout New Vegas, and this was his first voiceover role, as well as his first film apperance.

As I said, Mr Ages is the elderly boffin of this film... I love his laboratory and his inventions.

If you mixed Mr Ryzkruzki from Frankenweenie with Dr Dawson from Great Mouse Detective, you'd have a good idea of what he's like.

We also have Jeremy... let's just say he's Dom DeLuise's character, and you'll have a good idea of what his main role is...

Yep, Jeremy is the comic relief of the cast, and he's probably my favourite of the Dom DeLuise characters.

I love his obsession with string... and guess which Excadrill character of mine he shares a shiny obsession with..

Yep.. his eyes when he looks at the Stone that Mrs Brisby has later in the film made me laugh.. along with his scene when he's tied up the Brisby children, when he dresses up in the woman's dress... and at the end of the film when he has a rather touching scene.

It is also suggested to Mrs Brisby from Auntie Shrew that she seeks out The Great Owl for advice.

Yeah….. a mouse.. seeking out an OWL. You may be thinking 'Why doesn't she just write EAT ME all over herself?'

Seriously though, remember back in my The Flight Before Christmas review when I said it was silly that the wolves were scared to death of the reindeer that may actually have been slightly SMALLER than them at the end of the film?

Well, again, Mrs Brisby, a MOUSE, is gathering the courage, pushed on by her goal to keep her family safe, to see an OWL! AN OWL!

Mrs Brisby is much braver than a pack of WOLVES – THAT says a LOT about BOTH these films.

The Great Owl is voiced by the late John Carradine, who also played Cassius Starbuckle in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, not anyone I know

, but if you mixed Christopher Plummer's voice with Clockwerk's voice from the Sly Cooper series, and also put them in a slightly older version of Clockwerk BEFORE he fitted his body with technology, that's how I envision him. But still… when he steps on a spider (which was pretty creepy when you saw it following Mrs Brisby

) and you look up and see his head turn (with cracking noises, I think

) we can sympathise completely with Mrs Brisby being petrified… Well, it didn't phase me much, I was more freaked out the spider…

I find it so cool how he sounds, the cobwebs all over his body, showing his age and wise knowledge, and also the fact that he ISN'T as monstrous as Mrs Brisby first believed.. true, he's BIG, and that would put off ANY mouse wanting to see him.. But he doesn't try to eat Mrs Brisby.. he listens to what she has to say.

We also have a cat named Dragon (Er.. not sure how that works... It's like calling a dog Cow...

) - and I can tell that Don Bluth, like Tim Burton, tries his hardest to make cats HORRIFYING.

I mean, when I saw An American Tail, the scene where Fievel is nearly eaten by the cat - you see him GO DOWN THE CAT'S THROAT

- is one of the most FRIGHTENING things I've ever seen out of a children's film...

But luckily, Dragon doesn't do that to Mrs Brisby..

Dragon actually looks like a mixture between Bluebeard from Felidae and Professor Screweyes from A Dinosaur Story... however that works.

As for the Rats of NIMH, we have Justin - the Captain of the Guard, played by Peter Strauss, who also played Stoker Van Rotten in Biker Mice From Mars. He tries to actually hit on Mrs Brisby when they first meet... Which made me laugh quite a bit.. I also found it cool in the sword fight between him and Jenner. Speaking of Jenner, he's the villain of this picture, played by Paul Shenar... He looks like if Professor Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective and Rasputin from Anastasia got mixed in a blender..

But he is a pretty cool villain, and for some reason, he reminds me of The Horned King - probably his voice when he sounds all ominous...

And of course, he's the source of the infamous plz account I've made...

DAMN is that freaky!! That's the worst face Ive seen on a character since the Coachman's rape face!

It's like the face that the Nostalgia Critic was disgusted by in his Digimon the Movie review - the one that Tai made -

'Er.... never make that face again... It's the kind of face a pedophile makes when he learns they're renewing his subscription to 'Toddlers in Tiaras'.....'

'EWWW - Cut away from that!!'

Okay, that's enough scary faces for one day, I promise....

But once again, like some villains I've mentioned in my past reviews, you KNOW the villain means business just by LOOKING at them.

I also love the way he says to his henchrat (insert Evil the Cat from Earthworm Jim joke here

) 'They took the animal out of you…', referring to the experiments that the Rats underwent when they were held captive at NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) – I'll get back to that later.

But for now, back to the characters.

Other Rats of NIMH include Sullivan, who I personally saw as Jenner's lackey.. But one of my friends

said that Sullivan was her favourite character..

He.. didn't really leave much of an impact on ME, I must admit

, but I have to admit, the fact that HE lands the killing blow on Jenner is awesome.

He reminded me a little bit of the Huntsman from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - he's ordered to do something by his employer, but he lacks the courage to do so, and instead helps the person they were originally set against - in this case, Sullivan is ordered by Jenner to kill Nicodemus - the leader of the rats, but he stops himself, and helps Justin to fight Jenner, and even though Jenner lands a fatal blow to Sullivan, Sullivan IS able to throw a dagger at Jenner to kill him.... Way to go, Sullivan! You and Mrs Brisby are the true heroes of this film!

Speaking of Nicodemus... I LOVE his character. He's the leader of the Rats of NIMH, the wisest, and he is also the prophet of the rats. I just LOVE his voice...

I think he also wears the same contact lenses as the Great Owl, as their eyes look pretty similar....

He's also voiced by Derek Jacobi - who also played Archbishop Cosmo Lang in the King's Speech, and Gracchus in The Gladiator.

He just sounds so wise and approachable.

But, one thing about Nicodemus bothers me..... Even though he is a brilliant prophet, he STILL can't predict when he's going to get killed by Jenner! In fact, he acknowledges that Jenner has become cold-hearted.... so why doesn't he do something about him?!

Maybe like Gandalf, he was becoming forgetful in his old age, like how Gandalf was forgetting that he could summon the eagles to help him out in many scenes of Lord of the Rings?

And also, doesn't Nicodemus ever SMILE in this?!

Sure, he's much more likeable than Bella from Twilight, who also never smiles in most the first film (yes, I've seen it...

), but it seems pretty strange.... Nicodemus is a pretty cryptic character... But then again, he does give Mrs Brisby The Stone, which is very important -as I'll say later.

Okay, now let's get back to the experiments that NIMH carried out on the rats.... The rats and also some mice were injected with serums that were designed to increase their intelligence...

However, the rats and mice became much more intelligent then than the humans ever expected, and so they were able to escape from NIMH. Unfortunately, most of the mice were unable to escape, and fell down air shafts to their deaths...

Luckily, TWO mice were able to survive, Mr Ages and Jonathan Brisby - WHAAAAAAAAAA?!

That's right, Mrs Brisby is so well known by many of the characters because of how heroic her late husband was, and he was the one who opened the gate leading out of NIMH, so that the rats could escape.

Where was Jonathan when Rowf and Snitter from Plague Dogs and Claudandus from Felidae needed them?

Actually, NIMH looks quite similar to those labs... Perhaps Dr Boycott and Preterius were originally from NIMH and went their seperate ways to carry out their own immoral experiments on animals....

Anyway, due to their intelligence, the rats of NIMH were able to create some things that can't be explained by science, such as the strange book Nicodemus writes in, the visionary portal he has, the strange weapons that the rats use and The Stone.

It also explains all of the strange stuff that Mr Ages has in his laboratory.

But.. one thing I didn't quite understand is the point that Mrs Brisby brings up - after she discovers her husband was killed by the cat Dragon, she asks why Jonathan never mentioned the Rats of NIMH.... Nicodemus says it's because the serum slowed the ageing process in the rats......

Well, I'm sure any wife would be disturbed to hear that she would grow old while her husband remained young... But, I still question it slightly, I would have thought that it may have something to do with Jonathan knowing about the Stone, and worrying that Mrs Brisby may not fully comprehend it.... A bit of a nitpick maybe, but when I see this film, that's a bit that gets to me...

Anyhoo, the rats wish to stop stealing from humans and start creating things for themselves, which they've done, but they feel they're too intelligent to be thieves... So they wish to leave Thorn Valley (the rose bush where they live) and move away from the farmhouse, and start living on their own... They have the potential.

They also agree to move the Brisby household away from the path of the farmer's plow, as the Brisby family are, as they feel, in their debt. However, Jenner wishes to remain in Thorn Valley, as he feels that it would be less trouble to steal.... He's smart... but far too sinister for his own good...

So he plans, along with Sullivan, to use the Brisby household to kill Nicodemus, so the rats would stay in Thorn Valley.

In the climax of the film, one thing I like is how Mrs Brisby has the strength and ingenuity to escape from the cage she's put in, showing how brave she is and not leaving it to someone else to sav her (I've heard that in the book, Justin saves her...

) I STILL wince when she cuts her arm on the wire...

She learns that NIMH are heading to the farm to kill the rats, but of course, Jenner is too caught up in his own plans to listen to reason. So Jenner and Justin have a swordfight... And I love how this conversation goes -
Jenner: If there's one thing I've learnt... It's take what you can when you can...
Justin: Then you've learnt NOTHING!

The Stone is also of importance to Jenner, as he believes that he can unlock it's power, but we learn that he lacks the inner courage and ingenuity to learn it's secrets - he's too entangled in his savage instincts and selfish desires to do so.

But... Mrs Brisby, willing to sacrifice her own life to save her family from Jenner's actions - when Justin tries to pull her to safety - has the power in her heart to unlock the Stone's power - she is no longer as timid as she was at the start of the film... She's unlocked the inner courage within... and as Nicodemus said -
'Courage of the heart is very rare... The Stone has a power when it's there.' And the so-called DOOR that the message on the back of the stone mentions - 'You can unlock any door if you only have the key' - at least in my opinion, is the door to Mrs Brisby's inner courage and love for her family...
And as such, she uses the power of the Stone to save her family... And the rats learn that as well as their ability to create unknown devices and harness manmade technology... It's the natural, heartfelt feeling towards others that Mrs Brisby shows the rats due to her actions..... Maybe that wasn't what some of you saw from it, but I feel that this film is showing that Mrs Brisby shows all of them in the final scene... And the courage in her heart shows what power The Stone has... and hopefully the rats of NIMH can harness their own heartfelt affections towards each other to evolve and move forward in their endeavours... They've grown smarter than humans.. But intelligence means nothing if you lack the love towards others to move forward, something Jenner never posessed, and something that Sullivan learned much too late... Another reason why Mrs Brisby is such a strong character.

Now I've mentioned the story and characters... let's move on to the animation..... DAMN, this animation is impressive!

Well, it's Don Bluth, so you've learned to expect that... Even in his worst films (A Troll In Central Park

) the animation is still SPECTACULAR.. rivalling the likes of Studio Ghibli and the Pokemon films.

The flashing effects, harsh yet charming environments and beautiful natural elements are really nice to look at..

It's almost like Tim Burton at times in Thorn Valley - especially with the cheesy over the top inventions the rats have made with their accumulated knowledge.

Don Bluth worked on The Rescuers and Robin Hood, and this is the first film he directed after he left Disney.... and we can see his unique animating style developing.. Which is, in my opinion, always a treat to look at.

Also.... the MUSIC.

Beautiful, creepy, shocking, triumphant... Some of the best in my opinion... The theme gets stuck in my head every time I watch it.. After the intro (which is pretty powerful in my opinion - Nicodemus' voice is SO effective.

) And of course.... when we hear Mrs Brisby SING Flying Dreams....

She sure has some nice pipes!

It's like a more gentle version of the song Mother Gothel sings to the flower in Tangled - and of course... the scene she sings it in, where she gives Timmy the medicine, is so touching...

We can feel the family connection between the Brisby family..

Sigh... is it me, or is Don Bluth one of the ONLY directors where the familys in most of his films have extremely strong bonds? I mean, in this film... We KNOW how much the family means to each other - as I said... No parenting mistakes in the slightest...

Of course, the version of the song in the credits is also extremely nice to listen to.

Here are both versions for you to listen to.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ZJ-g… - Mrs Brisby version
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTlRrg… - End credits version

Now of course... the ending scene is pretty nice too.

We learn the rats of NIMH are all safe from NIMH now... And Timmy has recovered.

Jeremy (who I now realise didn't have much purpose but to be the Dom DeLuise comic relief

) comes back with the string Mrs Brisby sent him away to get, and he learns that the 'sparkly'

has been given to Justin.

But luckily, Jeremy, who all this time has been searching for a date

, bumps into another crow, who one of the Brisby children cutely calls 'Another turkey!'

And we see Jeremy and the crow fly into the horizon, as we hear Auntie Shrew coming for a visit... Leaving a happy end for us...

Don Bluth sure has a strange philosophy - 'Children can cope with anything, as long as a happy ending is attached.'

Sure... a spider was squashed, Nicodemus was crushed, Jenner was stabbed, Sullivan was gored, and four children mice were almost DROWNED in mud.... It's all so mentally scarring..

But the ending is so happy!

Funnily enough, other than the plotholes relating why Nicodemus didn't do something about Jenner, and the reason why Jonathan never told his wife about NIMH...... I have no real problems with this film.

It's not in my all time favourite films for nothing!

If anything, I feel that the pacing was a bit off... A bit too fast?

I also felt Jeremy didn't have much purpose... Maybe he had a bigger role in the book, but here, he just seems to be there to get tangled in string, lust over sparkly stones, cross-dress and wear lily-pads for hats....

But then again, ALL family/Don Bluth films need a comic relief to lighten the mood - he's like the crow version of Keehar from Watership Down.

And he's just as funny - even if Keehar did slightly more...

But still.... it's my favourite of Don Bluth's films...... If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it...

And whatever you do.. STEER CLEAR OF THE SEQUEL!

I've only seen snippets of the film and heard what the story of it is about... And let me just say.. It's HORRIBLY insulting the original, Mrs Brisby, the rats of NIMH, Timmy, Martin, Jeremy, and EVERYTHING the original stood for!

This review is in memory of Elizabeth Hartman, as this film was her LAST film role..

In 1987, she committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor window of her apartment after suffering from depression throughout most of her life.

RIP Elizabeth Hartman (1943-1987), for bringing us one of the best female characters in film history....