A widowed field mouse must move her family -- including an ailing son -- to escape a farmer's plow. Aided by a crow and a pack of superintelligent, escaped lab rats, the brave mother struggles to transplant her home to firmer ground.
A Ratinha Valente, The Secret of NIMH 1, 勇敢鼠妈妈, Brisby et le secret de Nimh, סודה של נים, ニムの秘密, Секрет Н.И.М.Х., Секрет НИМХ
A webbed and gnarled translucent watercolor sword and sorcery pastoral, furious with movement and activated Newtonian Alchemies. One of the jewels of the Annus Mirabilis 1982, The Secret of NIMH plays out like a crazed post-Disney, post-Rankin/Bass brew of Altered States and the Planet of the Apes TV shows. In the shadow of human civilization, the United States Government has given rats the capacity to use magickal and non-magickal technologies apparently not extant in un-DARPA'ed rat theories of global operations. This is the birth of the end of humankind's assumed hegemonic grasp on this world. Also, John Carradine as the most hypnotically terrifying animated owl ever.
I rewatched this film to see if it would be suitable to show to my 4 year old daughter. And while the answer is a resounding 'no' I did rediscover this rare, beautiful and surprisingly moving animated marvel.
Don Bluth is a genius. He is one of the best animators ever and I'm glad he had enough of Disney, left there fighting and made this. There's a good chance this film would not have existed otherwise.
With Bluth's characteristic animation style, we are given the story of a mouse seeking help from a group of intelligent rats as her son is sick and she has to leave her house. Throw in a wise owl and a host of other talking…
Growing up there were two phrases that my mother would often say to me that I can remember as clear as day - "Why don't you go outside and play.." and "Don't sit so close to the TV, you'll ruin your eyes."
I enjoyed playing with toys, squishing mud between my toes and jumping off picnic tables while flapping my arms, in hopes to defy gravity for just a few seconds, but what I really loved was watching movies. In having three siblings, parents and a grandfather who lived with us, it was a special treat to walk into the living room and have it empty. I would hurry over to the stack of VHS hidden within a cabinet, often…
The Weekly Animation Challenge 2018
Week 31: Director Spotlight: Don Bluth
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As the 80s & 90s have slipped further away in the rearview mirror, I (like seemingly a lot of people) have let the works of animator Don Bluth fade away with them. Maybe it's because some of those films--the later ones in particular--look in retrospect a bit corny/schmaltzy/too much a product of their time. So I can't say I was really expecting much when I sat down to finally watch the Secret of NIMH. But man did it end up surprising me.
It's set on a farm inhabited by anthropomorphized rural critters that have established a rather nuanced interspecies society in the dark nooks and crannies of this small…
The maturest, and darkest, animated film aimed for children ever made. There are literally good guys dying in this. There is blood. Most of all, there is non-stop tension; in fact, the whole film consists of unnerving scenes that move the viewer to the edge of their seat more than most live-action films do. The Secret of NIMH tells a grownup story, with grownup themes and a grownup atmosphere, but in a way completely captivating for the younger public (I can know as I must have seen it over ten times as a kid), with fine animation and Mrs. Brisby as an ideal protagonist. Don Bluth should never be underestimated as a filmmaker, but it is this film, his directorial debut nota bene, that shows him at his finest. An animation that can be enjoyed by all age groups, and which in itself will never age.
I just wanted to watch something with Jerry Goldsmith's music in it, and this was a pretty great choice. Made me wish he'd done more animated films. I think this was his only one. The Secret of NIMH is a very, VERY dark film; bleak, frightening and anxiety-inducing. Beautiful to look at, with a simple story that is engaging and easy to follow. A good film.
This is a movie I couldn't fully appreciate until I was an adult. It's good but I have to air some grievances.
Why the HELL was this marketed as a film for little kids? This movie traumatized me so badly as a child. The scenes with rats that have red eyes were the worst. I would have recurring nightmares where I peer over and look under my bed and one of those rats would be there. They penetrated my dreams until I was about 10 years-old. 80% of my nightmares are the fault of Don Bluth. Jerk.
My tastes have changed radically from childhood, but it’s nice to know that disliking Don Bluth movies is a constant.
His movies have a dearth of levity that I’ve never found enjoyable. Does a film about talking mice need to be saccharine sweet? No, but I think “The Rescuers” strikes a better balance.
I have to applaud the art direction, because the flaws of the budget animation are overlooked when you have feudal castles in a rosebush.
I did like the fact that our heroine is a widowed mother of three trying to survive. Despite being ordered around for most of the film, she resolved most of the conflicts herself. However, introduction of a Deus Ex Machina makes it seems like…
Absolute gem of an 80s furry bait movie. Mrs. Brisby is the best single mom in film.
Scavenger Hunt 59
19. A Don Bluth movie
*Do you watch movies aimed at children as an adult? Why or why not?
I don’t watch a lot of animated films nor do I really like them. I find that the ones people rave about that I watch I still usually don’t find great with few exceptions. I remembered watching this when I was really young and remembered nothing about it other than there was a mouse and that I liked it. Needless to say it didn’t hold up some 35 years later.
Nothing was awful at least and I appreciated the rats sword fighting and that it was only 80 minutes. It also brought back memories of playing Dragon’s Lair as a kid.
Animated films just aren’t my thing.
Revisiting childhood faves is obviously a complete crap-shoot, but after seeing some modern praise I was pretty curious to revisit this animated drama of rats and mice.
(Extra-intelligent rat stories were a weirdly present childhood staple in retrospect.)
Right away this movie made a good impression. It's a complete visual delight. Hyper-saturated atmospheric colors, stylized backgrounds, and creative editing and visual storytelling. Every magical and technological wonder in the film drips with tone and particle effects, jetting wonderful physical bolts of electricity and sparks and colors into the air. The character designs are sharp and specific, denoting a variety of traits and acting with wonderful detail.
Then there's those characters themselves. Disney get fucked, because even third tier henchmen characters…
Scavenger Hunt #59
Task #19 - Watch a Don Bluth film
My Thoughts: Despite having some beautiful hand drawn animation with a dazzling color pallet, The Secret of NIMH doesn't have much else going for it. The story is uninteresting and formulaic, the writing appears to be aimed exclusively towards appealing to a younger demographic, and the voice-acting is lacking in performances that establish any kind of interesting personality for their characters. It's one of those films that although not particularly bad in any respect, is so mediocre to an extent that left me dozing off out of my lack of investment. If I saw this as a child, I would probably be completely enamored by the world building in…
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