The Secret of NIMH/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

** In This Troper's opinion, the Great Owl scene is [[Don Bluth]] 's proto-[[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene]]. Nothing about who or what the Great Owl is supposed to be is explained, how the Great Owl knows about the rats of NIMH is never explained, it's never explained if the Owl is some sort of magical being or whether he has any connection to the experiments at NIMH. It's not even really explained why Auntie Shrew thought consulting him was a good idea. She just kind of [[Ass Pull|randomly suggests]] to Mrs. Brisby that "the Great Owl" would know what to do without really elaborating on who this character is. Is the intended implication that the animals of the forest consult the Owl about their problems on regular basis? Well, that's never really explained either. And of course, the Owl [[What Happened to Thethe Mouse?|never appears again and is barely even referenced]] after his scene.

** This troper personally adored Jeremy, though admits he was awkwardly placed in the film. His early role was important somewhat (saving Ms Brisby from Dragon and flying her to the Great Owl) though that was the problem, his relevance ended after the beginning of the film. It was likely a case of [[Ascended Extra|expanding his role from the book]] to give a wider balance of whimsy and comic relief throughout the movie, though contradicted the movie's tendancy to [[Shoo Out the Clowns]] whenever things got climatic. Perhaps due to being Bluth's first movie, he had more problems with the story and balancing the cast (other characters seem to drift in and out as well, such as the infamous [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene]] that was Brutus), Jeremy actually seems like something of a prototype for later comical roles in Bluth movies such as [[An American Tail|Tiger]] (the fact the majority of them are also voiced by Dom De Luise only fuels this theory further).

*** I don't consider it good form to give a response that boils down to "it doesn't matter, because it's [[Fanon Discontinuity]]" because it tends to stifle discussion. That's the right of anyone here, though, so, [[Shrug Take|meh]]. To the original troper, I say that it's an [[Evil Makeover]], which happens enough to be a supertrope of its own. [[Watsonian Versus Doylist|In-story]], because [[Dark Is Evil|Evil Is Dark]] according to [[A Wizard Did It|whatever magic gave him the hypnosis eyes]], a more menacing expression and posture can do a lot to change someone (especially if they exude an aura of evil or at least [[Disneyfication|not-niceness]] a la [[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|Mr. Hyde]]), and that sort of British accent is [[Evil Is Cool|cool]]. Out-of-story, because he [[Sarcasm Mode|needed to]] be [[Evil Makes You Monstrous|turned into]] an [[Obviously Evil]] [[Moustache Twirling Villain]] so [[Viewers Areare Morons|the poor, dull-witted kids wouldn't be confused]] about why Martin was suddenly rampaging around and being a mean person, and be happy when he turned [[Family -Unfriendly Aesop|normal]].