The Secret of NIMH: Difference between revisions

'''''The Secret of NIMH''''' is [[Don Bluth]]'s first feature-length film; it is based ''[[Adaptation Distillation|very]]'' [[Adaptation Distillation|loosely]] on Robert C. O'Brien's Newbery Medal Award-winning novel ''[[Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH]]''.

Mrs. [[Writing Around Trademarks|Brisby]] is a widowed mouse and mother of four living near a farm. With spring fast approaching and the frost melting from the ground, her family has to move in order to avoid the farmer's plow -- butplow—but one of the children, Timothy, has come down with pneumonia and can't be moved for a few weeks. Taking the advice of an all-knowing owl, Mrs. Brisby seeks the aid of the Rats of NIMH, a group of escaped lab rats that were rendered super-intelligent via experimental drugs. After meeting with the rats' leader, Nicodemus, Mrs. Brisby finds out that her late husband Jonathan had been a good friend of the rats -- andrats—and died while helping the rats carry out a plan to leave the human world behind. Nicodemus agrees to help Mrs. Brisby move her home, but some of the other rats have plans of their own...

''The Secret Of NIMH'' was Don Bluth's first feature film after leaving Disney; it was even produced a decade after Disney itself had turned down adapting the original story. Bluth used traditional tools and methods as a way of fighting back against the movement towards lower production costs (and lower quality animation). While the film did poorly at the box office -- thanksoffice—thanks in part to [[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|its competition]] -- [[Vindicated by History|it has come to be regarded as a masterpiece of animation in the years since its release]], with many animation enthusiasts and film critics regarding it as Bluth's best work. The film was released on DVD twice -- oncetwice—once as a single-disc set with no special features, and once as a two-disc "Family Fun Edition" that included a feature-length commentary from Bluth himself -- andhimself—and 2011 saw a Blu-Ray release for the film.

=== {{tropelist|The movie series has examples of the following tropes: ===}}

* [[Action Mom]]: Ms. Brisby is an interesting example, as she's doing what she does to save her children, not because she has a love of adventure or thrill--inthrill—in fact, she gets the crap scared out of her by most of the things she encounters throughout the film. But her bravery is what pulls her--andher—and the audience--throughaudience—through.

* [[Barefoot Cartoon AnimalsAnimal]]s: Most of the rats, with Nicodemus as [[The One Who Wears Shoes]].

* [[Beard of Evil]]: Jenner has one.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Jeremy, a lonely compassionate crow that just wants to help out and find love; unfortunately, he is also a hapless klutz, tending to cause more problems than he solves. He's constantly reprimanded by [[Beware the Nice Ones|Mrs. Brisby]] until she eventually gets rid of him by having him see to [[You! Get Me Coffee!|trivial minor duties]], both of which he fails miserably with too. Perhaps a crueler example than a lot of Bluth's other examples, since Jeremy does not have involvement in the final climax and thus doesn't get to redeem himself (though he does get his "Mrs. Right" at the end of it all).

** What is very interesting about this is that, in the scene where Mrs. Fitzgibbon is hanging out the laundry and Dragon is sleeping near the back step (a scene which takes more of an omniscient camera view than the first-person view of the mice), he doesn't come across nearly so horrifying. Part of this may be due to him being drugged at the time, but it also comes across as him seeming a normal cat here but a monster in all his other scenes [[Fridge Brilliance|because that is how a cat would look and sound to a mouse]]. (See [[Translation Convention]].)

* [[Conspicuously Light Patch]]: While the characters' fairly straightforward animation is understandable in contrast to the sumptuously painted backgrounds, when something in the background needs animating, it can be rather jarring. The mud sloshing around the Brisby's house as they're trying to move it is particularly obvious.

{{quote| '''Jenner''': ''(He's been talking about how Nicodemus's plan to move the rats shouldn't be done)'' We were just talking about you.<br />

* [[Four Lines, All Waiting]]: There are at least four ongoing plots tied together in the original film--Msfilm—Ms. Brisby trying to save her children from the farmer's plow, the Rats of NIMH trying to leave for Thorn Valley, Jenner trying to sabotage their moving plans by {{spoiler|murdering Nicodemus}}, and Jeremy the Crow trying to find a love interest.

* [[Furry Confusion]]: The Rats angst over this quite a bit. Though, looking at the farm animals, all of them show intelligence and act somewhat like humans -- tohumans—to a point. Only the insects play fully realistic parts.

* [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]]: Aside from the NIMH scientists, mostly averted through lack of presence.

{{quote| '''Justin:''' I'll get a line around the stones, now...''Brutus, quick!'' Get some rope; tie off those block lines!}}

** Cecil the Caterpillar; despite being a con-man and a bit on the cowardly side, he goes out of his way to help out the protagnists with little motive. {{spoiler|He is introduced saving Timmy and Jenny from an eagle}}.

{{quote| '''Nikodemus:''' Courage of the heart is very rare. The Stone has a power when it's there.}}

* [[Actor Allusion]]: {{spoiler|Jenner's death is similar to [[Scarface|Tony Montana's]]}}: {{spoiler|hitten in the back and then falled face down into a pool. Paul Shenar, who voices Jenner, played Alejandro Sosa in the same movie.}}

* [[Carnivore Confusion]]:

* [[Cobweb Jungle]]: The Great Owl's lair. The Great Owl ''himself'', come to mention it. Hey, it [[Rule of Cool|looks awesome]]!

* [[Doing inIn the Scientist]]: Amazingly enough, considering {{spoiler|what NIMH is.}}

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Jeremy ''tries'' to act as one, but ultimately his clumsiness intervenes -- asintervenes—as well as inadvertently falling under the wrath of a [[Mama Bear]] in the process. That said he does act out a pretty valid showing of this for Mrs. Brisby, and to a lesser extent, Timmy.

* [[Power Strain Blackout]]: Mrs. Brisby, immediately following the film's climax, wherein she uses The Stone for the first and only time to move her home. She collapses as its power subsides, then passes out.

* [[Schizo-Tech]] - crosses over with [[Hammerspace]] when Justin and Jenner pull out their '''swords'''. Considering that the rats adapt human technology based on their functioning understanding of it (well, at least in the novel), one might wonder where the hell they managed to come up with the idea that full-on medieval swords in tiny miniature version would be a good idea. Especially considering the kinds of heat needed to shape metal when they live in a flammable environment (it's a rose bush). In any case, for some this might lean into [[Fridge Logic]] country, and for others it leans in the opposite direction, however you can't deny that the combination of electricity, elevators, lighting... and magic and swords is a little schizoid.

{{quote| '''Jenner:''' The Thorn Valley Plan is the aspiration of ''idiots'' and ''dreamers''! We... ''(sees Justin and Mr. Ages and [[Smug Snake|chuckles]])'' We were just talking about you...}}

{{quote| '''Jeremy:''': "So....do ya like me?"<br />

* [[Writing Around Trademarks|Voice Acting Around Trademarks]]: Late in production, concerns arose that the name "Frisby" would land them in legal trouble with the makers of the Frisbee toy. Many of the voice actors returned to the studio for additional ADR work in order to replace every instance of the name "Frisby" in the film with "Brisby". Only Elizabeth Hartman--theHartman—the actress for said character--couldcharacter—could not, so her lines were mechanically edited.

=== {{tropelist|''The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue'' has examples of the following tropes: ===}}

* [[Action Girl]]: Jenny, who is arguably more responsible in stopping {{spoiler|Evil!Martin}} 's plans than Timmy. She does get a few odd [[Distressed Damsel in Distress]] moments however.

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Pretty much every adult in Thorn Valley appears to have [[Took a Level Inin Jerkass]] inbetween the end of the first movie and the beginning of this one; for starters, they keep telling Timmy not to be so selfish, when they're the ones piling on the pressure and constantly comparing him to his father. Then, when somebody comes to them for help, [[What the Hell, Hero?|they say no for no real reason and keep her prisoner]].

{{quote| '''Timmy:''' I should have listened!}}

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Timmy's ability to use a slingshot.

* [[Large Ham]]:

* [[Off-Model]]: Most of the film has standard but relatively consistent animation throughout most of the movie, but then the animation gets kind of sloppy when it comes to {{spoiler|Evil!Martin}}, with his facial structure (especially his nose, going from mouse-shaped to a more elongated rat-like shape in some expressions) changing a lot during his scenes.

** Although the film makes the poor decision to include some footage from the first film as an introduction; the reason this is a poor decision is both because the sequel has very little to do with the original, [[In Name Only|save the names of the characters]], but mainly because the first film was animated by [[Don Bluth]]'s studios. The sequel was not.

* [[Save the Villain]]: Well, the villain {{spoiler|''is'' Timmy's brother, Martin}}, so he had a good excuse to save him.