Psycho's Movie Reviews #101: The Secret Of N.I.M.H (1982)

The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on the 1971 children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. The film features the voices of Elizabeth Hartman, Peter Strauss, Arthur Malet, Dom DeLuise, John Carradine, Derek Jacobi, Hermione Baddeley, and Paul Shenar.

The film was released in the United States on July 16, 1982, by MGM/UA Entertainment Co. It was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel, The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, which was made without Bluth's involvement or input. In 2015, a live-action/computer-animated remake was reported to be in the works.

Plot:

Mrs. Brisby, a widowed field mouse, lives in a cinder block with her children in a field on the Fitzgibbons' farm. She needs to move her family out of the field as ploughing time approaches, but her son Timothy has fallen ill. She visits Mr. Ages, a friend of her late husband, Jonathan. Ages diagnoses the illness as pneumonia, provides Brisby with medicine, and warns her that Timothy must stay inside for at least three weeks or he will die. On her way home, Brisby befriends Jeremy, a clumsy but friendly crow. They both narrowly escape from the Fitzgibbons' cat, Dragon.

The next morning, Brisby discovers that Farmer Fitzgibbons has started ploughing early. Although her neighbour Auntie Shrew helps her disable his tractor, Brisby knows she must devise another plan. Jeremy takes her to meet the Great Owl, who tells her to visit a colony of rats that live beneath a rose bush on the farm and ask for the services of Nicodemus, their wise and mystical leader.

Brisby enters the rose bush and encounters an aggressive guard rat named Brutus, who chases her away. She is led back in by Ages, and is amazed to see the rats' use of electricity and other technology. She meets Justin, the friendly captain of the guard; Jenner, a ruthless and power-hungry rat opposed to Nicodemus; and finally Nicodemus himself. From Nicodemus, she learns that many years ago the rats, along with her husband and Ages, were part of a series of experiments at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH for short). The experiments boosted their intelligence, enabling them to escape, as well as extending their lifespans and slowing their aging processes. However, they are unable to live as typical rats would, and need human technology to survive, which they have accomplished only by stealing. Nicodemus has authorized a plan for the rats to leave the farm and live independently in an area they refer to as Thorn Valley.

Nicodemus gives Brisby a magical amulet that will activate when the wearer is courageous. Because of the rats' relationship with Jonathan, they agree to help her move her home. First, they need to drug Dragon so that it can be done safely. Only Brisby can do this, as the rats cannot fit through the hole leading into the house; Jonathan was killed by Dragon in a previous attempt, while Ages broke his leg in another. That night, she puts the drug into Dragon's dish, but the Fitzgibbons' son, Billy, catches her. While trapped in a birdcage, she overhears a telephone conversation between Farmer Fitzgibbons and the staff of NIMH and learns that the institute intends to exterminate the rats in the morning. Brisby then escapes from the cage and runs off to warn them.

As a rainstorm approaches, the rats begin moving the Brisby home, with the children and Auntie Shrew inside, using a rope and pulley system. Jenner, who wishes for the rats to remain in the rose bush, sabotages the assembly with his reluctant accomplice Sullivan, causing it to fall apart and crush Nicodemus to death. Brisby soon arrives to warn the rats about NIMH's arrival, but Jenner attacks her and attempts to steal the amulet. Sullivan alerts Justin, who comes to Brisby's aid. Jenner mortally wounds Sullivan but is injured by Justin in a sword fight. As Jenner attempts to attack Justin from behind, the dying Sullivan throws a dagger into his back, killing him.

The Brisby home begins to sink into a mud puddle and Brisby and the rats are unable to raise it. Brisby's will to save her family gives power to the amulet, which she uses to lift the house and move it to safety. The next morning, the rats, with Justin as their new leader, have departed for Thorn Valley as Timothy begins to recover. Jeremy soon meets Miss Right, another crow who is just as clumsy as he is, and they fall in love.

Production

Background:

The film rights to the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH had reportedly been offered to Walt Disney Productions in 1972, but they were turned down.

The Secret of NIMH was the first feature film to be directed by Don Bluth. On September 13, 1979, Bluth, fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy and eight other animation staff left the feature animation department at Disney to set up their own independent studio, Don Bluth Productions. The studio worked, at first, out of Bluth's house and garage, but moved to a two-story, 5,500-square-foot (510 m2) facility in Studio City, California, several months later. While they were still working at Disney, they produced the 27-minute short film Banjo the Woodpile Cat as a side project to gain other production skills that the company and their animation program were not addressing. Bluth asked Ron W. Miller, Walt Disney's son-in-law and the president and CEO of the company at the time, to view Banjo, but Miller declined. As Goldman recalled, "that pulled the enthusiasm rug out from under us. We had hoped that the studio might like what we were doing and agree to buy the film and allow us to finish the short film in the studio, which would allow us to recoup what we had spent in terms of money and the many hours that we and the other members of the team had invested in the film."

Before they started making Banjo, artist and story writer Ken Anderson had been getting into Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which he called "a wonderful story". He gave the book to Bluth for him to read and make a film out of after Bluth finished the animation direction of Pete's Dragon. Bluth later showed NIMH to Disney animation director Wolfgang Reitherman, who turned down Bluth's offers to make a movie based on the book, stating, "We've already got a mouse [named Mickey Mouse] and we've done a mouse movie [called The Rescuers]." However, Bluth also presented the novel to the other staff that would work for Don Bluth Productions later on and they all loved it. Two months later, former Disney executive James L. Stewart, who now had started Aurora Productions, called Goldman and told him about Anderson's idea of making a film based on NIMH. At Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy's request, Aurora Productions acquired the film rights and offered Don Bluth Productions a budget of US$ 5.7 million and 30 months to complete the film, tighter in both budget and schedule than most Disney animated features at the time.

Writing:

One of the earliest drafts of the film was written by Steven Barnes, who received a creative consultant credit in the final product and was closer to the original novel. The story would have focused more on the rats and their time at NIMH as it did in the book, which was reduced to a short flashback in later revisions to bring Mrs. Brisby and her plight into the forefront. It also included a female rat named Isabella (described as "a young, cute, somewhat motor-mouthed rat with a crush on Justin"), who was ultimately left out and much of her dialogue given to Nicodemus. A revised synopsis dated July 2, 1980 by an unattributed author would take the movie closer to its completed form, which ended with the mysterious disappearance of the rats, leading the characters and audience to wonder if they ever really existed, or were just an elaborate illusion.

Bluth himself would later make several changes to the story, most notably with the addition of mystical elements not present in the original novel. He explained "Regarding magic, we really believe that animation calls for some magic, to give it a special 'fantastic' quality." This was most apparent in the magic amulet given to Mrs. Brisby, which was meant to be a visual representation of her character's internal power; something harder to show on film. The object was also meant to introduce a spiritual aspect to the plot, with the director remarking, "The stone or amulet is just a method of letting the audience know that Mrs. Brisby has found 'Courage of the Heart'. Magic? Maybe. Spiritual? Yes." In the same vein, Nicodemus was made into a wizard to "create more mystery" about himself and the rats' colony. The antagonist Jenner was given much more prominence in the movie, being only mentioned as a traitor who leaves in the book, to "add drama" to the narrative by giving it a more visible enemy. Justin also now succeeds Nicodemus as the leader of the rats to give his character more of an arc and allow him an opportunity to "grow and change." Unlike the original work, Justin does not rescue Mrs. Brisby from the cage at the Fitzgibbons' house and she now helps her children without the rats' assistance by using the amulet; once again giving focus to her personal story. As Bluth put it, "The Secret of NIMH is really a story about Mrs. Brisby and her need to save her children. If the rats save her children, then she hasn't grown in the film."

During the film's production, Aurora contacted Wham-O, the manufacturers of Frisbee flying discs, with concerns about possible trademark infringements if the "Mrs. Frisby" name in O'Brien's original book was used in the movie. Wham-O rejected Aurora's request for waiver to use the same-sounding name to their "Frisbee", in the movie. Aurora informed Bluth & company that Mrs. Frisby's name would have to be altered. By then, the voice work had already been recorded for the film, so the name change to "Mrs. Brisby" necessitated a combination of re-recording some lines and, because John Carradine was unavailable for further recordings, careful sound editing had to be performed, taking the "B" sound of another word from Carradine's recorded lines, and replace the "F" sound with the "B" sound, altering the name from "Frisby" to "Brisby".

Casting:

Goldman described the casting process as "exciting, fun, and sometimes strange". He stated that focusing on the characteristics of each character, the voices and acting abilities were crucial, saying that using voices that added to a movie's texture was part of the team's philosophy in the development of a film. Goldman found the strangest casting decision to be Dom DeLuise for Jeremy the Crow, which Goldman, Bluth, and Pomeroy had considered after they watched the 1978 film The End. Elizabeth Hartman was cast as Mrs. Brisby, with Goldman calling her performance in A Patch of Blue "so believable and sincere that we all felt that she was right for the part." Pomeroy suggested Derek Jacobi, who starred in the 1976 miniseries I, Claudius, to play the part of Nicodemus. Peter Strauss, whom the team previously saw in another miniseries from 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man, was cast as Justin. Paul Shenar was assigned to play Jenner since the staff liked his "dark, powerful voice". Shakespearean actor John Carradine was "perfect for the dark, ominous Great Owl", while Aldo Ray was assigned to voice Jenner's reluctant accomplice, Sullivan, whom Goldman said "also had a great distinctive voice".

Animation:

The production of The Secret of NIMH lasted from January 1980 to early June 1982. The studio set out with the explicit goal in mind of returning feature animation to its "golden era", concentrating on strong characters and story and experimenting with unusual and often more labour-intensive animation techniques. Bluth believed older techniques were being abandoned in favour of lower production costs and the only way that animation could survive was to continue traditional production methods. Among the techniques experimented with on The Secret of NIMH were rotoscoping, multiple passes on the camera to achieve transparent shadows, backlit animation (where animated mattes are shot with light shining through colour gels to produce glowing areas for artificial light and fire effects) and multiple colour palettes for characters to fit in different lighting situations, from daylight, to night, to warm environments, to underwater. Mrs. Brisby had 46 different lighting situations; therefore there were 46 different colour palettes, or lists of colour, for her. Two modern, computerized versions of the multiplane camera were also manufactured for this production.

To achieve the film's detailed full animation while keeping to the tight budget, the studio strove to keep any waste of time and resources to a minimum. The crew often worked long hours with no immediate financial reward (though they were offered a cut of the film's profits, a practice common for producers, directors and stars of live action films, but never before offered to artists on an animated feature); producer Gary Goldman recalled working 110-hour weeks during the final six months of production. Around 100 in-house staff worked on the film, with the labour-intensive cel painting farmed out to 45 people working from home. Many minor roles, including incidental and crowd voice work, were filled in by the in-house staff. The final cost of the film was $6.385 million. The producers, Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy and the executive producers at Aurora mortgaged their homes collectively for $700,000 to complete the film, with the understanding that their investment would be the first to be repaid. The film was the sixth animated feature to be presented in the Dolby Stereo sound system.

In animating Justin and Jenner's sword fight, the animators referenced similar sequences in films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Vikings (1958).

Music:

The Secret of NIMH: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack contains songs from the film written by Jerry Goldsmith and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra. One song, "Flying Dreams" was vocally performed by Paul Williams and Sally Stevens. It was Goldsmith's first composition for an animated feature, which he admitted was such a departure from his normal work that in the end he approached the project like a live action score, employing the same kind of extended themes and structural development. What made the scoring process hard for Goldsmith was that he had to score scenes that were unfinished: "I was on the phone constantly with them. My dupe copy of the film was in black and white, and they'd bring their colour copy over so I could see it. They were constantly adding footage, and it was constantly, 'What's going on here?' and 'What's happening here?"

David Horten spent a year on the sound design for the film, which was supervised by Goldman. Goldman found the sound work by Horten his second favourite part of the production process, recalling that some of his "most beautiful efforts" had to make way for the recordings of Goldsmith's music: "I remember hearing David's orchestration of ambient sounds and specific sound effects for the 8-minute tractor sequence without Jerry's music cue. It was amazing. But then, so was Jerry's 8-minute music cue, it remains extremely powerful. We were able to combine a lot of David's sounds, treating them like part of the orchestra. It came out great, but I couldn't help but feel empathy for David."

The album was released on July 2, 1982, on vinyl and a re-released reissue on March 3, 1995, on CD with a rearranged track listing. Intrada Records issued a remastered limited edition album on CD on August 17, 2015, with one previously unreleased cue ("At Your Service," running 3:39) and three demos of "Flying Dreams" (as performed by Sally Stevens, Paul Williams and as a piano duet) totalling 10:09. Varese Sarabande did release the soundtrack on CD prior to the 1995 re-released reissue in 1986 with the artwork as the same as the LP jacket, but with a black background and a different track arrangement. The track listings below is of the re-released reissue of the CD.

Release/Reception/Box Office:

Tim Hildebrandt spent two weeks painting The Secret of NIMH's promotional poster.

The film's distributor, MGM/UA Entertainment Company, barely did any promotion for the film, leading Aurora to finance the advertising campaign themselves. The financiers had expected the film to open in wide release in 1,000 venues, but MGM opted for a limited opening weekend in 100 theatres, with its widest release in only 700. Although in competition with the blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial directed by future Bluth partner Steven Spielberg, it performed better in those theatres alone in its opening week than Poltergeist, Rocky III, Firefox, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, as a result of its release and competition with other summer fare, NIMH became only a moderate success, grossing nearly $14.7 million in North America, though it was more successful on home video, cable, and foreign releases, ultimately turning a profit.

The Secret of NIMH received critical acclaim upon its release. It holds an approval rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The consensus states, "The Secret of NIMH seeks to resurrect the classical style of American animation and succeeds, telling a mature story with rapturous presentation." The film also has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favourable reviews".

Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the movie two positive "yes" votes on a July 15, 1982, episode of their television program Sneak Previews, with Ebert stating "Walt Disney would've liked The Secret of NIMH." In his print review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "an artistic success", praising the quality of its animation and that it "contains that absolute rarity among feature-length animated cartoons, an interesting premise". However, Ebert found that NIMH may not resonate as well on an emotional level with younger viewers, since "it has so many characters and involves them in so many different problems that there's nobody for the kids in the audience to strongly identify with." Siskel, writing for the Chicago Tribune, found the movie "charming", but stated that the narrative was "littered with too many unimportant characters" and that Dom DeLuise "inserted too much of himself" into the character of Jeremy. Despite this, Siskel found the film, particularly the second half, to be a "genuine pleasure" and felt that even adults will be drawn into the story by the end, giving it three stars out of four.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted the film's animation was "something of a technical and stylistic triumph" in comparison to that of Disney's golden age, but expressed dismay at the narrative, finding it too complicated and lacking in an "easily identifiable central character." In his review for the 1990 VHS re-release, Jeff Unger of Entertainment Weekly gave The Secret of NIMH a grade of "A", calling it "a wonderful adaptation" of the original book, adding that "Bluth and his animators, bless them, chose to revive an endangered art form – classically detailed animation. They drew their characters exquisitely and gave them individual personalities. The entire ensemble – artists, actors, animals, and musicians – created something unique: the world's first enjoyable rat race." Similarly, Richard Corliss of Time magazine called the movie "something gorgeous to look at".

Budget $7 million

Box office $14.7 million

My Review:

The Secret of NIMH is not a mainstream animated movie in the stream of Disney (most of the animators on the film, including director Don Bluth, were former Disney alumni), despite there being elements that should appeal to a child's imagination. I remember seeing this film as a child and being intrigued, which was rare with kids films for me, but also experiencing many of the emotions that are with the best Grimm fairy tales- there are the heroes, but there is a dark side, a side that has to be looked at as a reflection of how the world is, without making it too bold for a kid to understand. This film does that, with some unexpected elements thrown in. And this works as well that it can appeal to the adult animation fans, as its not too childish (there are some comedy bits thrown in for good measure and balance), and like Cooper and Sabbath in comparison, makes for some intensity for any age.

The concept involves a struggle any child can understand- the tales of mice vs men, or rather the dominance of men over the mice and rats. Mrs. Brisby is a widow, who's husband was a hero among the mice and rats who were in cages getting horrifying scientific experiments (as revealed later in the film). But she also has a problem- her little mouse house is in the way of a tractor about to plough it down, with her son Timothy in a near-death state of Pneumonia. She seeks help, and it takes her all the way to the home of the rats, and an old, wise, near-creepy rat named Nicodemus. Along the way there's the wise-cracking comic relief in the form of Jeremy the Crow (voiced very well by Dom DeLouise, the first of several key voice-overs in the 80's), and a crotchety old mouse, Mr. Agis. There are also Timothy's siblings, who help balance out the lot for kids to have some characters to identify with among the more abstract characters of the farmer or the supporting, antagonistic rats.

The most important thing involved with the basic, and not so basic (special effects) animation of the film, is with mood and atmosphere. As Bluth would later prove well with American Tail and even a lessor work like All Dogs Go to Heaven, there's a certain presence that has to be given in this fantasy world. There is beauty in spots, but it is at the core a kind of thriller through most of it, with more of a psychological edge. Take Nicodemus' story about the rats of NIMH- this is a brilliant montage that combines his (voice of Derek Jacobi) narration, various shots of the mice transforming into rats, and the effects given with the music, the strange insert shots, and the escape. This is done to effect in other parts, and if you're an adult watching this it is effective enough, but for a child it's on the equivalent of watching Un Chien Andalou for the first time- you sort of know what's going on, but its more emotional than really intellectual. The only weakness I could find with the film is that it may not be suitable for very young kids (nightmares maybe).

I will confess I saw this for the first time today on YouTube, and I loved it. I always said that Anastasia and American Tail were the best of Bluth's movies, but I now think that this beats them both. The story is very dark and mysterious but magical all the same. The animation is just stunning, with beautiful backgrounds and excellent character animation. Brutus is a little frightening though, or his animation is, so is the scene with the great owl, which is incredibly haunting. The music by the wonderful late Jerry Goldsmith is phenomenal, very reminiscent of his score for the European version for Legend (the Ridley Scott film). The song I think it's called Flying Dreams is heart-rending, and just shows the talent the man had, and I am grateful that there weren't too many songs to interrupt the flow. The characters are very well done, the brave yet timid Mrs Brisby, the dashing Justin, the villainous Jenner, the wise Nicodemus and the wise-cracking Jeremy. Nicodemus and Jeremy are very impressive, voiced wonderfully by Derek Jacobi and Dom Deluise, and Jenner while not as sinister and frightening a villain as Hexxus, Chernabog or the Horned King, he is still very convincing. Oh, and the scenes with Mrs Brisby's children and Auntie Shrew brought some fun into a dark story, and didn't interfere too much, and Elizabeth Hartmann gives a sorrowful and poignant portrayal as Mrs Brisby. I haven't read the book in its entirety, but I do remember my year 6 primary school teacher reading the chapter when Mrs Brisby (or Frisby in the book) meets Brutus for the first time. All in all, a beautiful film, and I am sorry it has taken me so long to see it; 10/10.

I advise you to avoid the sequel though, it's not as good as the original.