Sometimes a first stab at something turns out to be the best. Many would argue that that is the case with the career of animation specialist Don Bluth. Mr. Bluth has made a number of deservedly memorable animation classics - including a childhood favorite of mine, "The Land Before Time" - but I think it is fair to say that his first movie, after breaking away from the Disney company in 1979, "The Secret of N.I.M.H." is still his very best effort. It is a stunningly beautiful, exciting, and underrated minor classic in the animation department, also featuring something quite rare in many movies, animated or not, today: memorable characters.
The star of "The Secret of N.I.M.H." is one of the all-time great animated heroines. A somewhat naive, but steadfastly courageous field mouse named Mrs. Brisby. With her husband recently killed by a farmer's voracious cat, she is left to care for four children by herself. One of them is sick in bed with pneumonia, and cannot be moved from their house (a cement block) under any circumstances, even if the owner of the field in which they reside is about to run it over with his plow. Desperate to save her family, Mrs. Brisby seeks the help of a colony of rats, who have human-level intellect. As Mrs. Brisby learns, the rats have garnered their intelligence and technology because they had recently escaped from human laboratories, where they were the subject of many experiments. And they have more in common with Mrs. Brisby than any of them would have imagined....
What, exactly? I'll let you see the movie to find out.
"The Secret of N.I.M.H." boasts some of the most beautifully stunning images in animated movie history. Starting with the backgrounds, which are enormously detailed and oftentimes in motion. Early in the film, we see the inside of an old mouse's home, which is the most detailed and eye-pleasing interior shot since Geppetto's workshop. There is also tremendous use of optical effects, such as back-lighting trick shots used to give the eyes of an old owl, who plays an important part in the rising action of the story, an eerie and spell-binding presence. Furthermore - and something that I wish contemporary animators would take into account - the animal characters, though capable of speech and moral values, still retain many of their nature qualities. For instance, when Mrs. Brisby is on the run from tractor plows, or deranged cats, or what-not, she does not take off on her hind legs, but scurries on all fours, in movements that are devilishly close to life.
Mrs. Brisby, with her simple but identifiable motives, is one of the cinema's best heroines. Her voice is wonderfully provided by the late, gifted Elizabeth Hartman. Also memorable is Dom DeLuise as Jeremy, a clumsy but all-too-lovable crow. Granted, this character really serves no purpose other than to be comic relief and be the butt of several jokes, but Mr. DeLuise provides so much charm that you cannot help but love him. John Carradine, one of the all-time best actors, provides a powerful, booming voice to the owl. There are other characters I would like to mention, but will not in favor of saving pleasure for the audience, but there is one more, voiced by Paul Shenar, who is one of the most cold-blooded and fascinating villains this critic has ever seen. The story is also satiable in its complexity, with themes of loyalty, murder, freedom, and messages against stealing instilled. It's just fine for adults, whom I would recommend watch with their children for some of the more intense scenes.
But most wonderful of all is the sense of majesty that swells "The Secret of N.I.M.H." To fully explain it would be to give away the third act, but here is where the unusually dark story, the fascinating characters, and the eye-candy animation and trick shots all come together. It starts early on with hints of something magical, and continues to grow and grow, right up to a climactic scene that, like any viscerally great scene, causes the hairs on my arms to rise. It's not so much an action climax as it is a dramatic and moral one, but it brings all its mystic elements, and the fact that we actually care about the fates of these characters, to the maximum power. Additionally, the music by Jerry Goldsmith, intoxicating throughout, is especially strong in the aforementioned scene.
Now as much as I would like to ignore them, there are some flaws with the picture. An early scene with Mrs. Brisby and Jeremy the crow encountering a voracious cat is well-animated and almost perfect, if only the cat would meow or hiss rather than snarl and roar like something you'd expect to find under a bridge in a princess tale. Additionally, an accomplice to the film's villain has an interesting arc to his subplot, but it's not exploited or developed to the point where it really should.
However, the few flaws are instantly forgivable in this near-masterpiece of a motion picture. "The Secret of N.I.M.H." is one of those movies that I never lose interest in. It's a movie that gets better the more I see it, and, more importantly, the more I think about it. And every time I finish seeing it, I am overwhelmed by its sense of awe, and also, thankfulness to the filmmakers who took the extra initiative to give us visuals we don't see every day, characters we don't get very often, and a level of aesthetic pleasure that is truly a delight to experience.
The star of "The Secret of N.I.M.H." is one of the all-time great animated heroines. A somewhat naive, but steadfastly courageous field mouse named Mrs. Brisby. With her husband recently killed by a farmer's voracious cat, she is left to care for four children by herself. One of them is sick in bed with pneumonia, and cannot be moved from their house (a cement block) under any circumstances, even if the owner of the field in which they reside is about to run it over with his plow. Desperate to save her family, Mrs. Brisby seeks the help of a colony of rats, who have human-level intellect. As Mrs. Brisby learns, the rats have garnered their intelligence and technology because they had recently escaped from human laboratories, where they were the subject of many experiments. And they have more in common with Mrs. Brisby than any of them would have imagined....
What, exactly? I'll let you see the movie to find out.
"The Secret of N.I.M.H." boasts some of the most beautifully stunning images in animated movie history. Starting with the backgrounds, which are enormously detailed and oftentimes in motion. Early in the film, we see the inside of an old mouse's home, which is the most detailed and eye-pleasing interior shot since Geppetto's workshop. There is also tremendous use of optical effects, such as back-lighting trick shots used to give the eyes of an old owl, who plays an important part in the rising action of the story, an eerie and spell-binding presence. Furthermore - and something that I wish contemporary animators would take into account - the animal characters, though capable of speech and moral values, still retain many of their nature qualities. For instance, when Mrs. Brisby is on the run from tractor plows, or deranged cats, or what-not, she does not take off on her hind legs, but scurries on all fours, in movements that are devilishly close to life.
Mrs. Brisby, with her simple but identifiable motives, is one of the cinema's best heroines. Her voice is wonderfully provided by the late, gifted Elizabeth Hartman. Also memorable is Dom DeLuise as Jeremy, a clumsy but all-too-lovable crow. Granted, this character really serves no purpose other than to be comic relief and be the butt of several jokes, but Mr. DeLuise provides so much charm that you cannot help but love him. John Carradine, one of the all-time best actors, provides a powerful, booming voice to the owl. There are other characters I would like to mention, but will not in favor of saving pleasure for the audience, but there is one more, voiced by Paul Shenar, who is one of the most cold-blooded and fascinating villains this critic has ever seen. The story is also satiable in its complexity, with themes of loyalty, murder, freedom, and messages against stealing instilled. It's just fine for adults, whom I would recommend watch with their children for some of the more intense scenes.
But most wonderful of all is the sense of majesty that swells "The Secret of N.I.M.H." To fully explain it would be to give away the third act, but here is where the unusually dark story, the fascinating characters, and the eye-candy animation and trick shots all come together. It starts early on with hints of something magical, and continues to grow and grow, right up to a climactic scene that, like any viscerally great scene, causes the hairs on my arms to rise. It's not so much an action climax as it is a dramatic and moral one, but it brings all its mystic elements, and the fact that we actually care about the fates of these characters, to the maximum power. Additionally, the music by Jerry Goldsmith, intoxicating throughout, is especially strong in the aforementioned scene.
Now as much as I would like to ignore them, there are some flaws with the picture. An early scene with Mrs. Brisby and Jeremy the crow encountering a voracious cat is well-animated and almost perfect, if only the cat would meow or hiss rather than snarl and roar like something you'd expect to find under a bridge in a princess tale. Additionally, an accomplice to the film's villain has an interesting arc to his subplot, but it's not exploited or developed to the point where it really should.
However, the few flaws are instantly forgivable in this near-masterpiece of a motion picture. "The Secret of N.I.M.H." is one of those movies that I never lose interest in. It's a movie that gets better the more I see it, and, more importantly, the more I think about it. And every time I finish seeing it, I am overwhelmed by its sense of awe, and also, thankfulness to the filmmakers who took the extra initiative to give us visuals we don't see every day, characters we don't get very often, and a level of aesthetic pleasure that is truly a delight to experience.