The Secret of NIMH (1982) – Film Review

Director: Don Bluth
Cast: Elizabeth Hartman, Derek Jacobi, John Carradine
Certificate: PG

By Roger Crow

In 1979, animator Don Bluth left Walt Disney Productions and established his own animation studio with several former Disney employees. Don Bluth Productions’ first feature, The Secret of NIMH, adapted from Robert C. O’Brien’s kids’ book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, was something of a rarity in 1982. It looked like a Disney animated movie, but wasn’t.

It centres on the widowed Mrs. Brisby (voiced by Elizabeth Hartman), a field mouse who lives with her kids on the rural Fitzgibbon farm. With harvest season approaching, she must relocate her family before their home is destroyed by the farmer’s plough. But her son, Timothy (voiced by Ian Fried), has fallen ill and can’t be moved.

In need of help, Mrs. Brisby visits the Great Owl (voiced by John Carradine), who introduces her to Nicodemus (voiced by Derek Jacobi): the wise leader of a rat colony living beneath a rose bush on the Fitzgibbon property.

Like many great animated adventures, it’s a quest movie, and though the script could have done with more polish, there’s no faulting the calibre of the animation. A fascinating yack track with Bluth and key creatives reveals how many of the scenes were put together.

“Treat”

That Jerry Goldsmith score is a treat for the ears, and though there’s a grainy feel to some of the shots, this spruced-up version still looks great.

Little kids should love it, and as a slice of eighties whimsy it’s perfectly fine. Okay, it may lack the wit of many classic Pixar movies of recent years, but it’s a good, solid slice of entertainment which should keep ankle-biters happy for the duration.