Review of The Secret of NIMH (1982) by Kyle20Ellis — 29 Mar 2022

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 inredibly haunting.

The music by the wonderful late Jerry Goldsmith is phenomenal, very reminiscent of his score for the Eurpean 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.

I advice you to avoid the sequel though, it's awful.