Review of The Secret of NIMH (1982) by Laur U — 27 Dec 2009

"The Secret of NIMH" is a good film with a somewhat heavy plot. I truly wouldn't expect young children to understand everything that's going on within the film. It's not that it's to complicated, it's just that there is so much going on and one event just turns into another really quick, because of this it may be one of those animated films that an older kid may get more of a thrill out of than a young child. It starts out simple with a mouse named Mrs. Brisby trying to save her ill son, that then leads to Mrs. Brisby to learn more about her deceased husband and all about the Rats of NIMH.

I thought that the finely detailed animation used in this film worked wonderfully with the type of story that was being told. There is a lot of darkness to be found in this film, from the owls, to the rats, and even the cats, this is probably one of the darkest films done by director Don Bluth, but as I said before it worked out well with the story and all. There is some very good voice-over work for some very interesting characters in this film as well.

Something different in this film is that it has quite a lot of drama in it for an animated film, but that doesn't hurt it any, it's just unique. It's very original in its own way and is a very well made classic by Don Bluth. That is part of the reason why I liked it as much as I did, it was something different and it doesn't try to be like every other animated film out there. Overall, it may be a little to extreme for young children, but it is a very well put together film by Don Bluth and I would probably go as far as to say that it may be one of the best animated films of its time and it will just continue to be praised over time. I must also say that I went in not expecting anything special, so I was surprised at how much I got into this movie once it got going. I knew that Don Bluth was a good director and all but I was unaware that this was as good a film by him as it was said to be, but it was.