The Secret of NIMH (1982) Review

I have only seen The Secret of NIMH once before, and I was about five years old at the time, so I didn't remember very much of it.  All I could remember was how scared of this movie I was.  The Great Owl and Nicodemus were horrifying and the storyline was much more dark than your typical kids, animated movie.  I think it was the combination of this movie and The Land Before Time that warped me and probably many others.  But, how does it hold up all these years later?

Mrs. Brisby (Elizabeth Hartman) is a field mouse who lives with her four children and her husband in a cinder block in a farmer's field.  She runs into a string of terrible luck, after her husband is mysteriously killed and her son, Timothy (Ian Fried) falls seriously ill.  With the harvest about to start, Mrs. Brisby needs to move her family out of the field to avoid being killed by the farmer's tractor, but can't risk moving Timothy outside in the chilly weather, as it could kill him.  She and her neighbor, Auntie Shrew (Hermione Badly) manage to temporally disable the tractor, buying her some time to go seek advice from The Great Owl (John Carradine) who sends her to seek aid from the strange rats than live in the rosebush.  Along the way, she discovers her husband was not who he said he was, and he was somehow involved with something sinister called NIMH.

What Works:

This is a kids movie.  I want to remind everyone of that.  It's rated G.  It would not be if it was made today, I'll tell you that much.  This movie is dark.  The story is pretty terrifying as it involves animal cruelty at the hands of NIMH, who was doing genetic experiments on animals.  They don't show much, but we see enough that it's pretty horrifying.  But it's not just the backstory, the story itself features a lot of death.  Main characters die.  The life of a child is on the line.  The Secret of NIMH does not sugar coat what is happening, and I really respect that.

The animation is also excellent.  You can't go wrong when Don Bluth is in charge.  In particular, I love the animations of the swampy landscapes, and the character designs of The Great Owl and Nicodemus (Derek Jacobi), the magical leader of the rats.  Both of their designs are terrifying, even though they are both good guys.  They had a profound effect on me when I was 5, and they continue to do so.

Finally, I just need to call attention to the voice acting.  Everyone does a superb job and the voices really made the characters pop.

What Sucks:

I do think that Dom DeLuise's character, Jeremy the Crow, is a bit much.  He's over-the-top and obnoxious in his comic relief.  Now, comic relief is absolutely necessary in this movie, otherwise it would be overwhelmingly dark, but at times, it's a bit much.

I also don't like the subplot of the magic amulet.  It really doesn't make sense, as the rest of what rats do is through science and ingenuity.  The amulet feels out of place and it makes the final resolution feel too easy.  I wish they could have solved the final problem using their knowledge, rather than this random piece of magic.

Finally, I think the movie is too short.  I wish we could have gotten a little bit more backstory on NIMH and what exactly they are up to.  Just a little bit more to fill in the blanks would have been nice.

Verdict:

The Secret of NIMH is one of the darkest kids movies I have ever seen and it's story and characters certainly leave an impression.  It should have been longer, and cut down Jeremy's screen-time and dropped the amulet storyline, but I really appreciate this movie on an artistic level and for having the balls to tell the story and not pull the punches.  It's a rare quality in movies nowadays, and it's something The Secret of NIMH should be commended for.

 7/10: Good