THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982) | FIRST TIME WATCHING | MOVIE REACTION

"It's rated 'G' it can't be that bad." A generation's maniacal laughter suddenly can be heard.

I love when they make the good guys occasionally creepy or ugly in movies. It teaches kids that being ugly or old or just different isn’t the same as being bad. Too often, pretty = good can be really untrue.

Don Bluth had the right idea of children's stories: they need the darkness and the hard edges, else the lessons are without weight. Pretty much every Bluth project is a home run. Troll in Central Park, Thumbelina, Swan Princess, Rock a Doodle. They'll scare kids, but in the best way.

"Obscure" and "Secret of NIMH" are not words that belong in a sentence together. This is widely lauded as an animated classic. NO ONE made 80s kids cry like Don Bluth. Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go To Heaven. AMAZING movies, but often heartbreaking. The Secret of NIMH is loosely based on the 1971 novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. Although the basic plot outline is the same, the original book was considerably more grounded (as grounded as a book with chemically modified super-intelligent talking rats can be) and lacked the mystical elements of the film. Two sequels were written by O'Brien's daughter after his death, though they're not as well-known. The movie also received a sequel of its own, one of MANY straight-to-video sequels to Don Bluth's films, all of considerably poorer quality than the original films (Land Before Time had THIRTEEN such sequels). The cast is fantastic. Dom DeLuise voiced Jeremy the Crow, Derek Jacobi as Nicodemus, Wil Wheaton (yes, from Star Trek) as Martin Brisby, Shannen Doherty as Teresa Brisby, Edie McClurg as "Mrs. Right," and John Carradine played the Great Owl. Mrs. Brisby was voiced by stage and screen actress Elizabeth Hartman in her final role, as she retired after completing this film. Sadly, five years later she committed suicide at the age of 43. The Frisby family name was changed for the movie to Brisby out of fears of lawsuits from the Frisbee company. While Mrs. Brisby's actual first name was never spoken in the film, (or book, for that matter) Don Bluth himself has suggested it's Elizabeth, in honor of her late voice actress. Dragon's design is exaggerated because we're seeing him from the perspective of a mouse, so of COURSE he looks horrifying and monstrous. Don Bluth didn't just know how to make kids cry, he knew how to scare the hell out of us. Disney entertained. Bluth gave us heartbreak and trauma. Jenner's role in the film is another deviation from the book. In the novel, Jenner is only mentioned in passing, as he and a number of other rats had already left the Rose Bush on their own sometime before the story begins. It's implied that he was killed along with the rest of his group, though the sequel book reveals he actually survived to start a colony of his own. Jenner is voiced by Paul Shenar, who appeared in the original 1987 version of Man on Fire and Scarface. He died of AIDS in 1989. It's funny how one of the best sword fights to come out of 80s cinema was two cartoon rats. Don Bluth actually came up with Disney, and was the animation director for The Rescuers. Creative differences that came up while work on The Fox and the Hound led Bluth to resign and start his own company. He did one short film and also did some animation work on Xanadu, before breaking out BIG TIME with Secret of NIMH, becoming Disney's biggest competitor. Titan A.E., which you mentioned in your intro, was another of Bluth's films. He also produced the animated arcade games Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair 2, and Space Ace, which were basically the forerunners of the Quick Time Events of modern gaming.

Walt Disney: “I’m going to traumatize kids by killing Bambi’s mom.” Don Bluth: “Hold my beer.”

Should we let her know about "Watership Down"?!

"The Last Unicorn" would be a great follow-up to this.

I don’t think this or Land Before Time, or American Tail are bad to show a child. It’s not as simple as “too messed up to show kids”, I think as we grew up we realized that these movies show scary things like death and losing our family. It’s that they showed them in such a way that’s associated with children’s entertainment, ie. cartoons. These weren’t afraid to show that yes, bad things happen, but that there is good as well. Bad times have to happen to make the good times mean something. Kids are resilient, and I think if you sat down and explained the movies with them it can be an incredibly important lesson.

Cassie is like “oh it’s G rated. That’s good”. My mind. “Uhhh… that’s 80s G . That could be PG today “

This movie was based on the book "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert OBrien. NIHM is National Institute of Mental Health, who did perform behavioral experiments on mice most notably the Utopia experiments in the 1960s. The findings of these experiments were released to the public and served as the inspiration for Mr OBrien's book. He wanted a happier ending for the mice and rats from the experiments.

“Come inside, or go away” I say that every time a friend keeps knocking on my door after I tell them to come inside 😂

Don Bluth has a very amusing philosophy for his movies "Kids can handle just about anything as long as you stick a happy ending on it" which explains why so many of his movies have a lot of dark themes and imagery

Nice. Finally getting into the world of Don Bluth, the first filmmaker to truly challenge Disney in the world of American feature animation. And this is by far his best work. An animated film that actually treated the audience with respect and challenged them. Fantastic story, great characters, strong themes and morals that are still resonant today, a beautiful musical score by the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, and some of the best animation ever put on film! This, An American Tail and The Land Before Time scared Disney animation so much that it forced them to start upping their game again, leading to their animation renaissance in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Secret of Nihm was directed by Don Bluth: 1. Land before time 2. All dogs go to Heaven 3. Anastasia 4. An American Tail 5. Thumbelina

It was the 80's, Cass. Kids movies usually had a happy ending but the journey was often very dark. It had been that way since the earliest of animated children's fare. This film was so important. Don Bluth had been at Disney for years and watched as they languished in mediocrity so he struck out and formed his own company to challenge the Disney Juggernaut. It was so fresh, so darkly imaginative, that it couldn't be ignored. I have adored this film for over 40 years. My mother took me to see it in the movie theater and she didn't like it much (although she didn't dislike it anywhere near as much as she did The Dark Crystal later that same year) but it just opened so many doors in my mind.

This movie WAS my childhood! I’m 46-years-old, and I still quote, “Miss Priss, you have a sparkly!!!” when somebody has something cool or pretty.

after the traumatising nightmare of Watership Down, the Rats of Nimh was a little bit easier😳😬

I forgot how good the voice cast is in this. John Carradine as The Owl. Derek Jacobi as Nicodemus. Dom DeLuise…. Classic.

I meet the Director Don Bluth, Awesome guy The secret of NIHM is his favorite movie out of all the projects that he has done. It was an honor to have talked to him. Hope you enjoy this one.

Shrews are actual furry burrowing mammals, frequently mistaken for rodents but closer to moles. The use as a term to describe mean-spirited, vicious, impossible to deal with women is old, as in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, and very probably much older.