I first watched NIMH on 9 Oct
94 on Channel 5 of our local TV network. My interest in
anthropomorphic (or furry) animations, particularly those dealing
with mice, went back to 1993 when I watched Fievel Goes West. I
was pretty impressed with the animation but I was not prepared
for the convoluted storyline, the dark and oppressive mood of the
show and of course the depiction of graphic violence. How often
do you watch cartoons in which characters get crushed and ran
through? ( Jenner got ran through and
backstabbed!) The dialogue was anything but childish. From then
on, I regarded NIMH as the best animated feature ever made.
The
show started out as being fairly believable, about the problems
faced by a family of field mice trying to survive the
inhospitable actions of the human farmer whose garden they were
living on. However the plot gradually grew into something more
accurately described as being fantastic and incredible. The Rats
of NIMH were amazingly advanced in terms of technology. (The only
access to their lair was through an elevator that travels
underwater, guarded by an oversized rat armed with a electrically
charged poleax!!) The rats had a developed and rather complicated
political system and they hold their meetings in a an opulent
courtroom. As if that was not enough, their leader dapples in
sorcery. (More on
that later) It was only after I
read the book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of
NIMH that I found that the story was greatly exaggerated
in the movie. By then, however, I was so enamored with the Secret
of NIMH that I felt that the book was a watered-down version of
the animation rather then the popular sentiment that Don Bluth
had really mauled the original plot of the book in his creation
of NIMH.
The central character
of the movie is Mrs Brisby, a brown field mouse drawn wearing
this tattered red cloak. As you can see, she is extremely cute
looking and attractive (as mice go) and a main reason why I like
the show. Her voice was provided by Elizabeth Hartman which I
found very fitting for Mrs Brisby. Only later did I found out
that Hartman was 40+ when she recorded her voice for The Secret
of NIMH. (Gee, she sure sounds young) Looks and voice aside, Mrs
Brisby had lots of courage, persevering against all odds to save
her son Timmy. In a way, Don Bluth's dramatizing of the story had
made Mrs Brisby that much more heroic then Mrs Frisby. It takes
more then your average field mouse to go up against monstrous
cats, tractors, mouse-sized spiders and a huge owl. Or to dodge
the poleax of a crazed rat, rappel from a bird cage and play
catch with a maddened councilor who is armed and dangerous... Or
to use Magic... (The kind of stuff that would
make for a really cool NIMH platform game :) ) The fact is that
she went through all that not because she was the swashbuckling
type or that she wants to impress anybody. She did what she had
to do, and she did it despite the fact
that she was terrified. That is the true substance of a hero (or
heroine). Though I'm foremost a NIMH fan, I've became, more
specifically, Mrs Brisby's fan.
Comparing her with other mice characters in other
animations (e.g. Fievel, Gadget in Rescue Rangers, Olivia in The
Great Mouse Detective etc) I find that she is more animalistic in
her behavior (though she has a perfectly human temperament). For
example, she has no inhabitation about running about on all fours
when she needs to get somewhere fast. (Fievel would not run on
all fours to save his life as can be seen in the way he fled from
the eagle in Fievel Goes West) Like real mice, she does make use
of her teeth and rely on her sense of smell. Also, she looks
perfectly normal without any clothes on, as should be the case.
Other animated characters would look, well... funny,
without clothes, an indication of them being overly humanized.
The
addition of magic in the movie (something that is totally absent
from the book) is an interesting and controversial point. Some
finds it redundant and preferred it left out but I'm all for it.
After all, I've always been a fan of sword and sorcery stories.
Magic in NIMH is mainly in the form of telekinesis... Small showy
display of telekinesis when Nicodemus made his staff float to his
hand à la Luke Skywalker and The
telekinetic effort by Mrs Brisby when she decided that she had
enough of Rat incompetence and moved her own house with the
amulet's power. (accompanied by some great special effects and
music.)
Click HERE for the entire NIMH
Soundtrack!
I guess I am just too free cause I've designed a Heroes of Might and Magic 2 map with the NIMH World as setting! If you happened to play HOMAM2 and have installed the Expansion Pak, why not test it out?
The Story : Justin had led the Rats of
NIMH in building the Thorn Valley Colony. Jenner survives still!
He and his faction of renegades had settled up a rival colony
somewhere...
Meanwhile, NIMH redoubles its efforts in exterminating the
intelligent rats. With the help of a new and lethal technology,
they seek to launch a second scourge on their former creations...
Download Thorn
Valley Now! (88.3Kb, Expansion
Pak Required)
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