The Secret of NIMH

Day 112 - 4/22/09 - Movie #111

BEFORE: Animated talking rodent week continues with this Don Bluth animated film, based on a children's book that I remember from 6th grade. But I think the main character in the book was named Mrs. Frisby, and here she's named Mrs. Brisby - to avoid conflict with the Wham-O company? Oddly enough, I think my cat almost caught a mouse tonight, while I was watching this film -

THE PLOT: To save her ill son, a field mouse must seek the aid of a colony of rats, whom she has a deeper link to than she ever suspected.

AFTER: It's tough for me to say how closely the film follows the book, since I read it (or perhaps it was read to me) so long ago. But these characters seem to spend half the movie introducing themselves to each other - then the other half is spent talking over each other and misunderstanding each other. I won't reveal the "secret" here, but it's portrayed so obliquely in the film that I don't see how kids can be expected to understand it. Comic relief is provided by Dom Deluise as the voice of Jeremy the Crow, the other voice actors, such as Derek Jacobi, seem to be all classically trained - it doesn't help. Every action is a struggle, every conversation is overdramatic, and every emotion exaggerated - it's like "Dragon's Lair" with mice. And no dragon.

RATING: 2 out of 10 pieces of string