BEFORE: Another rodent-based caper tonight. It was a toss-up between this film and "Stuart Little 2", this one allows me to send Birthday SHOUT-out #24 to Eric Idle of Monty Python fame (last seen in "Nuns on the Run"), who provides a voice for this sequel. Linking from last night's film is simple - Steve Buscemi did the voice of a mouse in "G-Force", and he was also in "Fargo" with William H. Macy (last seen in "Thank You For Smoking"), who voices a mouse tonight.
THE PLOT: Timothy Brisby, the youngest son of Johnathan, goes to Thorn Valley wanting to become a hero like his father. He learns from a girl mouse that the mice who were presumed to have been killed during the escape from NIMH are still alive, so he and the rats mount a rescue operation.
AFTER: Ah, beware direct-to-video sequels. Once again we've got lab animals gaining intelligence from experimentation (somehow...). Why do these scientists make the rats smarter, if it makes them smart enough to escape? You'll never get taken seriously in the science community that way...
This film manufactures some loose ends left from the previous film, and in so doing gives itself something of a purpose, tying up said loose ends. A family of mice thought to have been killed in the lab escape is revealed to be alive, and the son of the first film's hero leads an expedition back to the National Institute of Mental Health to find them.
Problem is, things are pretty crazy over at the Mental Health lab (go figure...) and there's a scientist there who's planning to (somehow) take over the world. Also he's done something to turn Timmy's brother evil - or he (somehow) put his brain inside the mouse's body...this part really wasn't all that clear. Anyway, the plan is to (somehow) rule the rats territory by using pigeons and more rats...I think - again, not very clear.
Timmy finally lives up to expectations, finds his inner hero, learns to think things through, and save all of the lab mice, including his brother who (somehow) gets turned back to normal. Whew, what a relief.
Also starring the voices of Ralph Macchio, Dom Deluise, Andrea Martin (last heard in "Jimmy Neutron"), Harvey Korman, Meschach Taylor, Doris Roberts and Peter MacNicol.
RATING: 3 out of 10 hinges
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