Furry Cinema: The Secret of NIMH

Furry Cinema | The Secret of NIMH

The Secret of NIMH is a film that I’ve been wanting to revisit for a long time, but that I never got around to until now. I remember watching it at a couple of different points when I was younger, and there was always a lingering sense of dread that came with every viewing. There is something about this film that just feels darker and more mature than a lot of Disney movies that came out around the same era, and though that feeling is diluted with age (mostly on the audience’s part, to be fair), there’s still value to be had in revisiting it as an adult.

The Secret of NIMH was the first feature made by Western animation legend Don Bluth after his departure from Disney in the 1980’s. His signature style is made very apparent here; both heavily inspired by classic Disney and yet distinct in its own way – anybody who’s seen any of his more commericially successful films, such as The Land Before Time or Anastasia, will recognize it fairly easily. As with most of his best films, The Secret of NIMH has a very child-friendly, cutesy exterior that it uses to cover up some darker themes and ideas throughout – though “cover up” isn’t exactly the best word to use in this case.

The story follows Mrs. Brisby, a field mouse who lives with her four children in a cinderblock along the outskirts of a farm. Her husband Jonathan has recently died, and she has been left to care for her family all by herself. Every year, the family must make a migration away from their home as the farmer plows his fields, and that day is soon approaching – but Mrs. Brisby’s son Timothy has fallen ill with a severe case of pneumonia, and if he is moved the cold air outside will likely kill him. Mrs. Brisby must find some other way to save her family, and her journey takes her to the enigmatic rat colony that lives near the farm – a colony that seems to have some mysterious ties to her husband’s past that she was unaware of.

The actual plot in this film is pretty barebones and is lacking enough meat to really be called a masterpiece – though the potential is there. It often feels as if the plot is just jumping from place to place without the stakes ever really rising in a legitimate way until the very end, and even that was introduced late in the game. There are some fascinating themes in the film; being less of a morality tale and more of a philosophical story about how communities can form together and flourish under oppression, the conflict of science and faith when it comes to the advancement and stability of civilization, and the role of intelligence as both a blessing and a curse, but at the same time these themes could have used a bit more exploration. Mostly, by the end I didn’t feel like much had changed at all for the Brisby family – though at the same time, that may be the point. Maybe Mrs. Brisby is just an observer who’s own separate stakes prompted her to witness a larger conflict that she ultimately aided but was not central to. Ultimately, I think the film needed a few more scenes to really coax these ideas into fully reaching their potential.

This doesn’t mean that the film is bad though – far from it. The story of the rats of NIMH is the most fascinating aspect of the film’s story by far, and is based on real life events, though obviously with several liberties taken. NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health, was a real place that performed unspeakably dark and horrific experiments on rat colonies. We see this darkness skirted around, but it’s clearly there. The rats of NIMH are a side effect of these experiments; scientifically engineered for intelligence, they used this intelligence to escape and are now trying to make their own life for themselves, building a large underground colony running off of electricity.

It also excels on basically every other level. The animation and art are incredibly vibrant and full of personality and charm. Bluth and company do an incredible job at making these characters look and feel like animals while still imbuing human-like characteristics into them. Take Mrs. Brisby for example; she thinks and acts in ways that are very distinctly human, and has very anthropomorphic facial features, but she also moves in ways that a mouse would, with many of the same worries and needs and motivations, only on a more complex human level. The characters and worldbuilding are also nothing short of wonderful. Mrs. Brisby is an adorable and endearing protagonist, and the characters she meets, from the clumsy, quirky crow Jeremy to the suave, handsome Justin, are all equally memorable and likeable. The character designs are full of charm and life, and the strange worlds they inhabit, from the cozy homestead of the Brisby family to the run down steampunk world of the rats of NIMH, and the political struggles occuring within. The whole film is cloaked in a delightful atmosphere that is full of both wonder and dread, with some of the most memorable scenes in 1980’s animation, with perhaps the greatest of all being the confrontation with the Great Owl in his dark cave of cobwebs, bones and spiders; a nightmarish setpiece that traumatized children the world over.

The Secret of NIMH was a terrifying watch as a kid, but as an adult it’s actually become more of a comfort viewing. It’s a film that challenges more than most other 1980’s kids movies, and while it really doesn’t go as deep as it should and it may not be quite as good as you remember it, there’s still a lot to like, especially for anyone interested in stories about anthropomorphic animals. It’s lovable characters, unique worldbuilding, vibrant animation and dark yet wondrous tone make for a very satisfying watch despite any flaws it might have.