The Secret of NIMH
Encyclopedia
The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 animated film directed by Don Bluth
in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien
's 1971 children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
. The film was produced by Aurora Pictures and released by United Artists
. While released to critical acclaim, The Secret of NIMH was also a moderate box office success. The film was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel called The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue
, which was made without Bluth's input or consent.
), a shy and timid field mouse
, lives in a cinder block with her children in a field on the Fitzgibbons' farm. She is preparing to move her family out of the field they live in as plowing time approaches; however, her son Timothy has fallen ill. She visits Mr. Ages (Arthur Malet
), another mouse and old friend of her late husband, Jonathan Brisby, who diagnoses Timothy with pneumonia
and provides her with some medicine from his laboratory. Mr. Ages warns her that Timothy cannot go outside for at least three weeks or he will die. On her way back home she encounters Jeremy (Dom DeLuise
), a clumsy but compassionate crow
.
The next day Mrs. Brisby is awakened and horrified to discover that Farmer Fitzgibbons has started spring plowing early. Mrs. Brisby is able to disable his tractor, but she knows she must come up with another plan. With the help of Jeremy, she visits the Great Owl
(John Carradine
), a wise creature living in the nearby woods, to ask for help. He tells her to visit a mysterious group of rat
s who live beneath a rose bush on the farm and ask for Nicodemus.
Mrs. Brisby enters the rose bush and makes her way down to the rats' home, where she is amazed to see their use of electricity and other human technology. She meets Nicodemus (Derek Jacobi
), the wise and mystical leader of the rats, and Justin (Peter Strauss
), a kind and friendly rat who is the Captain of the Guards, as well as a ruthless, power-hungry rat named Jenner (Paul Shenar
). From Nicodemus she learns that many years ago her late husband, along with the rats and Mr. Ages, were once part of a series of experiments at a place known as NIMH (which stands for the National Institute of Mental Health
). The experiments had boosted their intelligence to human level, allowing them to easily escape. However, the rats have concocted "The Plan", which is to leave the farm and live without stealing electricity from humans. Nicodemus then gives Mrs. Brisby an amulet
called 'The Stone', that gives magical power when its wearer is courageous.
Because of her husband's prior relationship with the rats, they agree to help Mrs. Brisby move her home out of the path of the plow. Mrs. Brisby volunteers to drug the Fitzgibbon's cat
, Dragon, so that they can complete the move safely. Only mice are small enough to fit through the hole leading into the house, and Jonathan was killed by Dragon during the last attempt. Later that night, she successfully puts the drug into the cat's food dish, but the Fitzgibbon's son Billy catches her and convinces his mother to let him keep her as a pet. While trapped in a birdcage, she overhears a telephone conversation between Farmer Fitzgibbons and NIMH and learns that NIMH intends to come to the farm to exterminate the rats the next day. She manages to escape from the cage and runs off to warn Justin.
Meanwhile, the rats are in the process of moving the Brisby home using a rope and pulley system during a thunderstorm. However, Jenner and his hesitant accomplice Sullivan (Aldo Ray
), who wish to remain in the rose bush, sabotage the ropes causing the cinder block to fall and crush Nicodemus, making it look like an accident. Mrs. Brisby arrives and tries to convince the rats that NIMH is coming and that they must leave immediately. Jenner, angered by her claims attacks her and attempts to take the amulet from her neck. Alerted to the situation by Sullivan, Justin rushes to Mrs. Brisby's aid; a dramatic sword fight between Justin and Jenner ensues, ending with a mortally wounded Sullivan killing Jenner and saving Justin's life.
Mrs. Brisby suddenly realizes that the house is sinking in the mud it landed in. Despite the best efforts of the rats, they are unable to pull it free and it completely submerges into the muck. However, Mrs. Brisby's will to save her children gives power to the amulet, which she uses to lift the house out of the mud and move it to safety from the plow. The next morning, the rats have already gone to Thorn Valley with Justin as their new leader and Timothy has begun to recover. Jeremy also finds "Miss Right", an equally clumsy crow, and the two fly away together.
The Secret of NIMH was the first feature film to be directed by Don Bluth
. In September 1979 he, fellow animators Gary Goldman
and John Pomeroy
, and eight other animation staff left Walt Disney Productions animation department to set up their own independent studio, Don Bluth Productions. The studio worked, at first, out of Bluth's house and garage, but moved to a two-story, 5500 square feet (511 m²) facility in Studio City several months later. After completing work on several shorter projects, including a two-minute animated sequence for the film Xanadu
, the studio forged a deal with Aurora Productions
, a film-making partnership established by former Disney executives.
The rights to the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH had reportedly been offered to Disney in 1972 but turned down. At Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy's request, Aurora Productions acquired the film rights, and offered Don Bluth Productions a budget of US$
5.7 million and 30 months to complete the film, tighter in both budget and schedule than most Disney animated features at the time. The studio set out with the explicit goal in mind of returning feature animation to its “golden era”, concentrating on strong characters and story, and experimenting with unusual and often more labor-intensive animation techniques. Bluth believed older techniques were being abandoned in favor of lower production costs, and the only way animation could survive was to continue traditional
production methods. Among the techniques experimented with on The Secret of NIMH were rotoscoping, multiple passes on the camera to achieve transparent shadows, and backlit animation (where animated matte
s are shot with light shining through color gel
s to produce glowing areas for artificial light and fire effects), multiple color palettes for characters to fit in different lighting situations, from daylight, to night, to warm environments to underwater. Mrs Brisby had 46 different lighting situations, therefore there were 46 different color palettes, or lists of color, for her. Two modern, computerized versions of the multiplane camera
were also manufactured for this production.
To achieve the film's detailed full animation while keeping to the tight budget, the studio strove to keep any waste of time and resources to a minimum. The crew often worked long hours with no immediate financial reward (though they were offered a cut of the film's profits, a practice common for producers, directors and stars of live action films but never before offered to artists on an animated feature); producer Gary Goldman recalled working 110 hour weeks during the final six months of production. Around 100 in-house staff worked on the film, with the labor-intensive cel painting farmed out to 45 people working from home. Many minor roles, including incidental and crowd voice work, were filled in by the in-house staff. The final cost of the film was US$ 6.385M. The producers, Bluth, Goldman, Pomeroy and the executive producers at Aurora mortgaged their homes collectively for $700,000 to complete the film, with an agreement that their investment would be the first money to be repaid.
During the film's production, Aurora contacted Wham-O
, the manufacturers of Frisbee
flying discs, with concerns about possible trademark infringements if the "Mrs. Frisby" name in O'Brien's original book was used in the movie. Wham-O rejected Aurora's request for waiver to use the same-sounding name to their "Frisbee", in the movie. Aurora informed Bluth & company that Mrs. Frisby's name would have to be altered. By then, the voice work had already been recorded for the film, so the name change to "Mrs. Brisby" necessitated a combination of re-recording some lines and, because John Carradine was unavailable for further recordings, careful sound editing had to be performed, taking the "B" sound of another word from Carradine's recorded lines, and replace the "F" sound with the "B" sound, altering the name from "Frisby" to "Brisby".
, and performed by Paul H. Williams
and Sally Stevens. It was released on July 2, 1982 on vinyl
and audio cassette and re-released on March 3, 1995 on CD with a rearranged track listing.
In 2007, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman oversaw a high-definition restoration of the film which was released on June 19, 2007 in a 2-disc DVD set under the "Family Fun Edition" label. Improvements in the transfer over the 1998 DVD include some color correction, and dirt and dust removal from the cells. The blu-ray release was March 29, 2011.
website. Despite good reviews, the film was a moderate success at the box office
, making $14,665,733 out of a roughly $7,000,000 budget, but attributed to a combination of poor promotion, regionally-staggered release dates and competition from the Steven Spielberg
blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
.
The American Film Institute
nominated The Secret of NIMH for its Top 10 Animated Films list.
sequel called "Timmy to the Rescue" was released in 1998 and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation
. Upon its release, it was widely panned by critics and fans of the first movie.
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien
Robert C. O'Brien
Robert Leslie Conly was an American author and journalist for National Geographic Magazine.-Early life:...
's 1971 children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a 1971 children's book by Robert C. O'Brien. Illustrated by Zena Bernstein, it won the 1972 Newbery Medal. A film adaptation, The Secret of NIMH, was released in 1982....
. The film was produced by Aurora Pictures and released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. While released to critical acclaim, The Secret of NIMH was also a moderate box office success. The film was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel called The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue
The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue
The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue is a 1998 American direct-to-video animated film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation and the sequel to the 1982 animated film The Secret of NIMH. In the film, Timothy Brisby, the youngest son of Jonathan and Mrs. Brisby, goes to Thorn Valley wanting...
, which was made without Bluth's input or consent.
Plot
Mrs. Brisby (Elizabeth HartmanElizabeth Hartman
Mary Elizabeth Hartman was an American actress, best known for her performance in the 1965 film A Patch of Blue, playing a blind girl named Selina D'Arcy, opposite Sidney Poitier, a role for which she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress and was nominated for the Academy...
), a shy and timid field mouse
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
, lives in a cinder block with her children in a field on the Fitzgibbons' farm. She is preparing to move her family out of the field they live in as plowing time approaches; however, her son Timothy has fallen ill. She visits Mr. Ages (Arthur Malet
Arthur Malet
Arthur Malet is an English actor.Arthur Malet was born in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, England in 1927. He emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, starting out onstage and winning two Drama Desk Awards in 1957. He came to some prominence in the 1960s, starring in films playing characters much...
), another mouse and old friend of her late husband, Jonathan Brisby, who diagnoses Timothy with pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and provides her with some medicine from his laboratory. Mr. Ages warns her that Timothy cannot go outside for at least three weeks or he will die. On her way back home she encounters Jeremy (Dom DeLuise
Dom DeLuise
Dominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...
), a clumsy but compassionate crow
Crow
Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...
.
The next day Mrs. Brisby is awakened and horrified to discover that Farmer Fitzgibbons has started spring plowing early. Mrs. Brisby is able to disable his tractor, but she knows she must come up with another plan. With the help of Jeremy, she visits the Great Owl
Owl
Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...
(John Carradine
John Carradine
John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
), a wise creature living in the nearby woods, to ask for help. He tells her to visit a mysterious group of rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s who live beneath a rose bush on the farm and ask for Nicodemus.
Mrs. Brisby enters the rose bush and makes her way down to the rats' home, where she is amazed to see their use of electricity and other human technology. She meets Nicodemus (Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...
), the wise and mystical leader of the rats, and Justin (Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...
), a kind and friendly rat who is the Captain of the Guards, as well as a ruthless, power-hungry rat named Jenner (Paul Shenar
Paul Shenar
Paul Shenar was an American actor.-Career:Shenar became involved in theater at an early age, partaking in the local Milwaukee playhouse productions. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. Following his military career he began acting again...
). From Nicodemus she learns that many years ago her late husband, along with the rats and Mr. Ages, were once part of a series of experiments at a place known as NIMH (which stands for the National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
). The experiments had boosted their intelligence to human level, allowing them to easily escape. However, the rats have concocted "The Plan", which is to leave the farm and live without stealing electricity from humans. Nicodemus then gives Mrs. Brisby an amulet
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
called 'The Stone', that gives magical power when its wearer is courageous.
Because of her husband's prior relationship with the rats, they agree to help Mrs. Brisby move her home out of the path of the plow. Mrs. Brisby volunteers to drug the Fitzgibbon's cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
, Dragon, so that they can complete the move safely. Only mice are small enough to fit through the hole leading into the house, and Jonathan was killed by Dragon during the last attempt. Later that night, she successfully puts the drug into the cat's food dish, but the Fitzgibbon's son Billy catches her and convinces his mother to let him keep her as a pet. While trapped in a birdcage, she overhears a telephone conversation between Farmer Fitzgibbons and NIMH and learns that NIMH intends to come to the farm to exterminate the rats the next day. She manages to escape from the cage and runs off to warn Justin.
Meanwhile, the rats are in the process of moving the Brisby home using a rope and pulley system during a thunderstorm. However, Jenner and his hesitant accomplice Sullivan (Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray was an American actor.-Life and career:Ray was born in Pen Argyl, PA, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother Mario lettered in football at USC in the years 1952-54...
), who wish to remain in the rose bush, sabotage the ropes causing the cinder block to fall and crush Nicodemus, making it look like an accident. Mrs. Brisby arrives and tries to convince the rats that NIMH is coming and that they must leave immediately. Jenner, angered by her claims attacks her and attempts to take the amulet from her neck. Alerted to the situation by Sullivan, Justin rushes to Mrs. Brisby's aid; a dramatic sword fight between Justin and Jenner ensues, ending with a mortally wounded Sullivan killing Jenner and saving Justin's life.
Mrs. Brisby suddenly realizes that the house is sinking in the mud it landed in. Despite the best efforts of the rats, they are unable to pull it free and it completely submerges into the muck. However, Mrs. Brisby's will to save her children gives power to the amulet, which she uses to lift the house out of the mud and move it to safety from the plow. The next morning, the rats have already gone to Thorn Valley with Justin as their new leader and Timothy has begun to recover. Jeremy also finds "Miss Right", an equally clumsy crow, and the two fly away together.
Voice cast
- Elizabeth HartmanElizabeth HartmanMary Elizabeth Hartman was an American actress, best known for her performance in the 1965 film A Patch of Blue, playing a blind girl named Selina D'Arcy, opposite Sidney Poitier, a role for which she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress and was nominated for the Academy...
as Mrs. Brisby - Dom DeLuiseDom DeLuiseDominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...
as Jeremy - Derek JacobiDerek JacobiSir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...
as Nicodemus - Arthur MaletArthur MaletArthur Malet is an English actor.Arthur Malet was born in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, England in 1927. He emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, starting out onstage and winning two Drama Desk Awards in 1957. He came to some prominence in the 1960s, starring in films playing characters much...
as Mr. Ages - Hermione BaddeleyHermione BaddeleyHermione Baddeley was an English character actress of theatre, film and television. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Room at the Top and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here...
as Auntie ShrewShrewA shrew or shrew mouse is a small molelike mammal classified in the order Soricomorpha. True shrews are also not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews, which belong to different families or orders.Although its external appearance is generally that of... - John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as the Great Owl - Peter StraussPeter StraussPeter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...
as Justin - Paul ShenarPaul ShenarPaul Shenar was an American actor.-Career:Shenar became involved in theater at an early age, partaking in the local Milwaukee playhouse productions. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. Following his military career he began acting again...
as Jenner - Aldo RayAldo RayAldo Ray was an American actor.-Life and career:Ray was born in Pen Argyl, PA, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother Mario lettered in football at USC in the years 1952-54...
as Sullivan - Shannen DohertyShannen DohertyShannen Maria Doherty is an American actress, producer, author and television director, known for her work as Heather Duke in Heathers , as Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210 and its spinoff series 90210, and as Prue Halliwell in Charmed .-Early life and career:Doherty was born in Memphis,...
as Teresa Brisby - Wil WheatonWil WheatonRichard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers...
as Martin Brisby - Jodi Hicks as Cynthia Brisby
- Ian Fried as Timothy Brisby
- Tom HattenTom HattenTom Hatten is a veteran radio, film and television personality best known as the long-time host of The Popeye Show and Family Film Festival on KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles in the 1960s, '70s and '80s...
as Farmer Paul Fitzgibbons - Lucille BlissLucille BlissLucille Bliss is an American actress and voice artist. A New York City native, she has appeared in films and on television shows, including The Smurfs as Smurfette, Nickelodeon's Invader ZIM and Walt Disney's Cinderella...
as Mrs. Beth Fitzgibbons - Edie McClurgEdie McClurgEdie McClurg is an American character actress. She is known for her perky North Central dialect , common to persons from Middle America.-Career:...
as Miss Right - Joshua Lawerence as Billy Fitzgibbons
Production
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
. In September 1979 he, fellow animators Gary Goldman
Gary Goldman
Gary Wayne Goldman is an American Film Producer, Director, Animator, Writer and voice actor, he is well known for working on films with Don Bluth like Anastasia, An American Tail and The Land Before Time...
and John Pomeroy
John Pomeroy
John Pomeroy is an American animator who has worked for several major studios, including The Walt Disney Company and Sullivan Bluth Studios...
, and eight other animation staff left Walt Disney Productions animation department to set up their own independent studio, Don Bluth Productions. The studio worked, at first, out of Bluth's house and garage, but moved to a two-story, 5500 square feet (511 m²) facility in Studio City several months later. After completing work on several shorter projects, including a two-minute animated sequence for the film Xanadu
Xanadu (film)
Xanadu is a 1980 romantic musical fantasy film written by Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province...
, the studio forged a deal with Aurora Productions
Aurora Productions
Aurora Productions is a film production company established in Hollywood, California in 1978 by former executives of The Walt Disney Company Rich Irvine and James L. Stewart. It produced several feature films, including The Secret of NIMH , Heart Like a Wheel , and Eddie and the Cruisers...
, a film-making partnership established by former Disney executives.
The rights to the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH had reportedly been offered to Disney in 1972 but turned down. At Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy's request, Aurora Productions acquired the film rights, and offered Don Bluth Productions a budget of US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
5.7 million and 30 months to complete the film, tighter in both budget and schedule than most Disney animated features at the time. The studio set out with the explicit goal in mind of returning feature animation to its “golden era”, concentrating on strong characters and story, and experimenting with unusual and often more labor-intensive animation techniques. Bluth believed older techniques were being abandoned in favor of lower production costs, and the only way animation could survive was to continue traditional
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
production methods. Among the techniques experimented with on The Secret of NIMH were rotoscoping, multiple passes on the camera to achieve transparent shadows, and backlit animation (where animated matte
Matte (filmmaking)
Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...
s are shot with light shining through color gel
Color gel
A color gel or color filter , also known as lighting gel or simply gel, is a transparent colored material that is used in theatre, event production, photography, videography and cinematography to color light and for color correction...
s to produce glowing areas for artificial light and fire effects), multiple color palettes for characters to fit in different lighting situations, from daylight, to night, to warm environments to underwater. Mrs Brisby had 46 different lighting situations, therefore there were 46 different color palettes, or lists of color, for her. Two modern, computerized versions of the multiplane camera
Multiplane camera
The multiplane camera is a special motion picture camera used in the traditional animation process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another...
were also manufactured for this production.
To achieve the film's detailed full animation while keeping to the tight budget, the studio strove to keep any waste of time and resources to a minimum. The crew often worked long hours with no immediate financial reward (though they were offered a cut of the film's profits, a practice common for producers, directors and stars of live action films but never before offered to artists on an animated feature); producer Gary Goldman recalled working 110 hour weeks during the final six months of production. Around 100 in-house staff worked on the film, with the labor-intensive cel painting farmed out to 45 people working from home. Many minor roles, including incidental and crowd voice work, were filled in by the in-house staff. The final cost of the film was US$ 6.385M. The producers, Bluth, Goldman, Pomeroy and the executive producers at Aurora mortgaged their homes collectively for $700,000 to complete the film, with an agreement that their investment would be the first money to be repaid.
During the film's production, Aurora contacted Wham-O
Wham-O
Wham-O Inc. is a toy company currently located in California, USA. They are known for marketing many popular toys in the past 50 years, including the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, Slip 'N Slide, Super Ball, Trac-Ball, Silly String, Hacky Sack and the Boogie board....
, the manufacturers of Frisbee
Frisbee
A flying disc is a disc-shaped glider that is generally plastic and roughly in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating....
flying discs, with concerns about possible trademark infringements if the "Mrs. Frisby" name in O'Brien's original book was used in the movie. Wham-O rejected Aurora's request for waiver to use the same-sounding name to their "Frisbee", in the movie. Aurora informed Bluth & company that Mrs. Frisby's name would have to be altered. By then, the voice work had already been recorded for the film, so the name change to "Mrs. Brisby" necessitated a combination of re-recording some lines and, because John Carradine was unavailable for further recordings, careful sound editing had to be performed, taking the "B" sound of another word from Carradine's recorded lines, and replace the "F" sound with the "B" sound, altering the name from "Frisby" to "Brisby".
Soundtrack
The Secret of NIMH: Original Soundtrack contains songs from the film written by Jerry GoldsmithJerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
, and performed by Paul H. Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
and Sally Stevens. It was released on July 2, 1982 on vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and audio cassette and re-released on March 3, 1995 on CD with a rearranged track listing.
- "Main Title" (3:13)
- "Allergic Reaction/Athletic Type" (2:40)
- "Flying Dreams Lullaby" (3:45) - performed by Sally Stevens
- "The Tractor" (2:58)
- "The Sentry Reel/The Story of NIMH" (6:03)
- "Escape from NIMH/In Disguise" (4:58)
- "Flying Dreams" (3:21) - performed by Paul H. WilliamsPaul Williams (songwriter)Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
- "Step Inside My House" (4:40)
- "No Thanks" (2:01)
- "Moving Day" (7:57)
- "The House Rising" (4:33)
- "Flying High/End Title" (2:38)
Release
The Secret of NIMH was released on DVD for the first time in 1998.In 2007, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman oversaw a high-definition restoration of the film which was released on June 19, 2007 in a 2-disc DVD set under the "Family Fun Edition" label. Improvements in the transfer over the 1998 DVD include some color correction, and dirt and dust removal from the cells. The blu-ray release was March 29, 2011.
Reception
The film garnered critical acclaim for being one of the most vibrantly animated films of its time and has earned a 95% "certified fresh" approval rating on the Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
website. Despite good reviews, the film was a moderate success at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
, making $14,665,733 out of a roughly $7,000,000 budget, but attributed to a combination of poor promotion, regionally-staggered release dates and competition from the Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
.
The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
nominated The Secret of NIMH for its Top 10 Animated Films list.
Sequel
A direct-to-videoDirect-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
sequel called "Timmy to the Rescue" was released in 1998 and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, or MGM Animation for short, was the animation division of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California, USA that specializes in animated productions for theatrical features and television...
. Upon its release, it was widely panned by critics and fans of the first movie.