Many people remember hearing about this film when they were kids. An animated movie - a feature length cartoon - and not made by Disney!
Well, I have to say, groundbreaking though it may have been at the time - launching the Don Bluth animation studios. It has some problems that keep it from holding up.
First the good - unlike Disney films, which are still stuck in the animated musical rut to this day, The Secret of NIMH does not lapse into cheesy and contrived song and dance numbers every 7 minutes or so. Second, as the name implies (for those who are familiar with the acronym N.I.M.H.) there is a science fiction element at work here - one that provides a credible backstory for a community of talking animals who use tools and even complex machinery - something that other animated tales seldom address.
On the downside, the annoying comic relief character (which always seems to be a bird in these films) is present, though thankfully, Dom DeLouise's portrayal isn't as over-the-top annoying as Disney films that cast more frenetic comics like Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy.
That however is minor in comparison to the films big flaw, the use of magic, which practically invalidates the science elements entirely. Not that a children's fantasy film can't have magic (most of the best ones do), or even a mixture of magic and technology, it's just that the two don't mix very well in this film.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the animals ultimately solve their problems not through their own ingenuity, but (in one of the worst deus ex machina moments in any film of this kind) by using hitherto unexplained magical powers, wrapping things up with a true groaner of an ending.
So, what we have is a modestly entertaining animated feature that was groundbreaking for it's time (especially in the use of special effects animation), and whose good points still outweigh it's bad ones, but which is ultimately outshined by many more recent efforts.
Well, I have to say, groundbreaking though it may have been at the time - launching the Don Bluth animation studios. It has some problems that keep it from holding up.
First the good - unlike Disney films, which are still stuck in the animated musical rut to this day, The Secret of NIMH does not lapse into cheesy and contrived song and dance numbers every 7 minutes or so. Second, as the name implies (for those who are familiar with the acronym N.I.M.H.) there is a science fiction element at work here - one that provides a credible backstory for a community of talking animals who use tools and even complex machinery - something that other animated tales seldom address.
On the downside, the annoying comic relief character (which always seems to be a bird in these films) is present, though thankfully, Dom DeLouise's portrayal isn't as over-the-top annoying as Disney films that cast more frenetic comics like Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy.
That however is minor in comparison to the films big flaw, the use of magic, which practically invalidates the science elements entirely. Not that a children's fantasy film can't have magic (most of the best ones do), or even a mixture of magic and technology, it's just that the two don't mix very well in this film.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the animals ultimately solve their problems not through their own ingenuity, but (in one of the worst deus ex machina moments in any film of this kind) by using hitherto unexplained magical powers, wrapping things up with a true groaner of an ending.
So, what we have is a modestly entertaining animated feature that was groundbreaking for it's time (especially in the use of special effects animation), and whose good points still outweigh it's bad ones, but which is ultimately outshined by many more recent efforts.