The Secret Of NIMH
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Secret Of NIMH is the 1982 film based on the book Mrs Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH.. The film had been changed considerably from the book, so that the two are considered absolutley seperate entities altogether.
By the way, want to know what NIMH stands for? National Institute Of Mental Health. That's right, it's The Secret Of The National Institute Of Mental Health. God knows how they feel about it.
TSONIMH is about Mrs Brisby, a widowed single parent struggling with four kids. Mrs Bris is a mouse, by the way. Everybody, excluding the farmers, are animals. So anyway, Brisby's youngest sprog, Timothy, falls sick with pneumonia. So he has to stayed tucked up in bed. Trouble is that the field's about to be ploughed by the tractor. After Mrs Brisby and Auntie Shrew manage to stop the tractor from destroying the Brisby home, and hence Timothy, Mrs Brisby goes off to see Da Great Owl. He tells her to go see the rats...
Yeah, then Mrs Brisby goes to the rosebush to talk to the rats, Nicodemus (an old fart) explains how the rats are so goddamn clever, Jenner agrees to help her 'cos he's got a horrid trick up his sleeve involving Nicodemus etc etc.
You want to know the plot, you read it off the back of the video case.
Now, there's one character that sticks out like a sore thumb. And he's called Jonathan Brisby. Mrs Brisby's ex, sadly martyred by the farmer's cat. You can keep your Justin's and Jenner's and whoever else you adore from the film. JB kicks their ass. Why? Go look on the 'net for a few pictures of him. You have to agree that's one pretty suave/chic dude (after Bryan Ferry, but maybe more so than Sonic The Hedgehog). And we see virtually jack s*** of him in the film. He's not in the book and I doubt he's in the 2 sequals. However there is loads about him on the Internet, and it's not too hard to find.
Where wuz I?
Aside from this there's Jeremy. A crow. He provides the comic relief, a bit like Jar Jar Finks. And Jeremy does it well. He's funny. He kicks ass. :-)
There's the sequal to the film too:
The Secret Of NIMH 2:Timmy To The Rescue (1998) :-(
It's damn hard to find in the UK, but from what the Americans have been saying over the Internet, it sucks big portions of ass. So watch it anyway.
NIMH also contains a host of mistakes. There's about 40 of them. They range from the banal to nit-picking. Suffice to say that the first and second time I saw it, I didn't notice anything astray.
You know that films of books often change a few (dozen) things from the book (am I thinking specifically Watership Down?)? Well this does it in abundance. Here are some of the more obvious ones:
1. The change from Frisby to Brisby. I like that though. Brisby sounds a lot better than Frisby.
2. Jonathan died a year ago in the book, now he's only just been martyed.
3. Timothy is not quite as active in the film, and says significantly less. There are plenty more like this, but for the purpose of speeding the film along. You know how it is.
4. Everyone wears cloths. Fair enough.
5. Some characters from the book (Isabella, Arthur etc) are not in the film.
6. Jeremy appears more frequently. That is good.
7. Jeremy is now keen on finding 'Miss Right' ie a mate.
8. Nicomdemus is an awful lot older. So much for the jabs slowing the aging process!
9. Nicodemus d... (potential plot spoiler!)
Click here for how certain NIMH characters' personalities are reflected in music.
If, like me, you thought that was total dreck, then take a look at the other article I did along the same lines.I think it's much better
