A Story About a Boy, the "Disney Defectors" and a Movie About a Place Called NIMH.

 

"Courage of the heart is very rare.
The stone has a power when it's there."
-Nicodemus

Jay here.

I think we all have movies that we cherish from our childhood. You know the ones I'm talking about. That film you come across on television one day and you can't turn the channel because you haven't seen it in years. You watch scene after scene, awash not only in the nostalgia of remembering a story you loved, but also connecting to a half-forgotten time from your early youth. The other day I had one of these moments as I came across a classic animated film that I hadn't seen in years.

It was 1984 and I was a 7-year-old boy growing up in the south side suburbs of Richmond, Virginia in a town called, Chester. I lived in a 2 bedroom duplex with my mom. By day I went to 3rd grade at C.C. Wells Elementary were I was learning to read and write from Mrs. Fornash. In the afternoons I would usually race home so I could catch the after-school cartoons like The Transformers, G.I. Joe or M.A.S.K..

One of my favorite movies played on HBO frequently and I always knew it was coming on when I heard that familiar music that accompanied the United Artists logo. I would yell out to my mom, "The Secret of NIMH is on mom!"

The Secret of NIMH was an absolute favorite of mine. I saw it so many times that I could almost recite the dialogue by heart. It was dark for an animated film meant for children and that fascinated me. I would laugh hysterically at the antics of the accident prone crow, Jeremy (voiced brilliantly by Dom DeLuise) and gasp at the creepy glowing eyes of the Great Owl (John Carradine).

Based on the Newbury Award winning book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Richard O'Brien, the movie follows the trials and tribulations of a widowed field mouse named Mrs. Brisby (name changed to avoid legal entanglements with the inventors of the Frisbee toy) as she struggles to find a way to move her three children and their home before the farmer's plow tills them up. Her youngest son, Timmy has pneumonia and he is too sick to leave his bed. After visiting the aforementioned Great Owl, he advises her to seek the help of the mysterious rats who live in the nearby thorn bush.

Not your normal hero, Mrs. Brisby simply wants to take care of her children and find them a new home.

Of course, these are no ordinary rats. When Brisby meets their leader, the old and wise Nicodemus (Derek Jacobi), she learns that they are escapees from a lab run by "N.I.M.H.", the National Institute of Mental Health. The scientists there injected the rats with experimental drugs whose side effects caused the rodents to develop a human-like intellect. Reading, writing and using technology that no animal would normally be able to comprehend. Her late husband, Jonathan was also exposed to the machinations of NIMH. He was instrumental in helping the rats escape and this is why his widow is revered among them.

Now these rats want to move, as well, to a place of their own where they no longer have to steal electricity, technology and other necessities from humans. They call this move "The Plan", and there are some, like the nefarious villain, Jenner (Paul Shenar) who would rather the rats stay put and continue their lives of savaging and thievery. He also covets leadership and a magical stone that Nicodemus gives to Mrs. Brisby as a gift to remember her late husband.

Mrs. Brisby meets the wise and enigmatic Nicodemus.

As I watched The Secret of NIMH I was overcome by a wave of memories from those days after school when I was a kid. I wondered what it was about this movie that so enthralled me. I think a big part of it was the fact that NIMH presented a hero that was unlike most in animated adventure stories. Mrs. Brisby was just a mom trying to find a way to move her family without risking her son's health. There was no traditional sword-wielding knight like you might find in a children's film geared towards boys, or a princess trying to find love like most that are made for girls. Just a single mom, with faults. She was afraid about having to be the sole parent. And the things she would have to do to ensure her family's safety test her courage in ways it's never been tested before.

Our heroine runs for her life from an unfriendly member of the rats of NIMH.

At the time I was being raised by a single parent. Sure, my mother had help from family, but during this period it was mostly me and her. She and my dad had divorced when I was only two years old. She was my world at the time, and maybe in some way I saw her reflected in the small mouse with the red cape.

Looking into the making of The Secret of NIMH I was intrigued at the story of how it came be. In the 1970's Don Bluth was one of the head animators at Walt Disney. He was responsible for several of the studios most well known features of the era like The Rescuers and Pete's Dragon. During production on The Fox and The Hound around 1979, Bluth, producers John Polmeroy and Gary Goldman along with about 20 animators abruptly left Disney to start their own independent studio. They became known in the press as the "Disney Defectors".

Don Bluth (pictured here with Mrs. Brisby) was one the primary creative forces at Disney before leaving to start his own studio.

Bluth has said that he and the others who left with him had become frustrated with the direction Disney's animation department was going in. It had moved further away from the traditional techniques used when Walt himself had run the company. Remember this was a dark period for the once pioneering studio. It would be years before The Little Mermaid would resurrect Disney and usher in a new golden age of feature length cartoons.

Bluth settled on O'Brien's novel for his young company's first film. He smartly recognized the story's potential for providing an entertainment that would be both heart-warming but also dark and sinister. Both children and adults would be enthralled by the multi-layered narrative and visuals. He also employed many techniques that both harkened back to the traditional style of early animated features and also employed some new ones. One of these was backlit animation, achieved by shining light through color cells on matte paintings. It gave the glowing effect that is seen in some of the characters' eyes and throughout other parts of the film.

He also cast a great ensemble of actors to provide the voices. Derek Jacobi and Dom DeLuise are particularly great, but it's Elizabeth Hartman's performance as Mrs. Brisby that anchors the whole thing. The actress's story is a tragic one I didn't know until I was researching this column. She came to Hollywood's attention when she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in the 1965 film, A Patch of Blue which also starred Sidney Poitier. But instead of capitalizing off of her success and developing a career she became more and more reclusive. Hartman suffered from sever depression and sadly took her own life in 1987 when she threw herself from a five-story building. The Secret of NIMH was her final role.

Elizabeth Hartman's final role was to give voice to the courageous and good-hearted heroine at the heart of The Secret of NIMH.

The decision to have Jerry Goldsmith score the movie was also a critical one. His music for NIMH remains one of his greatest achievements. Both sweet at times, and dynamic at others it's as under appreciated as the film itself. It was Goldsmith who connected Bluth with Steven Spielberg. Together they would collaborate on several of Bluth's later projects like An American Tail and The Land Before Time.

But it's The Secret of NIMH that still remains his crowning achievement. It remains a somewhat forgotten gem that only enthusiasts like me point to as an important piece of animation history. With important themes like finding the courage you never thought you had and cautionary overtones on laboratory animal testing, it was a movie that was both ahead its time and an homage to the golden age of Disney animation like Bambi and Pinocchio. Yes, of course, I'm nostalgic for a movie that I watched over and over as a kid, but watch it for yourself (it's available to stream on Hulu). I still think it is one of the greatest hand-drawn animated films of all time.

"You can open any door if you only have the key."