History Trivia / TheSecretofNIMH

* DuelingDubs: There's two Latin American Spanish dubs: One done in 1982 and another in 1997. Curiously enough, Creator/RocioGarcel, who voiced Timothy Brisby in the 1982 dub, ended up voicing his mother Mrs. Brisby in the 1997 one.

* AdaptationalNameChange: The film changes the main character's name from Mrs. Frisby to Mrs. Brisby. While "Frisby" is a real surname, it was changed to avoid [[WritingAroundTrademarks the name of a popular flying disc toy]].

** In the sequel, Ms. Brisby (in the handline of lines she gets) is voiced by Debi Mae West. This is justified, as Brisby's original actress, Creator/ElizabethHartman, committed suicide in 1987.

* DoingItForTheArt:
** Several of the staff members had to work 110-hour[[note]]That's approximately 15-16 hours a day![[/note]] weeks during production, and Bluth and a few other higher-ups had to ''mortgage their houses'' to pay for the film.
** Creator/PaulShenar recorded his reads of Jenner prior to seeing any of the artwork. After seeing Jenner's character design, he asked to rerecord parts of his dialogue to get them right. This during a time when AnimationAgeGhetto was strongly in play.
** Similarly, according to the DVDCommentary, Jerry Goldsmith asked to rescore some scenes after viewing the finished animation. He actually worked outside the timeframe he was contracted to.

** Disney was first approached to adapt ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' into a feature film. The studio declined for two reasons: they had just turned another MouseWorld [[Literature/TheRescuers book]] [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers into an animated movie]], and they didn't want more mice mascots aside from Mickey Mouse. Disney later budged by making ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder''.

** Disney was first approached to adapt ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' into a feature film. The studio declined for two reasons: they had just turned another MouseWorld book [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers into an animated movie]], and they didn't want more mice mascots aside from Mickey Mouse. Disney later budged by making ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder''.

** Disney was first approached to adapt ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' into a feature film. The studio declined for two reasons: they had just turned another MouseWorld book [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers into an animated movie]], and they didn't want more mice mascots aside from Mickey Mouse.

* NoBudget: The film was made on $7 million, and some of that budget was achieved by having Bluth and some higher-ups mortgage their houses. In comparison, Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'', which was released a year prior, had a budget of $12 million. Because of the staff's resourcefulness and dedication, the film's presentation and art don't give the slightest trace of it being a shoestring effort.

* SequelGap: 15 years between the original and sequel.

* NoBudget: The film was made on 7 million dollars, which is far smaller than the budgets Disney movies were accustomed to having, and some of that budget was achieved by having Bluth and some higher-ups mortgage their houses. But because of the staff's resourcefulness and dedication, the film's presentation and art don't give the slightest trace of it being a shoestring effort.

* CommonKnowledge: Because of a passing remark that Mr. Ages makes early on about Timothy having been bitten by a spider, fans sometimes assume that Timothy's pneumonia was caused by that spider bite. Not exactly. [[Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH The original book]] gives a full explanation: Timothy was bitten by a spider as a baby. Thanks to medicine from Mr. Ages, he recovered, but was always DelicateAndSickly from then on, leading ''indirectly'' to his pneumonia several years later.

* RelationshipVoiceActor:
** In the Japanese dub, Mrs. Brisby and Nicodemus' voice actors (Miyuki Ueda and Tamio Ohki respectively) previously worked together in ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'' as Erika and Sakimori Miwa respectively. Ironically enough, while in this film they're both allies, in ''Daimos'' they were previously enemies instead.
** In the first Mexican Spanish dub, Martin, Justin and Mr. Cronos and Jeremy's voice actors, Creator/RocioGarcel, Creator/CarlosSegundo, Francisco Colmenero nad Creator/ArturoMercado respectively, will reunite years later in the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' franchise as Bulma, Piccolo, Dr. Rotta and Master Karin respectively

* VindicatedByCable: Due to its very limited release (see TroubledProduction), the film only really became popular when the premium cable company Creator/{{HBO}}, which had just begun offering 24-hour, 7 days a week viewing, picked it up and aired it regularly.

** In the sequel, Ms. Brisby (in the handline of lines she gets) is voiced by Creator/DebiMaeWest. This is justified, as Brisby's original actress, Creator/ElizabethHartman, committed suicide in 1987.