History WesternAnimation / TheSecretOfNIMH

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/secret_of_nimh_poster_9791.jpg]]

* ContemptibleCover: The suggested solution for your long-awaited two-disc widescreen edition DVD is to print the badass poster art seen above and paste it over the official art.

* PlotHole: There are several plotholes in the film, some of them being [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole a result of changes from the book]].
** The most notable is the source of the Amulet Nicodemus gives Mrs. Brisby. In fact, Nicodemus' magic powers in general. The film never explains where either came from. It's not even addressed if Nicodemus got those abilities as a side effect of the injection (which would raise questions about why the other rats got no such abilities) or if he was intelligent enough to learn them on his own. Years later, Don Bluth handwaved the presence of the amulet [[http://www.adammcdaniel.com/DonBluth/Don_Bluth_Interview3.htm in an interview]]:
--->"With regard to the amulet, it is a metaphor for believing in one's self. Remember the quote, 'Courage of the heart is very rare, the stone has a power when it's there.' It helps symbolize her courage and the power of the stone to help rescue her children...a miracle, if you will. God stuff. Granted, it isn't in the original novel, but we felt that it was much more powerful. Nicodemus says it was Jonathan's, but really just to get her to accept it. We didn't really think it was necessary to explain it further. Seems like we would eat up too much screen time to tell the history of the amulet, when the story was about an innocent widow mouse, who, thru her journey would find out that she has the courage to rescue her own family. Regarding magic, we really believe that animation calls for some magic, to give it a special 'fantastic' quality. The stone or amulet is just a method of letting the audience know that Mrs. Brisby has found 'Courage of the Heart'. Magic? Maybe. Spiritual? Yes."

** If the Rats wanted to leave no trace behind of their lair, how were they going to take care of hiding something as massive as the council room?

** And why does Mr. Ages have a makeshift lab built inside a giant piece of farm equipment? Since he doesn't like visitors anyway, wouldn't It have been safer to keep the lab within the boundaries of the rats' lair, instead of putting himself in a situation that could call to attention his above average knowledge of science and medicine to outsiders?[[note]]also note that in the book, he lived in a much more sensible hideout--an old, long abandoned building.[[/note]]

--->'''Mr. Ages:''' (''mumbling dismissively'') "Oh, that's just Brutus. Never mind him. Now, come on."

Mrs. [[WritingAroundTrademarks Brisby]] (voiced by Creator/ElizabethHartman) is a widowed mouse and mother of four living near a farm. With spring fast approaching and the frost melting from the ground, her family has to move in order to avoid the farmer's plow -- but one of the children, Timothy, has come down with pneumonia and can't be moved for a few weeks. Taking the advice of an [[TheOwlKnowingOne all-knowing owl]], Mrs. Brisby seeks the aid of the Rats of NIMH, a group of escaped lab rats that were rendered human level-intelligent via experimental drugs. After meeting with the rats' leader, Nicodemus, Mrs. Brisby finds out that her late husband Jonathan had been a good friend of the rats -- and died while helping the rats carry out a plan to leave the human world behind. Nicodemus agrees to help Mrs. Brisby move her home, but some of the other rats have plans of their own...

** Mrs. Brisby, despite the heroics and limits she goes to in order to save her family, never loses her meek and fearful disposition. This is a movie that never forgets that its heroine is a mouse.

Mrs. [[WritingAroundTrademarks Brisby]] (voiced by Creator/ElizabethHartman) is a widowed mouse and mother of four living near a farm. With spring fast approaching and the frost melting from the ground, her family has to move in order to avoid the farmer's plow -- but one of the children, Timothy, has come down with pneumonia and can't be moved for a few weeks. Taking the advice of an [[TheOwlKnowingOne all-knowing owl]], Mrs. Brisby seeks the aid of the Rats of NIMH, a group of escaped lab rats that were rendered super-intelligent via experimental drugs. After meeting with the rats' leader, Nicodemus, Mrs. Brisby finds out that her late husband Jonathan had been a good friend of the rats -- and died while helping the rats carry out a plan to leave the human world behind. Nicodemus agrees to help Mrs. Brisby move her home, but some of the other rats have plans of their own...

** Jenner is mortally wounded but killing the villain does nothing to save the Brisby house.

* AirVentPassageway: Seen in the flashback to the labs. Of course... they're rats and mice. [[spoiler:RealityEnsues repeatedly; when the air conditioning is turned on, all the mice are killed except Jonathan and Mr. Ages. When they reach the roof, they are stopped dead by the mesh grating; Jonathan became the hero of the rats due to being the only one small enough to squeeze through and open it from the outside]].

* RealityEnsues: Sullivan gets cold feet about cutting the rope to drop the Brisby house on Nicodemus, but since all he does is refuse, Jenner cuts both ropes himself.
** Jenner is mortally wounded but killing the villain does nothing to save the Brisby house.

-->--'''Nicodemus'''

* AgeLift: Nicodemus was middle-aged in the book. In the film he is very old-looking, considering the injections given to the rats slowed their aging.

''The Secret of NIMH'' was Don Bluth's first feature film after leaving Disney; it was even produced a decade after Disney itself had turned down adapting the original story. Bluth used traditional tools and methods as a way of fighting back against the movement towards lower production costs (and lower quality animation). Produced by United Artists, which had just recently folded into MGM, the film was commercially a moderate box office success, costing $7 million and earning $14 million. This modest revenue was, in part, due to competition with ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. ''NIMH'' eventually managed to seduce the director of ''E.T.'', Creator/StevenSpielberg, into teaming up with Bluth. Together, they made two rather high-grossing animated films: ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime''.

* FlatCharacter: Timothy in the first film, as he has exactly one line of dialogue, and is little more than a bed-ridden plot device that gives Mrs. Brisby a reason to go on her adventure.

%%* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: Poor Jeremy...

%%* BeardOfEvil: Jenner has one.

%%--> '''Jenner:''' It would be an honour to assist Jonathan's widow in any way. We are but your humble servants.

%%* CatScare: A rabbit is used instead. The ''cat'' is the monster. After all, the protagonists are a mouse and a bird.

%%* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: The Brisby family. Most of the rats as well.
%%* HeelFaceTurn: Sullivan.
%%* HeroOfAnotherStory: Jonathan Brisby.

%%* IllBoy: Timmy.

* LampshadeHanging: The film is all around rather dark, introspective and has a very thick thread of plotlines centered around the Rats of NIMH and their backstory. When Mrs. Brisby meets Justin and he takes them to meet the others in the council room (who are in the middle of a heated political debate), he acknowledges to her that "We tend to take ourselves a little too seriously."

%%* LastBreathBullet: Knife, actually. It's how [[spoiler:Jenner meets his end]].

%%

%%* MouseWorld: Several, designed by the rats and mice of NIMH.

%%** "Oh, that's just Brutus."
%%** Also Dragon. [[RunningGag Only a bastard son of an ape]] would give their pet ''that'' name.

%%* PapaWolf: Jeremy ''tries'' to act as one, but ultimately his clumsiness intervenes -- as well as inadvertently falling under the wrath of a MamaBear in the process. That said he does act out a pretty valid showing of this for Mrs. Brisby, and to a lesser extent, Timmy.

%%* PluckyComicRelief: Jeremy. And given how ''dark'' this film is, his comic relief is ''very'' much needed..

%%* PosthumousCharacter: Jonathan Brisby.

%%* SceneryPorn: A lot of it, especially in the rat colony.

-->'''Jenner:''' Yes! I killed him. He wanted to destroy everything! I've learned this much: take what you can...when you can!

%%* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: While this movie can certainly get dark, it still leans more towards the idealistic side.

-->'''Jenner''': ''(He's been talking about how Nicodemus's plan to move is the idea of idiots and dreamers)'' We were just talking about you.\\
'''Justin''': Well that's refreshing Jenner, usually you're screaming about us.

%%* TheSociopath: Jenner.

-->'''Justin:''' [[InsultBackfire That's refreshing, Jenner]]-- usually you're ''screaming'' about us.

** [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Jeremy the Crow trying to find a love interest]] and dealing with Brisby's kids and Auntie Shrew later on. This one gets the least attention out of the plots and has the least bearing on the film, as Jeremy just serves as comic relief.

* AdaptationNameChange: The Frisby family becomes the ''Brisby'' family, due to fears of legal trouble with the makers of the Frisbee toy.

** Jenner is mortally wounded but killing the villain does nothing save the Brisby house.

%%* ManipulativeBastard: Jenner.

* RealityEnsues: Sulivan gets cold feet about cutting the rope to drop the Brisby house on Nicodemus, but since all he does is refuse, Jenner cuts both ropes himself.

''The Secret of NIMH'' is Creator/DonBluth's first feature-length film. It is based ''[[AdaptationDistillation very]]'' [[AdaptationDistillation loosely]] on Robert C. O'Brien's Newbery Medal Award-winning novel ''Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH''.

Years after the original film, MGM released a DirectToVideo sequel called ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH2TimmyToTheRescue''. The film was, predictably, [[{{Sequelitis}} produced without Bluth's involvement]].

'''Auntie Shrew'': (''irritated'') Well, he's ''not''. (''viciously, as Mrs. Brisby continues to sob'') ''Stop it.''

--->"With regard to the amulet, it is a metaphor for believing in one's self. Remember the quote, "Courage of the heart is very rare, the stone has a power when it's there." It helps symbolize her courage and the power of the stone to help rescue her children...a miracle, if you will. God stuff. Granted, it isn't in the original novel, but we felt that it was much more powerful. Nicodemus says it was Jonathan's, but really just to get her to accept it. We didn't really think it was necessary to explain it further. Seems like we would eat up too much screen time to tell the history of the amulet, when the story was about an innocent widow mouse, who, thru her journey would find out that she has the courage to rescue her own family. Regarding magic, we really believe that animation calls for some magic, to give it a special "fantastic" quality. The stone or amulet is just a method of letting the audience know that Mrs. Brisby has found 'Courage of the Heart'. Magic? Maybe. Spiritual? Yes."

-->"With regard to the amulet, it is a metaphor for believing in one's self. Remember the quote, "Courage of the heart is very rare, the stone has a power when it's there." It helps symbolize her courage and the power of the stone to help rescue her children...a miracle, if you will. God stuff. Granted, it isn't in the original novel, but we felt that it was much more powerful. Nicodemus says it was Jonathan's, but really just to get her to accept it. We didn't really think it was necessary to explain it further. Seems like we would eat up too much screen time to tell the history of the amulet, when the story was about an innocent widow mouse, who, thru her journey would find out that she has the courage to rescue her own family. Regarding magic, we really believe that animation calls for some magic, to give it a special "fantastic" quality. The stone or amulet is just a method of letting the audience know that Mrs. Brisby has found 'Courage of the Heart'. Magic? Maybe. Spiritual? Yes."