Maybe it's because of high expectations, but "The Secret of NIMH" is something of a disappointment. It would seem that director Don Bluth and his fellow animators have tried just too hard.
Based upon the award-winning children's book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH," the story deals with a recently widowed field mouse (called "Mrs. Brisby" in the movie) who must move her family's cement-block home before the farmer begins the spring plowing.
Upon the advice of The Great Owl (John Carradine), Mrs. Brisby leaves her children in the care of Jeremy the Crow (Dom DeLuise) and Auntie Shrew (Hermione Baddeley) and visits the mysterious Rats of NIMH, who reside in a fortress beneath the farmer's rosebush.
The rats' aged leader Nicodemus (Derek Jacobi) explains that they -- along with the late Mr. Brisby -- were test rodents for the National Institute for Mental Health. After receiving injections of an experimental serum, they developed the ability to read and reason. Mr. Brisby led an escape to the thorn bush, where the rats have constructed an electric-powerd wonderland.
Nicodemus believes it's time they stopped stealing electricity from the farmer and moved to a place where they can develop their own power sources. Because of their debt to Mr. Brisby, the rats agree to move Mrs. Brisby's home. Dissension in the ranks leads to sabotage. The saboteurs are killed, but not before the cement -block home breaks free of the pulley and sinks into the mud. All is thought lost until Mrs. Brisby uses a magic amulet, given her by Nicodemus, to make the block and her children float to safety.
The movie's major problem is its clumsily constructed plotline, which was credited to Bluth and the other animators under "story adaptation." Because the story is so totally unlinear, it seems as if the book was transferred to the screen without the aid of even a written plot outline.
Bluth appears to be trying to find his own style by moving away from the simplicity of Disney. Instead he's simply created a film that 's hard to follow.
In an attempt to restore movement to animation, Bluth has caused his characters to move too much. Because they seem to move faster than the eye can register, it's doubtful that anyone after one viewing can even describe the appearances of Jeremy or Miss Shrew.
The artwork is excellent, although a bit too clever at times, and the movie as a whole is definitely ambitious. If Bluth and his crew would just relax and not be afraid of simplicity, as they seem to be now, their talents should shine through. They're certainly capable of creating works at least on the par of the later Disney films, and in time they probaby will. This is, after all, only the beginning.
Being the only G-rated, new film of the summer (even the new Disney films are rated PG), "The Secret of NIMH" should attract a fair-sized family audience. But with the competition this summer, the problem could come in attracting them twice.