The Secret of Nimh has been my favorite movie since I first saw it in 1982 when it came out. Since then animation and animated movies has been what I enjoy watching most. What set this movie above other animated films by Disney and Don Bluth, who made this film, was the fact that this film was intended for more mature audiences, as well as for children. To find an animated movie in theaters with the violence that this one had and the mild profanity (only one word but it is still significant) in the early eighty's was something I have always found interesting. An animated movie released in theaters with any level of real violence and profanity would not occur until Cool World in 1991. Other things that made this movie different and better than all the others in its genre were its dark mood and lack of big song numbers. This made it more serious and enjoyable for an adult audience. All Disney movies have big song numbers and cheery moods. For years this movie was my favorite and I had no idea what the messages in it were until this assignment. I simply liked the movie and did not give the themes much thought.
It is interesting that none of the ideas that I present here have been considered by any newspaper review or professional movie critic. The closest that any one has come was a comment by Roger Ebert. In a short discussion of his view of the movie he says that the rats have a "moral dilemma" about weather or not to steal electricity. Most of the analysis and discussion about The Secret of Nimh has been about Don Bluth leaving Disney or the breathtaking animation quality of the film.
The basic plot of the movie covers Mrs. Brisbys efforts to save her children, specifically her ill son Timmy, from "moving day." Moving day is when all of the animals who lived in the farmers field in the winter move out before the plow comes. Because Timmy is ill he cannot leave the Brisby home because the chill in the air would kill him. So Mrs. Brisby must search for a way to save her family without moving out of the field. Another plot in the movie concerns the rats of NIMH. The rats are who Mrs. Brisby is sent to get the help that she needs to move her house. These rats are special because they escaped from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The rats and Johnathon Brisby (Mrs. Brisby's late husband) had been altered by some experiment to make them at least as intelligent as humans, if not more so. Throughout the movie the rats have a plan to move to a place called Thorn Valley where they will be safe from NIMH and where they will no longer have to live without stealing.
A major theme in The Secret of Nimh is the idea of dependence and freedom from dependence. Many of the characters and groups of characters had dependence on others and needed to find freedom from their dependence. Mrs. Brisby's children were dependent on her after their father died and Timmy in particular was very dependent on Mrs. Brisby because he could not leave the house. The moving of the house, one of the major themes of the movie, would solve Timmy's dependence. The rats of NIMH had dependence on the farmer. They needed to steal electricity to run all of their lights, motors, etc.. In order to gain their freedom from dependence they had to leave for a place called Thorn Valley. It was not said how but the impression was given that they would soon not need to steal electricity from the farmer and this would all happen when they moved to Thorn Valley. Perhaps a larger dependence is the rat's dependence on human technology. This movie suggests that when a being becomes intelligent it needs technology. This movie is a reflection of our dependence on technology and also suggests that we will cause our own destruction through the evils of selfish members of our society and our own shortsightedness. The most evident dependence was the dependence of Mrs. Brisby.
Mrs. Brisby was dependent on many individuals throughout this movie. It is her freedom from her several sources of dependence that much of the movie deals with. Her biggest dependence that she deals with in this movie is her need for her deceased husband. For the first half of the movie she seems very distraught over her husbands death. That is normal, however the impression is given that she was dependent on her husband for many important things that traditionally a male is needed to do. An example is when the tractor started plowing the field and started destroying the homes of all the animals. Since Martin is too sick to be moved she has to somehow stop the tractor. With no thought to her personal safety (or how to stop the tractor) she raced toward the tractor and climbed on. She soon becomes frozen with fear and cannot move so she needs to be saved by the old shrew lady who also manages to stop the tractor. The following scene shows her trembling and then soon crying about how she wished her husband Johnathon was there. Here she was not only showing her dependence on her late husband, but she depended on the shrew to stop the tractor. In dealing with the rats of NIMH she needed to use her husbands name in order to get the help that she needed, not just from the rats but also from the great owl who she needed as well. In fact throughout the entire movie we never discover her first name. She gave the impression of a mousewife who's only job was taking care of the children while all of the more difficult things were handled by her husband.
This dependence on her husbands name is the most important dependence that she has. The rats of NIMH and even the great owl did not, and probably would not help her if not for the fact that her husband was a mouse that they all had a lot of respect for. In order to free herself of this dependence she had to prove that she deserved the same respect. While the owl had respect for Jonathan Brisby as well, it was known that he had never seen the owl himself. When Mrs. Brisby told Mr. Ages that she had been to see the Great Owl he was amazed and took her to meet the rats. To sever the last ties to her dependence on her husbands name she had to do something that was very symbolic. She needed to put the sleeping powder into the cats food. This was the same thing that her husband was doing when he was killed, and in order to free herself to get respect for herself she needed to do what he could not. The movie does not show us very well if this works. She is caught by the farmers soon after putting the powder in the food and later escapes. She shows up as Nicodemus, the leader of the rats, dies and there is not much character interaction in this area from here to the end if the movie although after the entire magical scene where the stone enables Mrs. Brisby to save her children, the rats are gathered around her in awe of either her or the stone.
All throughout the movie she had to face her fears and try to take some control over the things going on around her in order to get more and more independent. When the tractor started she needed to fight her fear of the tractor and try to stop it. She did not succeed but she tried. She faced her fear when she went to see the great owl. "Owls eat mice!" she told herself, but she went anyway because in order to save her family she needed to find the courage to do the things that needed to be done. At this point in the movie she is starting to see that she has the strength to do more. She needed some pushing to see the owl, but she goes to see the rats with no outside encouragement. After she finds the rats she volunteers to put sleeping potion in the cat's food so that the rats can work to save her family uninterrupted. The end of the movie is significant but somewhat disappointing in her journey to find her courage. Here we find out that she has courage of the heart, but this courage lets her use a magic stone to save her family when the rats fail. She almost took the easy way to save her family, instead of a more difficult, more satisfying solution that shows us she can do it without any help, and has real independence, she has the help of deux ex machina, the magic stone to the rescue.
The entire part about the rats and their being intelligent because of human experiments, is filled with symbology about our society and its evils and potential downfalls because of our own dependence on technology. Humans and humanity are portrayed as bad with good intentions at best, and evil at worst. The National Institute of Mental Health casts a shadow of fear over the rats through the entire movie. Its obvious early on in the movie that the way in which we run our society is harmful in ways that we do not normally care about. The plowing of a field in preparation to plant crops is something we do not normally think twice about. But this film makes that event a terrifying evil that the viewer would stop if he or she could.
The whole idea of the rats having human technology is full of warnings to us about our society. These rats are not rats anymore. These rats are human. Their leader said as much "We cannot live as rats anymore. We know too much." This suggests that as beings gain intelligence they become cut off from nature and consider themselves above it. Consider the words of the main enemy's, lackey "Let the lower creatures fend for themselves." Perhaps humans are cut off from nature, and we certainly put ourselves above it.
This removal from nature gave the main enemy, Jenner, a sense of superiority over even us humans. He supported not moving to Thorn Valley and continuing to steal electricity. He believed that he and the other rats could defeat the humans. A dangerous belief as one stick of dynamite could probably kill them all. Jenner represents the dangerous aspect of what humans have become. Selfish and blind to his mistakes. As humans the powerful members of our society are usually selfish in how they treat the environment and blind to the fact that we are destroying this planet. Consider the lumber industry. It is not needed because anything that wood is used for now can be made synthetically. The only reason that the lumber industry exists is to keep people in jobs. This is a selfish reason because in the next half century all forests will probably disappear and these people will be out of a job anyway. Future generations will see no more ancient forests, and there will probably be less oxygen for us to breathe. We have become selfish and blind.
Weather or not we humans find freedom from our dependence, this movie gives excellent examples of struggles for freedom from dependence both physical and mental. While the means that Mrs. Brisby used to save her children could have been more effective, the message that it showed was wonderful. For a female character to gain independence in such a film is a wonderful message for children. Unlike most animated movies today, Mrs. Brisby developed her inner strength and saved her family herself. The massage that the rats gave us about our society, its problems, and possible downfalls will hopefully also have an impact on the children that saw it more than ten years ago. I know it impacted me.
Bibliography
Ebert, Robert. Ebert's Video Guide
Canby, Vincint. "New York Times." Film: 'N.I.M.H.,' Shades of Golden Era
July 30, 1982
Harmetz, Aljean. "New York Times." Ex-Disney Animators Try to Outdo Their Mentor
July, 14 1982
Harmetz, Aljean. "New York Times." Ex-Disney Animators Try to Outdo Their Mentor
July, 14 1982
Soloman, Cahrles. "Film Comment." Will the Real Walt Disney Please Stand Up
July/Augest 1982
Scott, Jay. "Globe and Mail." The Secret of Nimh Crammed With Action
June 30, 1982
Robiey, Les Paul. "Magill's Cinema Annual." The Secret of Nimh
1983