In recent years, the art of animation has been given a bad name by the jerky, sketchy cartoons that lurch across TV screens on Saturday mornings.
Even specials -- such as those featuring the Peanuts moppets -- look like crayon doodles next to the rich detail that Walt Disney used to lavish on his animated canvasses for the screen.
But -- Jiminy Crickets, boys and girls! -- those good old days are back with The Secret of NIMH, a colorful and graceful feature cartoon made by defectors from the Disney Studios.
Thanks to a palette of more than 600 colors, 500 of which are newly-developed, the film has a kaleidoscopic impact of a sort that we haven't seen since Fantasia.
Realistic texture
The attention to details such as shadows, sparkles and halos lends NIMH a realistic texture that has rarely been matched since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The meticulous way in which animated film cels were produced in the 1930s became so time-consuming and expensive that the process was largely abandoned -- and one of the most noticable casualties was the apparent fluidity of movement.
With the aid of some new technology, however, Don Bluth Productions has managed to recapture that old magic as its 120 artists worked on NIMH for only two-and-a-half years. (Snow White required 1500 artists working for three years).
The story is simple, charming -- and usually fast-moving enough to hold the attention of most kids under 12.
It's spring, and widowed mouse Mrs. Brisby (voiced by Elizabeth Hartman) has to move her family out of the way of the farmer's plough. Trouble is, one of her "kids" is too sick to move from bed -- so her whole house must be lifted out of the way.
Advised by the Great Owl
She's advised by The Great Owl (John Carradine) to seek the help of the Rats of NIMH -- a super-intelligent race that was developed in the National Institute of Mental Health.
Despite all the catastrophes that follow, we're often amused by the antics of Jeremy (Dom DeLuise), a hopelessly clumsy crow that's desperate to find a lady-love to settle down with.
Even adults shouldn't find too much of this excruciatingly boring -- thanks partly to plotting that hinges on a series of crisis deadlines.
Parents should be warned, however, that extremely young kids might be frightened by some of the film's blacker moments and villains.