The Secret of NIMH, in style and content, recalls the heyday of the Disney animation unit that produced such classics as Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Dumbo. And the parallel is more than just coincidence.
Don Bluth, the mini-Disney behind the movie, was a former Disney animator. His associates also worked at the revered Mickey Mouse operation and it's obvious they learned well. The Secret of NIMH is the best Disney animated feature produced outside that studio, surpassing anything Disney has produced in two decades.
The reason for this film's success and the comparative failures of other independent feature animation efforts is multi-fold. However, it boils down to a solid story, the patience to spend years carefully crafting a movie and the training required to create life-like movement through drawings. Bluth had 14 former Disney artists bringing his story to life and supervising an army of young animators in creating The Secret of NIMH
The story centres on the rats and mice who populate the fields surrounding a typical American farm. The focal character is Mrs. Brisby, the widow of a prominent local politician.
It's early spring and Mrs. Brisby is preparing to relocate her family prior to Farmer Fitzgibbons annual plowing. However, her youngest son is very ill and cannot, according to the local doctor, be moved.
Her efforts to seek assistance in her plight bring her in contact with a previously unknown world inhabited by comic, kindly and treacherous types. In the process she also learns of the existence of NIMH and the potential danger it holds for the animals of the field. She becomes the true, if unlikely, heroine of this animated delight.
The secret of the title provides the film with a contemporary twist but the dedication to craft remains old-fashioned in the best possible sense. Tremendous attention to detail provides the film a fluidity of movement and a dynamic versatility in the use of light and shadow to balance the humorous and dramatic elements of the tale.