The Secret of N.I.M.H. Review

        The 80s in terms of animation had a massive shift. Disney had a brief period that encompassed that decade that has been commonly called the Dark Age. A moment in time when the animation studio was almost close to being dissolved. Additionally, animation was moving in a direction where the quality was downward trending and being cheap to make. One animator that was part of the Disney Animation crew left and formed his own independent studio. Don Bluth is the most important filmmaker in terms of cartoons and giving Disney a good competition. Here’s what I think of his feature debut. 

1. Don Bluth

        Just like Ralph Bakshi having a distinct voice, Don Bluth is the same with his animation style. Born in El Paso and living in Utah, he watched and inevitably worked at Disney as one of their animators. He had a hand in animating Sleeping Beauty and the animation hybrid Pete’s Dragon. He jumped from working with Disney and animating for television when he assisted with The Archie Show and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. 

        Disney’s The Fox and The Hound was Bluth’s last film with the studio. Having grown discontent with the artistic control that was shifting and the changing of the studio’s animation practice, Bluth decided to forge his own path and create his own studio. It would be a recurring thing where he would start a company but ultimately create a new one due to being cash strapped. While his movies were well received, it didn’t make enough box office revenue where his studio was sustainable. 

        One last tidbit is that he revolutionized video games. I was not aware that he had a hand in an Arcade game known as Dragon’s Lair. It was literally the most unorthodox game that came out during the days of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. It didn’t rely on pixelated graphics like its arcade brethren but used animation. The way to control or win the game is to guide the hero using quick movements that were shown on the screen to advance. One wrong move and, well what do you expect? Nowadays, games use this method called a quick-time event. At the time, it was revolutionary.

2. Mrs. Brisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H.

        Based on the children’s book with the same premise and different name, even Disney was considering adapting the novel but turned it down. At the time, they had already released a mouse movie called The Rescuers. N.I.M.H. is the exact opposite of what Disney had produced at the time. Even more so, the fact that it was an independent feature that had a major studio distributing it says a lot. 

        We mostly follow the story of Mrs. Brisby, an intelligent mouse who tries to cure her sickened son. She’s thrown into a fantastic adventure where she interacts with other intelligent speaking animals and learns that they were products of NIMH. What I love about the movie is Brisby as a character. We first see her as a single mother raising her kids, one of them being under the weather with pneumonia. 

        She’s the rare example of a female protagonist that manages to be strong. It’s just her and her family that gives her the emotional baggage she has. At the start we see her getting medicine for her son who has pneumonia. A chance encounter with a crow named Jeremy starts her adventure to be an unlikely hero. When she’s with her family, Auntie Shrew helps her out with her kids. There’s one thing that I noticed that to me at least was different with other animated movies is that Auntie tells Brisby that she must grow up. It’s a recurring thing that we see what Brisby goes through, and she’s scared out of her mind. One thing that is the film’s best moment is her arc, from growing scared to inevitable being courageous. 

        Aside from her developmental growth, the movie is imbued with science and mysticism. We see moments when intelligent rats steal electricity from the farmer’s home to develop their own methods of energy. And from that point forward, we get to understand just who the rats are with their newly gifted intelligence. The whole dynamic has the science vs nature aspect to it since we see with Brisby that the rats have grown smart enough where they’re debating to either move or stay. 

        More so with we get an understanding as to who exactly NIMH is. I’ve dug around to find more info on the book and the author based his book on the studies of John Calhoun. Who studied on mice and rat dynamics when he worked for the National Institute of Mental Health. That explains what NIMH stands for in the movie and what’s interesting is that they are treated as a looming threat. Just scientists who give the animals some drug, for what purpose we don't know. 

        Speaking of threats, this film doesn’t hold anything back in terms of animation whenever there is something that endangers Brisby or the rats. The level of fear and unknown is the film’s other strong point. Like when Mrs. Brisby encounters a guard named Brutus and it gets real when the rat swings his spear at her. The film doesn’t shy away from the characters getting hurt. They bleed and near the end there’s a final fight that gets brutal for its time. 

        The moment between Brisby and a rat named Justin going into the farmer’s house might be the best moment when displaying Brisby’s fear. They have medicine to knock out the cat. Brisby is scared but Justin tells her that she must do it. This is the thing that is very rare for any animated film showing the emotional stakes that the main character is going through. The level of investment with this character is astounding since she’s being put through the ringer with everything going on. 

3. Legacy

        The film was a modest success, but I still think it’s one of the best animated films of the 80s. Given what was coming out before and during the time, it was game changing since it legitimately challenged Disney by being more mature. From there, Bluth got the attention from Steven Spielberg. It only made sense for an established director to try and dabble with animation. From there, this is around the time where both Bluth and Spielberg produced An American Tail and The Land Before Time. They were box-office hits and further cemented Bluth as an animator with a voice. 

        Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything that delved into why Spielberg and Bluth parted ways. From the late 80s through the 90s, Bluth struggled and made films that were just middle of the road or just bad. The box office revenues shrunk to a considerable degree since the product didn’t reflect Bluth’s style. It wasn’t until he made a partnership with 20th Century Fox that he made the animated adaptation of Anastasia. From there, his career was over after his following film Titan A.E. bombed and effectively killed the animation studio. 

        For some inexplicable reason there’s a sequel to The Secret of N.I.M.H. that came out during the late 90s. Bluth had no involvement with it and it obviously shows. I’ve seen pieces of it in small batches and man, I just feel bad for the fans of the first movie be so incensed and offended that this is a sequel to a beloved film. It wouldn’t be his only film to be made into sequels, and I’m curious to know if he ever got residuals from them. 

4. Overall

        The Secret of N.I.M.H. is one of the best animated films of the 80s. Even rivalling whatever Disney put out at that time. 

Wizards (1977) Review

        I’m back, talk about a big break. To be honest for talking films for this month, I had no idea what kind of movies to talk about. I ultimately settled on animated films that weren’t Disney, but it was the topic of what movie to start. Particularly animated films by Ralph Bakshi, I had wanted to talk about his feature debut. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the movie on streaming not even for rent on Amazon Prime. So with that, here’s what I think about Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards.

1. Ralph Bakshi

        To get an understanding of the movie, we must talk about Ralph Bakshi. Not to inundate the whole review with a thorough lens but his background is interesting. Born from British occupied section of Palestine then emigrating to the United States, Bakshi got his start on television as an animator. He eventually advanced with his career and started his own company, doing various commercials and contracted for some shows. 

        His feature debut Fritz the Cat was based on the underground comic of the same name by artist/writer Robert Crumb. It was marketed as the first X-Rated animated film to be released. I’ve only seen snippets of the film in various places, but it’s mostly a parody of the social climate of what was happening in the US back in the 60s. It immediately made itself known that animation wasn’t just for kids but for adults as well. 

        Bakshi practically made a name for himself with his style that included making fun of the social commentary that was relevant at the time by using animals. Sometimes even using moments of rotoscope in an animated film. That means drawing on a strip film to be animated instead of just hand drawing it. He was a product of the times. His career spanned between the early 70s to the early 90s but I believe that he was the first instance of an animated director having a voice in his work. 

2. World of “Wizard”

        I specifically chose Wizards because the way the movie looked visually interesting to me. Seeing how the film was different than its animated counterparts also drew me in. With that, we see that the film takes place years after a nuclear war had nearly wiped out all of humanity. Earth is now inhabited by mythical creatures like fairies, dwarves, and elves as the new intelligent life. Although they are divided. 

        We follow Avatar and his group including a hybrid named Elinor and a warrior Weehawk as they travel to stop Avatar’s evil twin Blackwolf. It’s about as basic plot wise but the story is probably dense. Everything is fleshed out at the very start with the use of storyboard stills which looks like it came from an illustrated book. The way its used is gives us a break from the action and to detail what’s happening, since the film’s budget was only around 2 million. 

        The characters are interesting, especially Avatar. He’s the main character and throughout the movie, nothing goes right with everything around him. We see him being a gifted wizard who trains his fairy friend. What I like about Avatar is that he usually doesn’t fight back when he and his group are confronted by danger. Only ever when he conjure up something as a last resort. I was surprised to learn that Mark Hamill appeared and it was his first film literally prior to Star Wars. 

        The animation is the main highlight. Something about Bakshi’s style is sort of new to me since I understand that I’m being repetitive, is different. No one in their right state of mind would ever put anything violent in an animated movie like having a character get shot and have exit wounds to show for it. Especially how it’s not in an exploitive sense where a whole limb gets blown open.

        To me, its interesting to have a world that is mostly dominated by mythical creatures and imbue it with technology. In the beginning, it’s made clear that technology is frowned upon among the mythical creatures. All the while Blackwolf uses a projector for psychological warfare. When you watch it, there’s loads of Nazi stuff. Swastikas galore, although its used to highlight the main villain and his army. 

        I think the main thing with that use of propaganda is that it’s the film’s theme. The villain uses the propaganda to motivate his army since their incompetent. Additionally, they use the old war footage to stun the opposing soldiers since they can’t comprehend it. Conversely, when the heroes are captured and they’re trying to get free, the fairy king believes that the main heroes are the villains since they heard it through Blackwolf. 

        If there is one thing that I find curious is that the character on the poster isn’t the main character. One would think that it is, but Necron 99 does start out as a goon for the main bad guy. I think it’s genius since the character is a robot and has that unorthodox look of what we think a robot could be. Way back during my college years, I saw that poster used as another poster during the University’s student run convention. 

3. Overall

        With Ralph Bakshi, you’re either going to love or hate his style. With Wizards, it was interesting since it’s a different kind of animated movie to come out. Especially at a time when Disney owned that area.