The Secret of NIMH

It was very hard to get the motivation to blog today.  So much of me wanted to create any excuse that would allow me to give it a pass today.  It was a bit of an anxious day, so my mind was able to come up with many a reason to put it aside and do absolutely nothing.  Sometimes when we breakdown we find ourselves in a sort of fetal position, and that is almost the process that today's movie pick took.  I reached for something that was a key element of my childhood and took a look at it to see if it could remind me of those simpler times.  The movie is The Secret of NIMH (which is available on Netfilx), a much viewed film in my childhood, captured on a well worn VHS cassette tape.

One thing that is hard when looking back at something that I once held dear is to view it for what it actually is, and not what I am reminded of it being.  That being said, not only was I able to view the movie with fresh eyes close to thirty years later, but I was all the while reminded of those emotions that the movie took me through when I was a young boy.

The film centres around the field mouse Mrs Brisby, who is now a single mother of four with one of them suffering from pneumonia.  It is the time of year that the farmer ploughs the field, which means all of the occupants must vacate (mice, rabbits, and the like) but Mrs Brisby is unable to move her family because of the ill young Timothy.  She then goes on a quest to get help, and ends up encountering a community of super-smart rats that live on the property, and begins to realize that her late husband's name carries a lot of respect.

It took me absolutely no time at all to once again feel like young Scott, with dreadfully unruly,curly hair and wearing track pants (that's all I ever wore as a child).  They say the key to real estate is 'location, location, location' and that mantra is one of the things that make this movie such a quality children's movie.  The different segments of the movie happen in very neat and well conceptualized venues, and we are hardly in the same place twice (with the exception of the Brisby home).  These locations create a playground for the imagination of the young child, and are done in a way that we can feel a longing to be a part of it.  Another element that these locations are able to bring to the movie is the emotional tone of different scenes.  They very well guide us and draw us in to the emotions that the characters on the screen are going through.

Another aspect of this movie that I always loved were the voices.  They are just done so well, and recorded in such a way that made me feel like the animals were truly talking.  I don't know if you have ever watched animated movies and felt that the voices and the characters are not one.  It can distract us from being engaged, but that is not the case here.  The characters also are performed with such passion, from a frantic nature at times, to speaking in dark, devious whispers.

Through everything, we get a wonderful tale that presents a believable (or as believable as an anthropomorphic mouse could be) strong leading lady.  Movies are too male dominated.  That is just the awful fact of Hollywood.  The beloved franchise of Oz saw a bout of that curse back in the winter when the wizard arrives in a land with very powerful women who are just waiting around until the prophesy of a man to lead them is fulfilled.  Why do we get garbage like that?  Why cannot the lead be a fully capably, determined, and admirable female?  Whatever the answer to that question is, we get just that in The Secret of NIMH.  We get a character who could just live off of the good nature that her late husband's name brings, but instead it is her very nature to never be passive and continually press forward.  Roles like this need to be remembered, because for every great female lead there are thirty awful ones that help send gender equality back another five years.  Okay, that rant is over.

At only 82 minutes, this movie just motors along and almost feels like it is finished way too soon.  It has anything and everything an adventurous young child could want in a movie, from chases to sword fighting.  It is a movie that stands well the test of time, and is as good today as it was when I first saw it as a child.  If you had seen it in your younger years, I don't think it will fail in catapulting you back to that time and place.  Heck, even if you have not seen it, it may make you feel like a child again.  It is a dark tale in the land of mysterious rats that brings with it much fun and adventure.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars