The Secret of NIMH, Don Bluth, USA, 82 minutes
With this adaptation of the same-named, beloved children’s book by Robert C. O'Brien, Don Bluth left Disney behind for greener pastures… literally, by using painstaking colour orchestration to achieve a richness in colour that surpassed that of any film before. Disney refused the film, saying it was “too dark” so Bluth left the company together with fellow film makers John Pomeroy and Gary Goldman. They were soon joined by 20 other animators, who were dubbed the “Disney Defectors”.
A widowed field mouse called Mrs. Brisby needs to move out before the ploughing that will surely destroy her home, but her son is too sick to travel. In search of a cure, she befriends a community of intelligent rats who steal electricity from the humans and use it to power complex machinery. The rats also want to move to be finally free of the humans and they agree to help Mrs. Brisby. However there’s a rebellious faction who intend to use the situation to their advantage to stage a coup.
The Secret of NIMH was the largest non-Disney animated film when it came out in 1982 and even though the film wasn’t a blockbuster when it came out, the critical acclaim was astounding. Don Bluth went on to direct An American Tail and The Land Before Time and more recently Anastasia and Titan AE. He also was responsible for the iconic video games Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace.