The Secret of Nimh
First of all
GBG DISCLAIMER haha: there's a big tarantula in one scene. I don't know what you think of animated spiders and it's on screen for ten seconds at most but i thought i should warn you. It's in the scene where Mrs.Brisby goes to see the Great Owl. I swear i paused the film and wrote this down so i'd remember to tell you
Hadn't watched this since i was around eight years old so i didn't really know what to expect. As a kid i actually watched all of his other films more except Rock-A-Doodle and The Pebble and the Penguin which i've never seen. I honestly watched Fievel Goes West more than this which is a sequel to a Bluth film that doesn't even involve Bluth. Not sure what was up with that because i thought this was very good and i doubt most of those others would hold up.
Bluth deserves the praise he gets for this, making a(n American) childrens film this dark was a brave choice. Up to that point Disneys darkest film had probably been Pinocchio 40 years earlier which was initially a massive flop (partially to do with the war to be fair), and even though they were faltering during the 70s it still didn't look like they had any intentions of diverting from their tried and tested formula until this came along. Disney clearly took notice, i mean i don't think it is a coincidence that their next film was The Black Cauldron which is still probably their darkest film. Even though that was a flop i still think this played a massive part in convincing Disney to put effort back into their work, try new things, etc. So Don Bluth gets my respect for this.
The colours in this are excellent. I really don't think the actual drawings or movement are anything that special, the colour choices are inspired though. I was watching this on a big screen and at first i thought the orange-yellow sky was really overwhelming but once my eyes settled i loved how the black bird looked against that background. That's definitely what worked best for me visually. Other things like the mice standing inside the grass and light shining through the spaces inbetween the blades. I guess with the knowledge that they were going up against the mighty Disney, Bluth and his Animators put alot of effort into this, there's some fine attention to detail. I think my favourite place in the film was the cave she met Nicodimus; it wa so varied. Starting off with the blacks, purples, greens, when the rat attacks her than Nicodimus takes her through the crystally, yellow, light blue, etc, room where she meets Justin. It's pretty embarrasing when you think less than a decade earlier Disney put out the horrible Robin Hood with its reused backgrounds that felt as if it only used four different colours of the exact same shade.
The story is good it came back to me what happened pretty early on and i enjoyed seeing it again. There's alot of excitement which is why i don't understand why i apparently didn't like this enough to watch this as a kid. My only real problem with this is kinda/sorta a major one, but it is only a matter of taste thing. I don't like Mrs Brisbys voice, i can't explain it but it annoys me particularly when she is shouting/crying/sad, just emoting in general. Her default voice is fine but the rest gets on my nerves. Another minor problem is one that i personally think is part of most Bluth films; i don't think he is great with humour. I think this gets evened out with the top notch drama/emotion/excitement though so it isn't that big of a deal. I've noticed most Bluth films seem to have a slight miserable tone about them which for some reason works. Not even saying this should have attempted more humour, just that most of it that it did try didn't really work for me.
So yeah, very good nom Clazor. It's a great adventure film with genuine emotion and solid animation; particularly its use of colour. Glad you nominated it as i really had to see this again.
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