Animation Spot
By Howard Beckerman
The Secret of NIMH
Don Bluth, the producer of the new animated feature. "The Secret of NIMH," doesn't like the term, "cartooning," when applied to the kind of films he is producing, "Cartooning is a word that makes me break out in a rash," he said not too long ago at a lecture he gave at New York's New School for Social Research. Bluth, a former Disney animator, spoke for three hours with a few breaks for film clips from sections of his Los Angeles studio's work. He prefers to call what he and his coworkers are producing art.
"Art tells us how we feel," explains Bluth. "Art expresses the feeling of the soul, not the mechanical things, but the feelings of your inner-sell." His own feelings about art are so strong that he adds, "If you want to kill a country, don't bomb the buildings, they can always be rebuilt. The way to conquer a land is to eliminate the philosophers, the painters, the poets and the musicians."
Bluth then goes on to relate his ideas about art to the field of animation. He says that the greatest contribution to the animation art was the work devised by the Walt Disney Studios before Disney died. It is the desire of Bluth and his partners, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, as well as the others of his staff to carry on the legacy left by Walt Disney. Ironically, this was the reason that Don Bluth and over a dozen other animation artists left the hallowed halls of Disney to form their own enterprise. They wanted to continue to produce films in the manner of the Disney classics, "Snow White," "Pinocchio" and "Bambi," which they felt the Disney people could no longer do. The studio had become a lumbering corporation far removed from their founder's inspired and creative ways of management.
While still employed at Disney, the unfulfilled animators began a project in their spare time, in Bluth's home, in the garage to be exact, in order that they could hone their skills at the kind of animation that had been the Disney hallmark. They began to develop their character animation abilities as well as experiment with the effects that had given the Disney films their full-bodied look. The resulting film, after five years' labor at nights and on weekends, was a half hour animated adventure called "Banjo, The Woodpile Cat," which aired this past spring on ABC.
Using "Banjo" as a sample, the artists were able to make a deal with Aurora Productions, whose principals were also former Disney alumni from the business side of animation. Financing was arranged and with a total of $7-million dollars raised, Bluth was able to get a feature started.
"The Secret of NIMH" is based on the children's book "Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIHM." The film version has taken the tale of Robert O'Brien's heroine, Mrs. Frisby, off in a slightly different direction. In the film the motherly mouse is changed to Mrs. Brisby, a bow to the trademark laws. The demands of the marketplace would frown on a Mrs. Frisby doll, while there already is a trademark item called, "Frisbee." Even if the spelling does differ, the decision is made according to the sound of the word.
In the book, Mrs. Frisby makes contact with a group of rats that have escaped from cages at the Institute of Mental Health, where they have learned to read, and have developed their knowledge beyond normal. They eventually aid Mrs. Frisby in her need to move her household away from the farmer's plow. They manage to complete this task without disturbing Mrs. Frisby's little boy Timothy who is very ill, and a source of concern for his mother.
In the film, the mother, now Mrs. Brisby, is developed nicely as a personality and her emotional attitude toward the health of her son and her desire to solve her problem is well brought out by skillful animation. The story takes a twist, when for the sake of adding screen excitement to the plot, the film becomes enmeshed in a violent fight between two factions of rats. The rats who do not wish to follow the colony's leader, Nicodemus, use Mrs. Brisby's plight for their own ends. The problem is solved by magic and the will of Mrs. Brisby as well as through the help of the rats.
My feelings about the production are that the voices of the characters were well chosen. John Carradine lends his awesome presence to the intonations of The Great Owl, Dom DeLuise is the comic personality of the crow Jeremy, the only truly funny character in the film. Derek Jacoby is Nicodemus, a character who in the book was more philosophical, but under the pencils of the animators has become mystical and mysterious, like a subject for a sword and sorcery story. Elizabeth Hartman sweetly delivers Mrs. Brisby's lines and Paul Shenar is almost Shakespearian in his interpretation of Jenner, the evil antagonist.
The animation was quite good and except for some secondary characters, the awesome task of doing about 80 minutes of animation in two years was well accomplished. My difficulty with the film is the overuse of effects. There is simply too much going on. Often, with the exception of the animation of the mice and the crow, which was reminiscent of Disney, the rest of the film was more like the Ralph Bakshi approach, in its heightened drama and coloration. Shadows, glows and sparkles do add a dimension to the film. Don Bluth, in his New School lecture, explained that limited animation and drawings that resembled drawings were not as capable of keeping an audience enthralled for over an hour in a theatre.
He is right in contending that a feature film needs more effort than the familiar television form of animation, but overloading the visual imagery and adding a lot of effects to heighten the mood of a scene has to be done with balance. The reason "Snow White" succeeded was because of this balance. Ironically, when the Disney people had their backs to the wall and had to make a feature with limited capital and in a shorter time, they brought forth "Dumbo," a masterpiece of storytelling--all cartoon. I expect that "The Secret of NIMH" will do well at the box office, but while everyone else is standing in line to NIMH, I suggest that the Bluth people sneak another look at "Dumbo."
1. Beckerman H. ANIMATION SPOT. Back Stage (Archive: 1960-2000). 1982;23(33):15-15, 24. http://mutex.gmu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu/magazines/animation-spot/docview/962835235/se-2?accountid=14541.
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