Don Bluth's Masterpiece!
10/10
Author: TheLittleSongbird from United Kingdom
22 May 2009

I will confess I saw this for the first time today on YouTube, and I loved it. I always said that Anastasia and American Tail were the best of Bluth's movies, but I now think that this beats them both.The story is very dark and mysterious but magical all the same. The animation is just stunning, with beautiful backgrounds and excellent character animation. Brutus is a little frightening though, or his animation is, so is the scene with the great owl, which is inredibly haunting.

The music by the wonderful late Jerry Goldsmith is phenomenal, very reminiscent of his score for the Eurpean version for Legend (the Ridley Scott film). The song I think it's called Flying Dreams is heart- rending, and just shows the talent the man had, and I am grateful that there weren't too many songs to interrupt the flow. The characters are very well done, the brave yet timid Mrs Brisby, the dashing Justin, the villainous Jenner, the wise Nicodemus and the wise-cracking Jeremy.

Nicodemus and Jeremy are very impressive, voiced wonderfully by Derek Jacobi and Dom Deluise, and Jenner while not as sinister and frightening a villain as Hexxus, Chernabog or the Horned King, he is still very convincing. Oh, and the scenes with Mrs Brisby's children and Auntie Shrew brought some fun into a dark story, and didn't interfere too much, and Elizabeth Hartmann gives a sorrowful and poignant portrayal as Mrs Brisby.

I haven't read the book in its entirety, but I do remember my year 6 primary school teacher reading the chapter when Mrs Brisby(or Frisby in the book) meets Brutus for the first time. All in all, a beautiful film, and I am sorry it has taken me so long to see it. I advice you to avoid the sequel though, it's awful. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Don Bluth's first feature film and a fanciful film
10/10
Author: Julia Arsenault (ja_kitty_71) from Canada
2 April 2008

NIMH is one of favorite Don Bluth films, and I now admitted that Bluth is now a favorite animator along with Max Fleischer,Chuck Jones,Hayao Miyazaki and even from Disney David Hand director of Snow White and Bambi; Don was animator from Disney himself. I also would like to point out that this is his first feature films.

I think I remember reading the original book with my Mom when I was a kid in Elementary School, but now I think it kind of slip off of my mind, I would have to read it again. My favorite scenes from the film are when Ms. Brisby meets Justin the rodent hottie. And when she used the stone's magic powers to...(n'en dis pas trop camarade...pense à ceux qui n'ont pas encore vu le film...merci  beaucoup)now that was AWESOME!

One of my Favorite animated movies.
10/10
Author: The_Depressed_Star_Wars_fan from United States
8 June 2010

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is a great movie. The animation in this movie, although not as good as like Disney or Studio Ghibli animation, is still great to look at. It was done by Don Bluth who you might remember as the guy who did, The Land before Time, An American Tail, etc. But trust me when I say that this is Bluth's masterpiece. The voice acting in this film is actually very good, considering that it always seems that voice actors don't sound convincing. But here they do. The Story line to this movie is the best part. For a kids film it is actually kinda dark and interesting at times. Sure there are times when it gets childish but for the most part it's pretty interesting. So in the end THE SECRET OF NIHM is a great movie, so I say check it out.