How NIMH could've been improved (in my opinion).

I love SoN, and most of you surely love it as well. However, I have a hard time accepting it as a classic. So it got me to thinking on what would have to change/be added in for it to become a classic. As it stands, I would just call it a great cult film, nothing more.

So anyway, these are some changes to SoN that I believe would've improved the film. Take note, this is just my opinion and I would love to hear your opinion if you disagree.

1. Get rid of Jeremy as a comic relief character.

Jeremy's quest to "find Miss Right" is an unnecessary subplot that is hard to take seriously in this otherwise dark tale. Comic relief is good, and I'm not against keeping Jeremy's clumsy personality for sake of a some laughs. But, his obsession of string and sparklys distracts from the overall story about a mother saving her child, while learning about the rats and her husband's role in their community. Having Jeremy intrude in-between these story segments is unnecessary. We already have Auntie Screw, Mr. Ages, and Justin to help in the area of comic relief. We don't need an entire subplot dedicated to it.

2. Bring back the Library Scene.

What if instead of having the Jeremy tied up scene and the sparkly scene, we had the Library scene with Isabella and learn more about the history of the rats? They are after all the center of the story. We know so little about them based off watching the movie, wouldn't it be interesting to figure out how they built their society from scratch?

3. No magic!!!

Or to put it in other words, make it more like the book. Get rid of Mrs. Brisby's fearful disposition and exchange it with Mrs. Frisby's brave and dependent disposition. She can still be timid and humble, however.

I know the magic looks cool, but to me the climax should be about the Rats figuring out how they will avoid NIMH. The ending should be more like the book's ending with the children wanting to visit the Rats someday. And Keep it a mystery as to whether or not the Rats made it to Thorn Valley. Films like these make you think about them long after you've watched them, and while the SoN does have that charm to it, I think it has it for all the wrong reasons.

IMO, the only thing that could've been improved would be to give the film a more thorough ending. The library scene could've been added in as well. (Well, provided George Lucas doesn't demand Isabella be a crappy CGI slug) :P

There's more to the magic than just "looking cool." Mrs. Brisby moving the block was one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the film for me, though I admit that may be mostly due to Jerry Goldsmith's music.

Steven

I should clarify a few things. First off, I wrote this after a long day when I was tired, so I didn't put a lot of thought or effort into making this post.

Second, what I really meant to say is that I do think NIMH could very well be a classic, but I think there's room for improvement when it comes to storytelling. And to me, what separates a classic from a great film is how it well it tells its story. What constitutes a classic is subjunctive, and you guys may very well think NIMH is a classic. But from where I stand, it's just a very good cult film.

Third, as I mentioned I think the film raises a lot of questions that I think shouldn't be raised. Yes Jones, I think the magic gives the film a sense of wonder and when combined with Jerry Goldsmith's score, it's epic; but it doesn't help the story. The awe and mystery should stem from the Rats and how they built their society and the "magic" of the story should stem from the fact that a mother is beating all odds to save her family. As I mentioned elsewhere, that's what really got me attracted to NIMH. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions to the story and it comes out of nowhere, only to be used as deus ex machina.

I love SoN, and most of you surely love it as well. However, I have a hard time accepting it as a classic. So it got me to thinking on what would have to change/be added in for it to become a classic. As it stands, I would just call it a great cult film, nothing more.

So anyway, these are some changes to SoN that I believe would've improved the film. Take note, this is just my opinion and I would love to hear your opinion if you disagree.

1. Get rid of Jeremy as a comic relief character.

Jeremy's quest to "find Miss Right" is an unnecessary subplot that is hard to take seriously in this otherwise dark tale. Comic relief is good, and I'm not against keeping Jeremy's clumsy personality for sake of a some laughs. But, his obsession of string and sparklys distracts from the overall story about a mother saving her child, while learning about the rats and her husband's role in their community. Having Jeremy intrude in-between these story segments is unnecessary. We already have Auntie Screw, Mr. Ages, and Justin to help in the area of comic relief. We don't need an entire subplot dedicated to it.

2. Bring back the Library Scene.

What if instead of having the Jeremy tied up scene and the sparkly scene, we had the Library scene with Isabella and learn more about the history of the rats? They are after all the center of the story. We know so little about them based off watching the movie, wouldn't it be interesting to figure out how they built their society from scratch?

3. No magic!!!

Or to put it in other words, make it more like the book. Get rid of Mrs. Brisby's fearful disposition and exchange it with Mrs. Frisby's brave and dependent disposition. She can still be timid and humble, however.

I know the magic looks cool, but to me the climax should be about the Rats figuring out how they will avoid NIMH. The ending should be more like the book's ending with the children wanting to visit the Rats someday. And Keep it a mystery as to whether or not the Rats made it to Thorn Valley. Films like these make you think about them long after you've watched them, and while the SoN does have that charm to it, I think it has it for all the wrong reasons.

I think Mrs. Brisby's fear really works because we feel for her. She's not fearful to the point of being annoying but enough that we care for her. Its realistic fear.
I actually like Mrs. Brisby more than Mrs. Frisby. This also ties into the magic point which I'll get to in a moment. Mrs. Brisby got out of her problems 1) the chase with Dragon (with thanks to Jeremy)
2) got out of the bird cage. She used her own ingenuity to get out of the cage while Mrs. Frisby had to wait for Justin to get her out.
3) the house problem. Mrs. Brisby used a power within herself, channeled it into the stone and lifted her house and her family to safety. Mrs. Frisby waits patiently with her family as the rats move the house.
Also Mrs. Brisby immediately tells the rats about the arrival of NIMH. Mrs. Frisby tells the rats the next morning after her house has been moved.

I'm not suggesting we take away those scenes you mentioned, except for the moving of the house. The chase with Dragon and her escaping the cage and warning about NIMH can stay in. I like Mrs. Frisby better for the sole reason that they decided to make Mrs. Brisby fearful just so that they can bring in a plot device to show us something pretty. Mrs. Brisby turning into Jesus at the end of the story is not how you handle a character with a fearful disposition. We should see her grow through the hardships she overcomes, such as seeing the owl and drugging the cat, but the only time we see her grow within herself is when she turns into Jesus.


Anyway, the main point to take away from #3 is that I don't want magic in the story. If they can somehow make her fearful and make it seem like she's grown in character without use of magic, I would accept Mrs. Brisby's personality; which brings me to my forth point...

4. No evil Jenner

Jenner is a stereotypical animated movie villain, and while it maybe a cool twist for some of you to see Jenner as a villain rather than an outcast, he lacks subtlety; we know from the moment we see him that he's an evil character who's going to be up to no good. If they made him a more subtle villain with a better motive than killing Nicodemus and assuming The Plan will die out, then I can see it happening. But as it stands, I think it's best just to leave him as an exile of the community.

I wouldn't have minded seeing a little more detail on the Rats' journey to the farm. They could have had at least short scenes showing them at the Boniface Estate and finding the Toy Tinker's van, as described in the book.

I wouldn't have minded seeing a little more detail on the Rats' journey to the farm. They could have had at least short scenes showing them at the Boniface Estate and finding the Toy Tinker's van, as described in the book.

Would've been interesting yes but pacing. The focus is on Mrs. Brisby and not so much the rats. Nicodemus' device shows Mrs. Brisby along with the audience the necessary information: this is how the rats got smart.
The film has to keep its own pace. With novels you can off into detail but with film its different media. Including the scenes you mentioned really aren't necessary since we know what we need to know. And you know sometimes its better to have the mystery of how the rats accomplished what they did. Do we really need a scene where Nicodemus explains, "And for metal we ... We learned about the world by ..."
Again works for a novel not so much a film where there's no mystery left.

4. No evil Jenner

Jenner is a stereotypical animated movie villain, and while it maybe a cool twist for some of you to see Jenner as a villain rather than an outcast, he lacks subtlety; we know from the moment we see him that he's an evil character who's going to be up to no good. If they made him a more subtle villain with a better motive than killing Nicodemus and assuming The Plan will die out, then I can see it happening. But as it stands, I think it's best just to leave him as an exile of the community.

Disagree completely since Jenner adds in extra conflict at the climax and thus merges the two plots.
And yes he's not subtle but really think of all the other animated villains (Disney especially), they're all not subtle.

Debating the magic is tiring but here I go: First Mrs. Brisby did grow throughout the movie. She does volunteers to drug Dragon and its well animated and acted scene where Mrs. Brisby is hesitant at first and then asks Nicodemus if she could do the task. In the scene proceeding it with Jeremy she's pretty tough with Jeremy.
About the stone, Don Bluth said that he wanted Mrs. Brisby to solve her own problem instead of running around begging for help. This goes back to my earlier points about Mrs. Brisby doing stuff that Mrs. Frisby couldn't (escaping the bird cage).

I'm sorry but when comparing the novel to the film, the novel's ending is not that great. But its okay because its novel. If the book's ending was in the film I would call it anti-climatic. The book's strength was telling the story the background of the Rats of NIMH while the film's strength was the character of Mrs. Brisby.

The only time we know that Mrs. Brisby grows as a character is when she uses the stone and shows "courage of the heart." To me, from a storytelling perspective, it's anticlimactic. It looks cool, and it has a sense of awe thanks to great animation and score, which makes it seem climatic, but if we were to dissect it, we'd see it really isn't.

She does a heroic action by using a magical trinket that we can only assume symbolizes her strength and courage, but we don't actually see her courage firsthand. And thus, the only time we see her really grow as a character is when she uses that stone and shows us through pretty animation and score. She was able to use courage to use a plot device to save her family and her home. We don't see her courage, we assume she has it because she uses the stone that only works through courage.

While drugging the cat, she needed assurance from Justin, and while escaping the cage, she still showed fear. When she should really show her courage to us is when she is is standing up and telling the Rats that they're going to die if they stay at the farm. At that point we would have seen her beat the odds and stand up for herself, which too me is much more climatic than using a plot device to save her home. Alas, Mr. Stereotypical Animated Villain pushes her out of the way so that she can be saved by Justin. If we got rid of Mr. Stereotypical Animated Villian, and focus on Mrs. Brisby standing up for herself, wouldn't that be better than what we get in the movie? Again, the only reason I didn't like the Mrs. Brisby personality is because they used it to show off their animation skills instead of benefiting the story.

Now here's my side of the coin, there's an 88 minute run time to TSoN that includes the opening and closing credits. If we cut the Jeremy scenes and the evil villain scenes, we would have enough time, without sacrificing pacing, to have the Library scene. All I want is a basic overview of how they evolved into what they are at the time of the movie. Perhaps go into more detail on how The Plan got formed and a basic look on how the rats were able to set up their society. This would be hard to do, yes, but it would've made NIMH a much better film if they were able to pull it off.

As for the ending, I like endings where the future isn't set in stone or is uncertain, which is what the novel was getting at. It's uncertain if the Rats made it to Thorn Valley or not and it's uncertain as to whether or not the Brisby family will eventually migrate there.

Again, what constitutes a great story and a great movie is purely subjunctive, there's really no right or wrong answer here. You can be perfectly happy with the way NIMH is now, but I think it can be improved upon. It's just my opinion. Don Bluth and yourself have different opinions.

While drugging the cat, she needed assurance from Justin, and while escaping the cage, she still showed fear.

Yes BUT she still went through it. I would hesitate at first when leaping off a bird cage suspended in the air with only a piece of string as a life line. She looked down, took a deep breath and took a leap of faith. Again she could've just stayed there like Mrs. Frisby did.
With the rats' background yeah it would be neat to see those things but the visions ended in an appropriate place, an image of Jonathan.