The book and the movie (not a debate)

I was very impressed with both of them because, while different in so many stark ways, both were very well done.

I read the book "after" seeing the movie because I saw the movie when I was still too young to read. :wink: After reading the book, I did come to realize how much they changed Jenner for the movie, and it kinds saddened me. But, like Daphne said, they needed a bad guy. And ti needed to be climactic. I'm just glad Don Bluth didn't leave you hanging at the end of the movie concerning whether or not Justin was one of the two rats that died in the escape. :( That always tore me up when I read the book.

On that note, the fan-fic I'm working on now is after the book. The only exception is the Brisby/Frisby name. I switched it to the movie's Brisby, because I like it better. :wink:

Hehe, and neither the book nor the movie tell Mrs. Brisby's first name. I've heard so many, though, which makes up for her lack in the story. :wink:

Elizabeth sounds the best so far, I think.

I read the book before seeing the movie, which I only saw in full about a month ago(I had seen it in part before, but many years ago). As such, I think Frisby sounds better, but hey, the movie is still great. I'd say I prefer the book, simply because of the deeper background story, but the movie stands on its own as one of the best animated films out there.

Mrs. Frisby's lack of a first name drives me crazy, and for that matter, what's Mr. Ages first name? :lol:

I read the book before seeing the movie, which I only saw in full about a month ago(I had seen it in part before, but many years ago). As such, I think Frisby sounds better, but hey, the movie is still great. I'd say I prefer the book, simply because of the deeper background story, but the movie stands on its own as one of the best animated films out there.

Mrs. Frisby's lack of a first name drives me crazy, and for that matter, what's Mr. Ages first name? :lol:

I saw the movie first and about 15 years later read the book, and the best part of the book I think, and it`s not like the movie, where Auntie Shrew in the movie gets knocked out (while the Rats are getting to move the home), But in the book Auntie Shrew will not let the rats by any way come near the Frisby home, Mrs.Frisby has intrusted her childern to her and to get close to the Frisby home was a defense to the death under her care ., A great character in the book I felt was left behind in the movie :?

Mrs. Frisby's lack of a first name drives me crazy, and for that matter, what's Mr. Ages first name? :lol:

i really wish the 2nd movie would have backgrounded the many charactors you dont know about. just about all the characters have very little background from the first movie the 2nd movie should have giving background instead of being a sequel.

After seeing the movie umpteen times in 1984-85 and getting my earliest ideas for a fan-fic, I finally found a copy of the book, which proved to be quite influential for those ideas. There was a pleasant surprise or two, in seeing which of the ideas I’d had for the rats’ backstory paralleled happenings in the book. I’d figured that during the rats’ wandering days, they’d spent some time reading and practicing writing in a building like a library, and in the book they’d settled in for the winter at the Boniface estate and did just that. Also, I figured that Johnathan and Mr. Ages had decided to live apart from the rats because they felt strange associating only with rats, even though they were all friends and had been through a lot together. This was exactly how that situation worked out in the book.

Of course, overall, the book fleshed out their backstory much more, though I found that all the mystical aspects, i.e. Nicodemus’s powers and the Stone, weren’t in the book at all, something I didn’t find especially surprising. There were some definite improvements from book to movie having a bit more character conflict among the cast, such as making Ages more irritable, pitting Martin against Auntie Shrew, and the shrew’s and the children’s distrust of Jeremy. Almost everyone in the book gets along almost too well with each other by contrast. Giving Jeremy more personality was good too, as well as giving Jenner a larger role as the heavy.

And of course, Timothy. What a contrast! In the movie he has little on-screen time and only one line, despite the fact that the whole film is centered upon the fact that he’s too ill to be moved. But in the book he has easily the most developed personality, something else that influenced my own writings.

I found it a little irritating, though, the way the NIMH scientists were depicted in the movie compared to the book. In the book, by Nicodemus’s own admission, the Rats were not especially mistreated, though they certainly felt confined and wanted to escape; and the scientists were given names and weren’t faceless ogres who maimed and tortured, as the film depicted them.

Overall, though there are places where the book and movie are at odds with each other, one fills in what the other leaves out pretty well.