Oct 28, 2016. The deeper book I actually wanted to talk about is a Newberry Medal winner by Robert C. O'Brien: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Have you read it? This is a chapter book (233 pages). The story is too complex to do it justice here, but to set the stage: Mrs. Frisby is a field mouse widow who lives on a farm.

In the Library • As they walk the tunnel into the rats' den, it is very dark. • Finally, Mrs. Frisby sees a faint glow, but she's confused about where it could be coming from, since they are underground.

• They enter a long hallway that is well lit by tiny light bulbs. • Justin watches Mrs.

Frisby's amazement and tells her that the rats have had indoor electricity for four years. Frisby knows about electricity but cannot believe that the rats know how to use it for their own needs. • The group keeps moving and finally they enter a big round chamber that contains an elevator, which they ride in. • Finally, Mrs. Frisby sees more rats: rats working in groups, carrying things, being very organized. • They look at her with curiosity but never stop working. Now that's a work ethic!

• Nicodemus comes over to Mrs. Frisby, who immediately notices that he has a scar over his eye.

This rat's one tough cookie. Ages explains that Mrs.

Frisby has a problem and Nicodemus says that they will help her if they can. • The he asks Justin to take Mrs. Frisby to the library, where he will come find her after their meeting is over. • Justin and Mrs. Frisby go to the library, which is filled with books.

• He excuses himself and says that they are having a meeting about the Plan, and that he needs to be there. Frisby asks what the Plan is, but Justin has already left. • Alone, she gazes in wonder at all the books.

Things are starting to fall into place about her husband and how smart he had always seemed. • The pieces are slowly coming together She thinks his intelligence must be related to the rats somehow. But she's not quite sure what the real deal is. • Then, on a large white board, Mrs.

Frisby sees written out THE PLAN OF THE RATS OF NIMH.

Running time 82 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $7 million Box office $14.7 million The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 American film directed by in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of 's 1971.

The film was produced by and released by for and features the voices of,,,,,,, and. Frisby' name in the novel had to be changed to 'Mrs. Brisby' during production due to trademark concerns with discs. It was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel called, which was made without Bluth's involvement or input.

In 2015, a / reboot was reported to be in the works. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Plot [ ] Mrs. Brisby, a timid widowed field mouse, lives in a cinder block with her children in a field on the Fitzgibbons' farm. She prepares to move her family out of the field as plowing time approaches, but her son Timothy has fallen ill.

She visits Mr. Ages, another mouse and friend of her late husband, Jonathan, who diagnoses Timothy with and provides her with medicine. Ages warns her that Timothy must stay inside for at least three weeks or he will die. On her way home, she encounters Jeremy, a clumsy but friendly crow. They both narrowly escape from the Fitzgibbons' cat, Dragon. The next day, Mrs. Brisby discovers that Farmer Fitzgibbons has started plowing early.

Although her neighbor Auntie Shrew helps her disable his tractor, Mrs. Brisby knows she must devise another plan. Jeremy takes her to visit the Great Owl, who tells her to visit a group of rats that live beneath a rose bush on the farm and ask for Nicodemus, their wise and mystical leader. Brisby enters the rose bush and encounters a tough and aggressive guard rat named Brutus, who chases her away with a battle axe. She is led back in by Mr. Ages (who now has his leg bandaged up) and is amazed to see the rats' use of electricity and other technology. She meets Nicodemus and Justin, the Captain of the Guard, and a ruthless, power-hungry rat named Jenner.

From Nicodemus, she learns that many years ago her husband, along with the rats and Mr. Ages, were part of a series of experiments at a place known as NIMH, the. The experiments boosted their intelligence, enabling them to escape, as well as extending their lifespans and slowing their aging process. However, they are unable to live only as rats, needing human technology to survive, which they have only accomplished by stealing. The rats have concocted 'The Plan', which is to leave the farm and live independently.

Nicodemus gives Mrs. Brisby an called 'The Stone', that gives magical power when its wearer is courageous. Because of her husband's relationship with the rats, they agree to help Mrs. Brisby move her home.

First, they need to drug Dragon to sleep so that they can complete the move safely. Brisby can do this, as only mice are small enough to fit through the hole leading into the house; Jonathan was killed by Dragon in a previous attempt, while Mr.

Ages broke his leg in another. That night, she puts the drug into the cat's food dish, but the Fitzgibbons' son Billy catches her. While trapped in a birdcage, she overhears a telephone conversation between Farmer Fitzgibbons and NIMH and learns that the Institute intends to exterminate the rats the next day. She escapes from the cage and runs off to warn Justin and the others. The rats are moving the Brisby home, with the children inside, using a rope and pulley system during a thunderstorm. Jenner, who wishes for the rats to remain in the rose bush, sabotages the ropes with his reluctant accomplice Sullivan, causing the assembly to fly apart and kill Nicodemus.

Brisby arrives and tries to convince the rats that NIMH is coming and they must leave, but Jenner calls her a hysterical liar, attacks her, and attempts to take the amulet from her neck. Sullivan alerts Justin, who rushes to Mrs. Brisby's aid.

After mortally wounding Sullivan, Jenner engages Justin in a sword fight, which ends in Justin stabbing him. Justin then addresses the other rats to prepare for their departure from the farm. Jenner recovers and advances on an unaware Justin, but the dying Sullivan hurls his own dagger into Jenner's back, killing him. The Brisby house begins to sink into the mud, but Justin and the rats are unable to raise it.

Brisby's will to save her children gives power to the amulet, which she uses to lift the house and move it to safety. The rats depart to Thorn Valley with Justin as their new leader, and Timothy begins to recover. Jeremy eventually meets 'Miss Right', another crow who is just as clumsy as he is, and the two fly away together. Voice cast [ ] • as Mrs. Brisby • as Nicodemus • as Auntie Shrew • as The Great Owl • as Jeremy the Crow • as Mr.

Ages • as Justin • as Jenner • as Sullivan • as Teresa Brisby • as Martin Brisby • as Timothy 'Timmy' Brisby • Jodi Hicks as Cynthia Brisby • as Miss Right • as Farmer Fitzgibbons • as Mrs. Beth Fitzgibbons • Joshua Lawrence as Billy Fitzgibbons •,, and Norbert Auerbach as the Council rats Production [ ] Background [ ] The rights to the book had reportedly been offered to Disney in 1972 but turned down. The Secret of NIMH was the first feature film to be directed. In September 1979 he, fellow animators and, and eight other animation staff left animation department to set up their own independent studio,. The studio worked, at first, out of Bluth's house and garage, but moved to a two-story, 5,500-square-foot (510 m 2) facility in, several months later.

While they were still working at Disney, they produced the 27-minute short film as a side project to gain other production skills that the company and their animation program were not addressing. Bluth asked, 's son-in-law and the president and CEO of the company at the time, to view Banjo, but Miller declined.

As Goldman recalled, 'that pulled the enthusiasm rug out from under us. We had hoped that the studio might like what we were doing and agree to buy the film and allow us to finish the short film in the studio, which would allow us to recoup what we had spent in terms of money and the many hours that we and the other members of the team had invested in the film.' Before they started making Banjo, artist and story writer had been getting into Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which he called 'a wonderful story'. He gave the book to Bluth for him to read and make a film out of after Bluth finished the animation direction of.

Bluth later showed NIMH to German Disney animator, who turned down Bluth's offers to make a movie based on the book, stating, 'We've already got a mouse [named,] and we've done a mouse movie [called ].' However, Bluth also presented the novel to the other staff that would work for Don Bluth Productions later on, and they all loved it. Two months later, former Disney executive James L.

Stewart, who now had started, called Goldman and told him about Anderson's idea of making a film based on NIMH. At Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy's request, Aurora Productions acquired the film rights and offered Don Bluth Productions a budget of 5.7 million and 30 months to complete the film, tighter in both budget and schedule than most Disney animated features at the time. Casting [ ] Goldman described the casting process as 'exciting, fun, and sometimes strange'. He stated that focusing on the characteristics of each character, the voices, and acting abilities were crucial, saying that using voices that added to a movie's texture was part of the team's philosophy in the development of a film. Goldman found the strangest casting decision to be for Jeremy the Crow, which Goldman, Bluth, and Pomeroy had considered after they watched the 1978 film. Was cast as Mrs.

Brisby, with Goldman calling her performance in 'so believable and sincere that we all felt that she was right for the part.' Pomeroy suggested, who starred in the 1976 miniseries, to play the part of Nicodemus., whom the team previously saw in another miniseries from 1976,, was cast as Justin. Was assigned to play Jenner; the staff liked his 'dark, powerful voice'. Shakespearean actor was 'perfect for the dark, ominous Great Owl', while was assigned to voice Sullivan, whom Goldman said 'also had a great distinctive voice'. Production [ ].

Brisby meets Nicodemus. Backlighting techniques are used in this scene to give Nicodemus's eyes a bright glow. According to the 2007 DVD release, Bluth wanted Nicodemus and the Great Owl to be seen as aspects of the same character, accounting for some similarities in their designs. The production of The Secret of NIMH lasted from January 1980 to early June 1982.

The studio set out with the explicit goal in mind of returning feature animation to its ', concentrating on strong characters and story, and experimenting with unusual and often more labor-intensive animation techniques. Bluth believed older techniques were being abandoned in favor of lower production costs, and the only way animation could survive was to continue production methods. Among the techniques experimented with on The Secret of NIMH were, multiple passes on the camera to achieve transparent shadows, and backlit animation (where animated are shot with light shining through to produce glowing areas for artificial light and fire effects), multiple color palettes for characters to fit in different lighting situations, from daylight, to night, to warm environments, to underwater. Brisby had 46 different lighting situations, therefore there were 46 different color palettes, or lists of color, for her.

Two modern, computerized versions of the were also manufactured for this production. To achieve the film's detailed full animation while keeping to the tight budget, the studio strove to keep any waste of time and resources to a minimum. The crew often worked long hours with no immediate financial reward (though they were offered a cut of the film's profits, a practice common for producers, directors and stars of live action films but never before offered to artists on an animated feature); producer Gary Goldman recalled working 110-hour weeks during the final six months of production. Around 100 in-house staff worked on the film, with the labor-intensive painting farmed out to 45 people working from home. Many minor roles, including incidental and crowd voice work, were filled in by the in-house staff. The final cost of the film was $6.385 million.

The producers, Bluth, Goldman, Pomeroy, and the executive producers at Aurora mortgaged their homes collectively for $700,000 to complete the film, with the understanding that their investment would be the first to be repaid. The film was the sixth animated feature to be presented in the sound system. Changes from the book [ ].

'The amulet was a device, or symbol, to represent the internal power of Mrs. In many ways, it was an extension of Mrs.

A visual extension of an internal (and harder to show in a film) power.' -- Don Bluth, explaining the amulet's inclusion in the film One of the earliest drafts of the film was written by, who received a creative consultant credit in the final product, and was closer to the original novel. The story would have focused more on the rats and their time at NIMH as it did in the book, which was reduced to a short in later revisions to bring Mrs. Brisby and her plight into the forefront. It also included a female rat named Isabella (described as 'a young, cute, somewhat motor-mouthed rat with a crush on Justin'), who was ultimately left out and much of her dialogue given to Nicodemus. A revised synopsis dated July 2, 1980 by an unattributed author would take the movie closer to its completed form, which ended with the mysterious disappearance of the rats, leading the characters and audience to wonder if they ever really existed, or were just an elaborate illusion.

Bluth himself would later make several changes to the story, most notably with the addition of mystical elements not present in the original novel. He explained 'Regarding magic, we really believe that animation calls for some magic, to give it a special 'fantastic' quality.'

This was most apparent in the magic given to Mrs. Brisby, which was meant to be a visual representation of her character's internal power; something harder to show on film. 1001 Nights Turkish Serial Movies On Dvd. The object was also meant to introduce a aspect to the plot, with the director remarking, 'The stone or amulet is just a method of letting the audience know that Mrs. Brisby has found 'Courage of the Heart'.

In the same vein, Nicodemus was made into a to 'create more mystery' about himself and the rats' colony. The antagonist Jenner was given much more prominence in the movie, being only mentioned as a traitor who leaves in the book, to 'add drama' to the narrative by giving it a more visible enemy.

Justin also now succeeds Nicodemus as the leader of the rats to give his character more of an, and allow him an opportunity to 'grow and change.' Unlike the original work, Justin does not rescue Mrs. Brisby from the cage at the Fitzgibbons' house, and she now helps her children without the rats' assistance by using the amulet; once again giving focus to her personal story.

As Bluth put it, ' The Secret of NIMH is really a story about Mrs. Brisby and her need to save her children. If the rats save her children, then she hasn't grown in the film.' During the film's production, Aurora contacted, the manufacturers of flying discs, with concerns about possible trademark infringements if the 'Mrs.

Frisby' name in O'Brien's original book was used in the movie. Wham-O rejected Aurora's request for waiver to use the same-sounding name to their 'Frisbee', in the movie. Aurora informed Bluth & company that Mrs. Frisby's name would have to be altered.

By then, the voice work had already been recorded for the film, so the name change to 'Mrs. Brisby' necessitated a combination of re-recording some lines and, because John Carradine was unavailable for further recordings, careful sound editing had to be performed, taking the 'B' sound of another word from Carradine's recorded lines, and replace the 'F' sound with the 'B' sound, altering the name from 'Frisby' to 'Brisby'. Soundtrack [ ] The Secret of NIMH Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Various Artists Released July 2, 1982 Soundtrack Length 48: 17 (original release), 63:09 (2015 expansion) (1982) (1995) (2015) Don Bluth Music of Films chronology The Secret of NIMH (1982) The Secret of NIMH1982 (1986) 1986 The Secret of NIMH Original Motion Picture Soundtrack contains songs from the film written by and performed by the, with vocal selections by and.

It was Goldsmith's first composition for an animated feature, which he admitted was such a departure from his normal work that in the end he approached the project like a live action score, employing the same kind of extended themes and structural development. What made the scoring process hard for Goldsmith was that he had to score scenes that were unfinished: 'I was on the phone constantly with them. My dupe [copy of the film] was in black and white, and they'd bring their color copy over so I could see it. They were constantly adding footage, and it was constantly, 'What's going on here?' And 'What's happening here?' ' David Horten spent a year on the sound design for the film, which was supervised by Goldman. Goldman found the sound work by Horten his second favorite part of the production process, recalling that some of his 'most beautiful efforts' had to make way for the recordings of Goldsmith's music: 'I remember hearing David’s orchestration of ambient sounds and specific sound effects for the 8 minute tractor sequence without Jerry’s music cue.

It was amazing. But then, so was Jerry’s 8 minute music cue, it remains extremely powerful. We were able to combine a lot of David’s sounds, treating them like part of the orchestra. It came out great, but I couldn’t help but feel empathy for David.' The album was released on July 2, 1982 on and and re-released on March 3, 1995 on with a rearranged track listing. Issued a remastered limited edition album on CD on August 17, 2015 with one previously unreleased cue ('At Your Service,' running 3:39) and three demos of 'Flying Dreams' (as performed by Sally Stevens, Paul Williams and as a piano duet) totaling 10:09. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

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