So lovely to read this! Wonderful memories being part of a dedicated, talented crew.
I worked on NIMH with Dorse Lanpher who trained me in special effects animation - and am proud to say that although my job title was assistant animator he trusted me to animate all the mud in the scene at the end where it's dripping from the brick as it's hauled out of the muck. I left LA for the UK and have now lived in Scotland for many years. The production of NIMH was so long ago but the thought of those brilliant times makes me smile to this day
Secret of NIMH has long been my favorite animated film. I'm lucky enough to own production artwork from it and other Bluth productions. I've always had a preference for Bluth's style.
It's an awesome film -- we're recent converts (having seen it for the first time in the last few years) but it very much impressed us when we watched it. Revisiting it for this article, it was even better. They really did something with NIMH!
Absolutely. That weird stigma ("cartoons are for kids") crept in over time, but they started out as entertainment for general audiences, and some of them were aimed more specifically at adults. Bluth really struggled with this problem on NIMH. He wanted to go back to the old Disney storytelling and get a PG rating, but his backers wanted G to secure the kid audience. It definitely comes across as a PG movie, but they got a G rating anyway, and it seems to have hurt the film's appeal with teenage and adult viewers at the time.
Oh well. It does seem like the stigma is starting to lift in recent years, and hopefully that continues!
YES! Introducing Kids to the real world through cartoons is good. I remember quite a ways back when I heard about they were making "FAKE" knives for kids soothes wouldn't cut themselves. And I thought what happens when they get. hold of a real one!
NIMH has always been one of my all time faves, and as an adult the Bluth films have fascinated me, and I never really knew why. These series on Don Bluth has been so wonderful, thanks for two really awesome reads on a very interesting creative endeavor.
Thank you once again for the kind words! Really happy that the NIMH piece could live up to the last one. It's a gem of a film and we were fascinated to learn more about it ourselves.
It's inspiring to see the old technical processes and how creative (but brilliantly simple!) they could be. So much of it really was just trickery and sleight of hand -- but the results they got speak for themselves. Even in the digital age, there are lessons to learn from what filmmakers did in the past.
And very neat to see all the women involved on the project. I’d forgotten what a bad-a Mrs. Brigsby was. A mother as a hero and heroine. With action and danger scenes! When Disney’s default seems to be to have the mother RIP early and often.
So glad you enjoyed the piece! And women definitely played a major role at Don Bluth Productions -- Disney's whole staff of women key animators left to join it in 1979. There weren't many opportunities for women to advance at Disney back then, and NIMH (and later Bluth films like An American Tail) was kind of a sea change. It's an under-explored part of these films, for sure!
I had no idea that the success of this film is what got Spielberg to work with Bluth. I loved An American Tail. I rewound the VHS so many times I wore it out. Crazy to think that that film would not exist without NIMH. I've never had the chance to check that movie out. I'll have to go give it a shot now for sure!
This is the reason and standard for substacks. Thank you so much for this work. The insights, the reporting, the emotion. Top notch. Best duology you've released yet imo. Bravo and keep it up.
So glad to see this movie get the AO treatment! The camera tricks they used really ought to be recorded and saved to some central document - it would be such a shame for that knowledge to be lost, even though film isn't commonly used for animation anymore. I had researched it myself last year, and found that you could translate some of the techniques even while using digital tools!
Very glad you liked it! And you're right -- this stuff needs to be preserved in a more structured (and public) way. We're fortunate that some very detailed articles were written about NIMH's process, but even those can't measure up to real technical manuals. Hopefully those kinds of things have been saved alongside the artwork in SCAD's Don Bluth archive, and may one day come to light again.
I wonder how much the home video market played in NIMH's fortunes. This was a movie I routinely remember being on TV and in rental stores all the time as a kid in the 90s, considering that the VHS market itself didn't really take off until some time in the 80s. I am sure that's how a lot of people were exposed to NIMH once it ended its theatrical run.
(Our home didn't have it but it did have a copy of Fievel Goes West that we watched over and over again, of all things, ha)
Thanks very much! And it seems like VHS was huge in spreading NIMH during the '80s and '90s, based on what we've read. It was fortunate timing -- if it'd released just a few years earlier, it might not have benefited so much.
So lovely to read this! Wonderful memories being part of a dedicated, talented crew.
I worked on NIMH with Dorse Lanpher who trained me in special effects animation - and am proud to say that although my job title was assistant animator he trusted me to animate all the mud in the scene at the end where it's dripping from the brick as it's hauled out of the muck. I left LA for the UK and have now lived in Scotland for many years. The production of NIMH was so long ago but the thought of those brilliant times makes me smile to this day
Thank you for sharing this! So amazing. We're very glad you enjoyed the piece -- it's an honor.
Wow!
How lucky!
Secret of NIMH has long been my favorite animated film. I'm lucky enough to own production artwork from it and other Bluth productions. I've always had a preference for Bluth's style.
It's an awesome film -- we're recent converts (having seen it for the first time in the last few years) but it very much impressed us when we watched it. Revisiting it for this article, it was even better. They really did something with NIMH!
Actually, as you probably well know, cartoons were originally created for adults! That's why they were good!
Absolutely. That weird stigma ("cartoons are for kids") crept in over time, but they started out as entertainment for general audiences, and some of them were aimed more specifically at adults. Bluth really struggled with this problem on NIMH. He wanted to go back to the old Disney storytelling and get a PG rating, but his backers wanted G to secure the kid audience. It definitely comes across as a PG movie, but they got a G rating anyway, and it seems to have hurt the film's appeal with teenage and adult viewers at the time.
Oh well. It does seem like the stigma is starting to lift in recent years, and hopefully that continues!
YES! Introducing Kids to the real world through cartoons is good. I remember quite a ways back when I heard about they were making "FAKE" knives for kids soothes wouldn't cut themselves. And I thought what happens when they get. hold of a real one!
Haha, great point!
PUN INTENDED! Genius!
NIMH has always been one of my all time faves, and as an adult the Bluth films have fascinated me, and I never really knew why. These series on Don Bluth has been so wonderful, thanks for two really awesome reads on a very interesting creative endeavor.
Thank you once again for the kind words! Really happy that the NIMH piece could live up to the last one. It's a gem of a film and we were fascinated to learn more about it ourselves.
I wish this was till the way we made things…
It's inspiring to see the old technical processes and how creative (but brilliantly simple!) they could be. So much of it really was just trickery and sleight of hand -- but the results they got speak for themselves. Even in the digital age, there are lessons to learn from what filmmakers did in the past.
And very neat to see all the women involved on the project. I’d forgotten what a bad-a Mrs. Brigsby was. A mother as a hero and heroine. With action and danger scenes! When Disney’s default seems to be to have the mother RIP early and often.
So glad you enjoyed the piece! And women definitely played a major role at Don Bluth Productions -- Disney's whole staff of women key animators left to join it in 1979. There weren't many opportunities for women to advance at Disney back then, and NIMH (and later Bluth films like An American Tail) was kind of a sea change. It's an under-explored part of these films, for sure!
a-ma-zing! :))
Thanks very much!
Great write-up about a great movie. Thanks again!
Thank you very much, as always! Glad you liked the piece.
I had no idea that the success of this film is what got Spielberg to work with Bluth. I loved An American Tail. I rewound the VHS so many times I wore it out. Crazy to think that that film would not exist without NIMH. I've never had the chance to check that movie out. I'll have to go give it a shot now for sure!
We were surprised to learn this ourselves! NIMH really opened doors for the Bluth people. It's pretty amazing. Hope you enjoy the film!
This is the reason and standard for substacks. Thank you so much for this work. The insights, the reporting, the emotion. Top notch. Best duology you've released yet imo. Bravo and keep it up.
Thank you for these incredibly kind words -- this is very high praise! It means a lot. We'll keep doing our best!
So glad to see this movie get the AO treatment! The camera tricks they used really ought to be recorded and saved to some central document - it would be such a shame for that knowledge to be lost, even though film isn't commonly used for animation anymore. I had researched it myself last year, and found that you could translate some of the techniques even while using digital tools!
Very glad you liked it! And you're right -- this stuff needs to be preserved in a more structured (and public) way. We're fortunate that some very detailed articles were written about NIMH's process, but even those can't measure up to real technical manuals. Hopefully those kinds of things have been saved alongside the artwork in SCAD's Don Bluth archive, and may one day come to light again.
I wonder how much the home video market played in NIMH's fortunes. This was a movie I routinely remember being on TV and in rental stores all the time as a kid in the 90s, considering that the VHS market itself didn't really take off until some time in the 80s. I am sure that's how a lot of people were exposed to NIMH once it ended its theatrical run.
(Our home didn't have it but it did have a copy of Fievel Goes West that we watched over and over again, of all things, ha)
Great article as usual!
Thanks very much! And it seems like VHS was huge in spreading NIMH during the '80s and '90s, based on what we've read. It was fortunate timing -- if it'd released just a few years earlier, it might not have benefited so much.
I absolutely love this movie.
We just loved NIMH as kids. So neat to learn that we were actually appreciating top-notch creative animation techniques!