THE SECRET OF NIMH – The Blu Review

Get ready to meet some runaway rodents with an earth-shattering secret! Suspenseful and heartwarming, this beautifully animated odyssey stars Mrs. Brisby, a mild-mannered mother mouse with a plan to move Heaven and Earth (or at least her house and home) to save her family from Farmer Fitzgibbon’s plow! Along the way she gets some help from a lovelorn Crow, a busybody neighbor mouse and a fearsome Great Owl. Unfortunately, Mrs. Brisby will need an engineering miracle to hoist her home, and for that she must face a mysterious rat, fend off a ferocious cat and claim a magic amulet! But when Mrs. Brisby discovers the astounding secret of NIMH…it could change her life forever! This timeless tale of love, courage and determination will transport the whole family into an enchanting world where the bravest hearts live in the meekest of mice.

This is a must see for any animation fan. Not from the Disney machine, this film proves that good animated films can be done without being backed by the “house of mouse”. The voices of Derek Jacobi, Elizabeth Hartman, Arthur Malet and Don DeLuise certainly helped to make this story the imaginative, fun filled ride that it is! This is a timeless tale that generations to come will enjoy!

The only thing that is not timeless is the video quality. The film just does not transfer over to our 1080p world very well (1080p/AVC-encoded transfer). The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 was pretty impressive though, if I do say so myself.

• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p/24
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, French Dolby 2.0 Mono, German Dolby 2.0 Mono, Italian Dolby 2.0 Mono, Portuguese Dolby 2.0 Mono, Spanish (Castilian) Dolby 2.0 Mono, Spanish (Latin American) Dolby 2.0 Stereo
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish (Latin American)
• Region: A (B? C?)
• Rating: G
• Discs: 1
• Studio: MGM

EXTRAS

• Audio Commentary: Gary Goldman and Don Bluth discuss the film, although this is not new. This was the commentary recorded for the DVD release in 2007, which is still both relevant and fun! My art loving self especially enjoyed listening to the two of them talk about how they approach animation and budgeting. If you are a fan of animation then you are going to enjoy this!
• Secrets Behind the Secret (14 min) Goldman and Bluth are back to take you on the journey from book to screen. Again, if you are into animation you will like this. This is in SD.
• Trailer (2 min) I love watching trailers for older movies, so this was neat,

OVERALL RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars