The Secret of NIMH

The Secret of NIMH (1982)

Timing: 1:22 (82 min)

7.424/10
788

7.684/10
5833

7.5/10
50000

All about film

Video 3

Photo 46

Actors and characters

Release date

1982-06-17

Country

United States

Production

United Artists, Sullivan Bluth Studios, Aurora, Mrs. Brisby Ltd.

Genre

Family, Animation, Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction

Budget

$7 000 000

Revenue

$14 665 733

Website

Director

Don Bluth

Actors

Derek Jacobi, Elizabeth Hartman, Arthur Malet, Dom DeLuise, Hermione Baddeley, Shannen Doherty, Wil Wheaton, Jodi Hicks, Ina Fried, John Carradine
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy, Don Bluth, Rich Irvine, James L. Stewart

Operator

Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Artist

Audition

Editing

Jeffrey C. Patch
All team (18)

• According to the farmer’s wife, the abbreviation N.I.M.H. stands for the National Institute of Mental Health.
• The film used 1078 backgrounds.
• The film used over 600 colors. 26 colors were used solely for the image of Mr. Ages.
• The main character's name was changed from Mrs. Frisby to Mrs. Brisby to avoid legal issues with Frisbee manufacturers. Unfortunately, this was done late in the production, and because it was impossible to rewrite all the lines with the character's name, the change from Frisby to Brisby was carried out by two sound editors.
• The sword fight scene between Justin and Jenner is largely copied from the duel between the heroes played by Errol Flynn (1909-1959) and Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) in Michael Curtiz’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938). Some of its elements are copied from fight scenes in Richard Fleischner’s “The Vikings” (1958).
• At the time of its release, “The Secret of NIMH” was the largest non-Disney animated project.
• Animators Don Bluth, John Pomeroy, and Gary Goldman left Disney for this project. They made the decision after the project was rejected there as “too dark” to be commercially successful. Soon after, another 20 animators resigned. They were all dubbed “Disney defectors” by the industry press.
• Initially, $6.5 million was allocated for the film's production, but the budget was cut during the process. Gary Goldman and the film's producers mortgaged their own homes to raise the necessary $700,000 that was lacking. In any case, the film's budget was less than $7 million, i.e., approximately half of what the company Disney spent on each animated film.
• At the time of its release, "Secrete N.I.M.H." was the largest non-Disney animated project.