Powerful

Perfect cast and a good story

Excellent but underrated film

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

When I first watched the original movie (The Secret of NIMH) it was fantastic. It had a perfect mix of dark and cute and it was beautifully animated and written. But this, it's not. Timmy is now an annoying mouse who saves the day from his evil brother. I swear it was so sugarcoated and childish, it made me gag at some of the parts of the movie. The songs are awful and the animation looks cheap and sometimes even choppy. I can see why Bluth did not want to even be related to this movie. What a shame too because the main antagonist had a good twist for the movie and the voice actor at least tried to make him interesting. If you like movies that is so kid friendly it makes you feel like snapping some character's neck in half to stay sane, be my guest. But for the rest of us, please don't see it.

How the Nimh 2 movie was different than the Nimh 2 book.I can remember when there was the first Nimh book which didn't have any swearing but the 1983 Secret of Nimh Don Bluth movie adaption had some PG Bible swear words like God and Damned which upset me and the four letter word would also be in Jane Leslie Conlys 3rd book "R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH 1990" which I was shocked and surprised that Jane Leslie Conly would slip in a few PG swear words like Damned in the 3rd Nimh book since she considers swearing normal.Anyways about this 1998 movie Secret of Nimh 2: Timmy to the rescue as you know is completely different from Jane Leslie Conlys second book "Rasco and the Rats of NIMH 1988" The book had Timmy walking all the way to Thorn Valley with his new rat friend Rasco. Nicodemus is alive and well in the book and so is Rascos father Jenner but killed himself in the end to break the dam. and they're trying to prevent humans from building a new dam.The movie didn't have Rasco and they already killed off Nicodemus and Jenner. There are new characters not in the book like the 2 mean cats Muriel and Floyd. Jenny McBride the girl mouse. There's also 2 humans Dr. Valentine and his scientist assistant. There's also a caterpillar named Cecil.This movie's about a mouse named Timmy who goes to Thorn Valley and meets his new girlfriend mouse Jenny and together they fly over to the city at a mad scientist lab to save his insane mental ill brother Martin and stop the Invasion of Thorn Valley.My thoughts about this movie is yes the mice are half naked wearing shirts but no pants or shoes so you can see their furry bottoms which I find silly. Even though this was better and happier than the dark PG movie Nimh 1 I was disappointed they completely changed the book similar to Disneys 1985 "The Black Cauldron" movie.Anyways I wonder what Jane Leslie Conly thought when she saw this movie and I wonder if she told MGM no more movie adaptations. Anyways the story and music was fun and entertaining even if it was completely different from the book. I feel sorry for Paul Sabella and the MGM people who worked hard at the movie and I'm sorry Robert C. O Briens book has been altered by Hollywood people.

In the book on which these films were based, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien, 1971), the rats are so much more fascinating than in either of the films. Their plan to move the Brisby household actually works, thanks to the supervision of their mechanical expert, Arthur. In the book, Nicodemus does not get offed, and as far as the original film is concerned, I didn't understand how someone so wise and visionary didn't know better than to stand underneath a structure that could collapse at any minute, or why he didn't see through Jenner's plot. The film would have been so much nicer if Brutus, for instance, had noticed Jenner and stopped him with his electrified spear, then held him in place while Sullivan tied him up and, when they heard from Mrs. Brisby (why couldn't they just stick with Frisby? I don't care if it does sound similar to a toy) that NIMH was coming, they leave Jenner where NIMH can find him and have him sent back. After seeing Mrs. Brisby rescue her house herself with the amulet, some might say, "I think this proves that relying on the kindness of strangers only gets you into trouble." Others might say, "Did you saying 'relying on the kindness of strangers' or 'watching TV'?" This time, Dr. Schultz (the scientist who gave the rats and mice their injections) could give Jenner's cage a padlock. Besides, Mrs. Brisby wouldn't have had to burn her hands on the amulet (why did they even bother adding that?). Why did the Great Owl have glowing orange eyes without pupils? Seriously, he looked nothing like a great horned owl. Also, it never mentions that Mrs. Brisby isn't really a mouse, but rather a meadow vole (which in America is what we often refer to as the "field mouse"). Why doesn't Justin come back with the tools he uses in the book to rescue Mrs. Brisby? Cynthia was supposed to be "slim, pretty and overly fond of dancing", but in the sequel--enough said. Teresa and Martin were supposed to carry Timothy outside, wrapped in several pieces of cloth large and thick enough to avoid exposing him to the cold (okay, so it was raining in the film, but Mrs. Brisby could have asked the rats to bring some sort of waterproof covering, like cellophane). In the movie, they didn't really have the opportunity to help out. It was like the whole point of the film was to make the audience cheer for Mrs. Brisby and yawn at everyone else, forgetting how special they all were, not just she (ie Timothy was supposed to be the smartest and kindest of the four Brisby children). I wouldn't be surprised if this movie made viewers question the importance of teamwork. In the sequel, Nicodemus states a prophecy that only the son of Jonathan Brisby can stop the evil coming to threaten Thorn Valley, so anybody who has read the book might think, "Of course, this explains everything. In the original film, that wasn't the real Nicodemus. That was an impostor. The real Nicodemus would have had much more sense than to let himself be killed--and also, he wears a patch over his left eye (from an encounter with Dragon the cat) and a satchel over his shoulder. Possibly for the movie, he'll also wear a robe similar to that worn by Moses. Soon after he drugged Dragon, and lost his eye, he must have been recaptured by NIMH before he could take his position as the leader of the rats, and been put in a better cage. Don't worry, Nick, your late pal Jonathan's son Timmy is on his way to rescue you, just like you predicted." Timmy could have rescued him, and then Nicodemus could have asked where Timmy's siblings were, and said that he actually wanted all four Brisby children to rescue him to avoid jealousy and hatred, but his prophecy was mistranslated by the time it reached the rats, and apologized for the mistake. He could have said that the evil coming to threaten Thorn Valley was the development of a strip mall. Nicodemus could have explained that he needs every rat and mouse he can find to help him stop it, and Martin (who has somehow wound up at NIMH) could overhear every word of this, and realize that he, too, has a destiny. The three of them could have headed back to Thorn Valley and once more, Nicodemus would have been the leader of the rats, with Justin as his right-hand man, and repeated his message to everyone in Thorn Valley. Nicodemus could have given everybody a chance to help out stopping the mall, including Mrs. Brisby, Teresa, Martin and Cynthia as well as Timmy. They must show the developers a less ecologically sensitive place to build it. On the way, they find themselves forced to outwit--why don't we say, in the sequel, Dragon has a mate named Phoenix, and they have a son named Griffin, and he could be their arch nemesis? They must also deal with natural predators, such as foxes and weasels, and Timmy has the idea to convince them to eat starlings, thereby making things better for the largely displaced eastern bluebirds. Nicodemus could have asked Mrs. Brisby her name, and she could have said, "It's Maia". It would certainly suit her, wouldn't it? After all, it means "good mother", and it goes without saying that she's all of that. As soon as order had been restored to Thorn Valley, Nicodemus could have made some of the rats members of a safety patrol, led by all four Brisby siblings. Where was Elvira, the rats' doctor in the sequel (by O'Brien's daughter Jane Leslie Conly) to the book? Also, why didn't the sequel feature Martin's mate, Breta the meadow vole? Real meadow voles may not have Jenny's blonde ponytail, blue eyes or breasts, but they're adorable just the same. Animals shouldn't need human features to seem more appealing.

The original Secret of Nimh is an absolute masterpiece,(I do confess I saw this and the original fairly recently) with gorgeous animation, great characters and phenomenal music by the late Jerry Goldsmith, and is regarded by a vast majority including myself as Bluth's masterpiece. However, this sequel is awful in every aspect, and makes Rock a Doodle Doo, Troll in Central Park and almost all of the Disney sequels look like masterpieces, which of course they are definitely not. Sure it is a direct to video sequel, but the cheap production values really show here.The animation was horrid. The character animations were jarring, and the editing was very choppy. The colours made the backgrounds look extremely flat and dull, and the visual effects rarely impressed either.One of the highlights of the original was the music by the wonderful Jerry Goldsmith, who has also done magnificent scores for Legend and Rambo:First Blood. In the sequel, the music was dreadful,(lacking the darkness and lyricalism of the original's) and it was pretty evident that Goldsmith's score is sorely missed. "Just say yes" (I think it's called)is the only half decent song in the movie. And the singing was even worse, it was as if the vocalists thought they were singing in a school end of year production.The dialogue was pathetic, and held no correlation whatsoever to the original or the parts of the book I read. Some of it was extremely cheesy, it really was. Also it completely lacked the mystery and suspense of the first film.(sorry I'm comparing the whole time, and this is what I honestly feel) The plot was also unoriginal and unevenly paced, and inappropriately bright, compared to the darkness and sentiment of the original.It was also a shame that the characters that made the original so memorable didn't have a bigger part to play. Timmy came across as rather whiny and annoying, a far cry from Elizabeth Hartmann's sorrowful and poignant portrayal of Mrs Brisby who you hardly see in the sequel, and Dom DeLuise was nowhere near as funny as he was in the original. Justin's voice was dubbed, and quite poorly might I add. I also thought, and I am probably the only person to think this, that the villains were rather lame. Despite some spirited voice work from Eric Idle, the villain Martin was very bland, in everything he did and said. In the original, Jenner while not the best and most complex villain ever, was very convincing, a complete juxtaposition of the villain here.In conclusion, an awful sequel to a beautiful film. The only redeeming quality was the talented voice cast, who were given little to work with. I am truly sorry I am sounding like a broken record, and comparing the sequel to the original, but as honesty is the best policy, I'll be perfectly frank, and say I didn't like this movie at all. 1/10 (originally a 2, but it was worse when I saw it again to make sure I wasn't taking leave of my senses) Bethany Cox.