This direct to video animated sequel would be released 16 years after the first Secret of NIMH by MGM & had no involvement from Don Bluth whatsoever. It would feature the voices of people like Ralph Macchio, William H Macy, Hyden Walch, Eric Idle & even Dom Deluise returning as Jeremy! In case you haven't noticed, Mrs Brisby isn't the hero in this one, it's her youngest son Timmy. Remember? The one who had pneumonia & nearly died in the first movie? Anyway, will this movie share the same darkness & be as memorable as the first movie, or shouldn't we rely on Timmy as a hero any time soon? Let's find out!
Story: Like I mentioned, in this one Timmy has to save the rats of NIMH from a new evil in NIMH because of a prophecy apparently said by Nicodemus that one of Jonathan's sons would save them (uh, what about Martin?!). This brings up one of the biggest problems of the movie: there's barely any continuity between this & the first story. Nicodemus never mentioned a prophecy in the first movie, Timmy doesn't know what NIMH is, Mrs Brisby's actions in the first movie are never mentioned & they completely forgot that the rats left Thorn Valley to avoid being captured by NIMH! Not only that, but there's barely any continuity in it's own story, and it just leaves me confused after watching it. But possibly the worst part is it doesn't even feel like a proper Secret of NIMH sequel as the same characters we remember like Mrs Brisby, Justin, Timmy's siblings & Auntie Shrew are barely in the movie & are insultingly butchered or pushed to the sidelines! Heck, the prophecy of the movie is self fulfilled in the end & Martin! Oh yeah, and there's some bullshit love story between Timmy & Jenny which was shoehorned in! Because you know! The Secret of NIMH also had a love story, didn't it?! Genius! With this, I'm not even sure MGM watched the first movie & just looked at a Wikipedia summary of the basics (I know it was made in 1998, but it's possible they did something
like that just so they didn't actually have to put any effort in!
Animation: Right off the bat, it's clear the animation is completely terrible & is nowhere near as good as Don Bluth's animation! The character designs just looks cartoony & rubbery, as well as the character animation being stiff with the animals. Heck, barely any of the animals move with hind legs & just walk around with 2 legs like people! Yes, they did some of that in the first movie, but it was much cleaner & they did take time to have them move like real life mice/rats! The quality is shamefully below Saturday morning cartoon standards, especially in the human designs & character animation as Don's human animation is a thousand times better than the crap our kids have to watch for just over an hour! Also, the backgrounds are generic, the atmosphere around NIMH isn't dark or unsettling like the first movie, Thorn Valley looks more like the Great Valley but miniscule & in a bush, it's all just lazily put together with no effort! Heck, even the lip synching is off & it's pretty clear the sound editors didn't give a crap about whether or not the characters' lips move to what the voice actors are saying! But do you know what the worst part of all of it was? They had the balls to use footage from the first movie for the prologue/stupid narration explaining the prophecy bullshit before going into the actual movie! Yeah, pretty clear the animation is atrocious in case you haven't noticed from the screenshots already!
Characters: If there's anything in this movie which MGM screwed up the most next to the plot, it has easily got to be the characters! Timmy is just the generic young free sprir wide eyed hero while everyone else pressures him into being the hero he was destined to be despite having no qualities of being a leader whatsoever! I didn't care for him, he was just a wimp in this! Mrs Brisby is barely in the movie & they completely disregard what she did in the first movie, so next! Justin has turned into a stupid moron, despite William H Macy trying to salvage what little he's given & Mr Ages is the generic boring mentor! Yeah, remember when he was the lovable yet grumpy mouse from the first movie? Jeremy has turned into a theiving jackass pretending to be The Great Owl (he never appears & it's never mentioned what happened to him) And then there's Martin Brisby...oh God what did MGM do to you Martin?! They turned him into the villain voiced by Eric Idle Sorry, this isn't me being angry that they're different from the first movie! This is me being angry because they lose everything essential for well written characters! As for Timmy's new companions, they are no better! Jenny (yeah, great name choice MGM) is the obligatory love interest whose parents are trapped inside of NIMH and has no personality despite trying to make her like a spunky feisty girl like every other animated heroine in the 90s. And for some reason she has boobs despite none of the other female mice having them which was very disturbing (you're off the hook for now Mrs Toad from Thumbelina!) The 2 cats voiced by Andrea Martin & Harvey Korman are entirely pointless & are just filler when the characters have nothing else to do, & that caterpillar Cecil working with Jeremy was annoying and unecessary! None of the old characters are worth caring about anymore as they're completely disregarded, Timmy isn't strong enough of a character to carry his own movie & the new ones are just so boring, I barely remember them!
Songs: Yeah, this is a musical and you're probably wondering why because 1) the first movie wasn't a musical and 2) they are all completely unecessary! They can easily be summed up as the Crowd Song, the Comedic Sidekick's Song, the I Want Song, the Villain's Song & the Reprise of the First Song Turned into a Love Song while the 2 Romantic Leads are far away from each other song...Yes, I'll admit If You Just Say Yes was laughable & made me chuckle a bit, but it was still stupid, odd & vacuously put together! Well, at least William H Macy has a good singing voice. You know who can't sing? Ralph Macchio! None of the songs are memorable, they're all just filler at a time where it was compulsory for animated movies to have 4 or 5 songs in them at any given time!
This was absolutely painful! This is not only one of the worst animated sequels I've ever seen, this is one of the worst animated movies I've ever seen! Period! I cannot believe what MGM did to the beloved Don Bluth movie! The story is nonsensical & poorly written, the animated is just shamefully below Saturday morning cartoon quality, the once beloved characters are now one dimensional with no complexity & all the songs are unnecessary & filler! Nobody should watch this, especially Don Bluth fans & Secret of NIMH fans!
Story: 2/10
Animation: 2/10
Characters: 1/10
Songs: 2/10
Overall: 2/10
This direct to video animated sequel would be released 16 years after the first Secret of NIMH by MGM & had no involvement from Don Bluth whatsoever. It would feature the voices of people like Ralph Macchio, William H Macy, Hyden Walch, Eric Idle & even Dom Deluise returning as Jeremy! In case you haven't noticed, Mrs Brisby isn't the hero in this one, it's her youngest son Timmy. Remember? The one who had pneumonia & nearly died in the first movie? Anyway, will this movie share the same darkness & be as memorable as the first movie, or shouldn't we rely on Timmy as a hero any time soon? Let's find out!
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