357 Wondertwins.

The film Nina Takes A Lover hadn’t been on TV in forever, but it was on the other day after I drew this page.  What are the chances huh? 

Anyway, the other day I found the pan & scan version of The Secret Of Nimh for $5 at the store.  Normally I’d hold out for the widescreen version, but who can afford to be picky these days?  Certainly not I. 

I bring up this discovery because the voice of Mrs. Brisby (Frisby in the book) is pretty close to the voice I hear, in my mind, when I write for Nina. Just play the clip, close your eyes, and imagine Nina speaking Brisby’s lines.

This isn’t the scene I would choose to showcase Elizabeth Hartman’s performance, but it was the best I could find that didn’t have embedding disabled.

Fun fact: Wil Wheaton and Shannen Doherty both provide voices for Brisby children.

Unfun fact: Elizabeth Hartman fell to her death from a fifth story window in 1987.

The Secret Of Nimh is one of those movies that’s really good if you can suspend your disbelief. A lot of stuff is never explained, like how the rats ended up with a magic necklace, or a remote viewing portal. The inscription on the back of the stone is kinda lame too: You can unlock any door if you only have the key. Yes… that is how doors and keys work. I guess it comes across as much more magical when you’re 6. I think it would have been better if Nicodemus’s line “courage of the heart is very rare, the stone has a power when it’s there” had been the inscription, but what do I know? I’ve never produced a cult classic animated feature.

Even with its flaws The Secret Of Nimh is still one of my favorite movies. In the end I’m a sucker for magical artifacts that run on love. If you ever want to see a fat man get misty just sit me down for the last scenes of Nimh, and watch me pretend that I have a hair in my eye.

18 Comments

HA! Thats awesome! I also had recently seen that film so luckily I get the reference. I also like that in some way, Jess is rooting for her brother. And wow, I haven’t thought about Secret of Nimh since grade school.

Is Jess’ friend pregnant or something or just wearing 20 layers?

And yes, when one is 6, The Secret of Nimh rocks out loud!

I still love this movie, even with some of it’s flaws. You know the part where Nicodemus is explaining how the rats changed from the drugs, and they show that trippy scene with the heart beat, and the scary music and the dna looking strands everywhere?….Yeah….i couldn’t watch that scene for the LONGEST time as a kid cause it would scare the dickens outta me.

I love NIMH, but Brisby’s voice sounds sort of airy, and I imagine Nina with a more filled voice. Same tone just more filled out. I don’t know how to describe it.

NIMH is such an awesome movie indeed, but the sequel was just stupid. It’s the reason Family Guy makes jokes about Disney direct-to-DVD movies.

Freaking awesome original, though. One of, if not THE best Disney movies out there.

Uh, muteKi, you DO know that SoN is by Don Bluth studios? The American Tail guys? Ex-Disney, not Disney…

Loved the book, which had the rats all super-scientific, not magical. Couldn’t suspend my disbelief for the movie.

What gets me is that Dave Sim wrote that he really enjoyed Dom DeLouise as the crow and said that Bluth should make 10,000 more movies with Dom. Which they did.

Finally, someone else who liked the book better! I really hated that they turned the movie into a pro-magic story instead of a pro-science one. I mean, WTF, science is more awesome than magic, so why change it?

Granted, I was in my teens or twenties when the movie came out, so that bothered me a lot more than it would have if I’d been 8.

I loved American Tail. Even the first sequel wasn’t so bad. And I have fond memories of Rock-A-Doodle Doo, though I’m not sure how well it’s stood the test of time.

I love that movie. It’s portable awesome. Now I have to dig out my VHS.

Also, I like the design for Jess’s friend. She’s cute.

How strange, I just watched that movie recently! And yes! That voice does fit her nicely!
That unfun fact was sad….I did not know that was her fate

Nimh was one of my favorite movies as a kid… although the part where they show the rats getting stuck with needles always freaked me out. Probably why I couldn’t get my blood draw until I was in my teens.

that clip now has embedding disabled XD sometimes youtube can bite me. What is it with websites these days and fixing what aint broke?

You know, some how, some way, that’s actually very very close to the voice I thought matched Nina’s look when I started thinking about that. Incidentally, I always thought Thomas would sound like Sam Vincent (Aerrow, Eli Shane, etc.) and “Megas XLR’s Jamie” Steve Blum seemed like a good Ed to me.

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