The Secret of N.I.M.H.

Have you ever seen the movie The Secret of N.I.M.H.? If you have then you know that a wonderful movie that is. I mean, how much cooler does it get? Rats and mice that were experimented on to the point that they became intelligent enough to read, escape, and steal electricity to form their own society? A huge owl with a deep baritone voice that can see the future? An old rat with glowing eyes and mystical powers that is a prophet? This movie was great! If you ever saw then you are on board the awesome train with me and we are steaming down the awesome track going 400 awesomes per awesome.

Ok, sorry. The awesomeness of this movie just sort of possessed me and I couldn't stop.

Anyway, you know what I'm talking about. The animation in this movie is great, very detailed, and the story is engrossing.

So, you are probably saying to yourself, "Why are you writing about this? Is this just a homage to the movie or what? Write a blog already!!!". Well, here is the deal.

This movie was originally going to be done by Disney but they decided it was too dark and wouldn't make any money. So Don Bluth, an animator for Disney quit his job along with several other animators (see ya Mickey) and rolled out of there like a magical pumpkin carriage on wheels. Ole Don thought Disney was getting away from it's more detailed and expensive animating techniques in favor of faster, less intricate, cheaper procedures. So Bluth and his boys start working on T.S.o.N. in his garage, get picked up by a different studio, go over budget, and end up mortgaging their houses to complete it. The result? SUCCESS! Not to mention one of the coolest movies ever animated!

So, now I'll get to the point. I recently found out there was a sequal. I was excited! Great! Once again I would get to see Nicodemus and his badass rats doing crazy stuff. The Great Owl! Hooray! That is, I was excited until I saw this preview . Go ahead and watch it. No really. I'll wait. Waiting........ GO WATCH IT, It's just a preview.

OK. I'm sorry I had to do that to you. If you have ever seen the original then I probably owe you a new keyboard because you just threw up all over yours. When I saw that for the first time I just sat in silence for about 3 hours and stared at my screen. Finally the sound of my heart breaking snapped me out of my stupor and I said, "What....the...hell?". If you haven't seen the first one, or need a refresher on the difference please go here.

Why was this sequel even made? Obviously for money but you have to wonder if there are times in the life of an actor, animator, producer, studio exec when they go "You know.. I know this is some major deep brown super heated mega-smelly poop flavored poop we are making but... oh well, it's paying the bills." I mean, your name is on that junk forever!!! The credits roll and there is your stupid name in white on black background rolling by the disgusted eyes of the people too horrified to turn the crap off before it was all over. You may meet these people someday and they may smash your face with a shovel.

What's worse, what about respect from other artists? Other animators on your NEXT project have to go "Hey man, what have you worked on before? What was your last job?" And then you get to say "Oh, it was the er....mumble mumble Rats of coughcough NIMH 2 cough cough". After that you probably get mysterious drawings on your desk every day picturing you being eaten by rats while the rats draw horribly rendered pictures of you. You can swear the other animators all go silent every time you go into the break room and are eating your lunch out of the refrigerator.

If there ever is a nuclear holocaust you'd better hope that a copy of your garbage doesn't survive. Then again... maybe only horribly mutated man-beasts could appreciate your abomination but somehow I think if they have any left over nukes they'll quickly be detonating them and burning themselves and all traces of your work from the face of the planet forever. DON'T WATCH THIS EVER!!

More serious post coming soon.