These elements fall together rather quickly, with the predictably happy outcome visible almost right away, but the visual depth keeps the story interesting. Its one major drawback, in fact, is that there are times it becomes necessarily talky, but not quite simply enough for a child to follow without unchildlike concentration. The characterizations aren't quite as strong as they might have been, but I sense that has more to do with the nature of the form rather than outright negligence. Still, The Secret of NIMH is far superior to Disney's The Fox and the Hound from last year, which itself was far superior to the trash which collects on TV sets on Saturday mornings. There's a lesson to be learned here, I think, that kids are much smarter than we think they are, but in need of a certain guidance.
Real animation is never without wonder, which is why it lends itself so easily to fantasy.
But Bluth and his colleagues, in their way, are trying to restore it, to scrape off the rust of cliches and bang out the dents caused by too much cuteness without sufficient intelligence. The Secret of NIMH , I hope, is only a beginning.