The Secret of Nimh 2 is a Replacement

I was never one for lost media, I always knew finding them was a futile effort. However, whenever extra content from a piece of media I love surfaces, I just have to take it. This is the reason I always pick up my films and series physically. My favorite thing to do after watching a movie is watch the bonus features and see both what could have been and how it became what it is now. I only have Netflix, Hulu, and HBO because my fiance, Pam, doesn’t care for the inconvenience of looking for films with no search bar, and inserting DVDs or VHS Tapes. Of course I’m opposed to this mindset, since these services are limited to what contracts the company currently has, but it’s just a conflict of preferences and I still love her.
Occasionally, I follow lost media hunts from afar. I am infatuated with The Bizarre Adventures of Jojo, so when I heard that there was an entire film tied to this property lost to time, I was interested. I have a large selection of films on a shelf in the bedroom. I don’t purposefully collect films, I just buy whatever I’m interested in. So occasionally, I’ll find I accidentally bought a very valuable piece of media which was once considered missing. For example, Ace Ventura had an animated series which I owned a VHS tape of. This tape just happened to the 11th episode of the first season, which was apparently lost.
This leads us to the day when I browsed Ebay for a copy of the Secret of Nimh 2. I heard bad things about it, but the first is very important to me and I had somehow missed the sequel. I found something very interesting though, a bid that ends in 2 hours for a VHS tape called “The Secret of Nimh 2: Special Edition.” As stated before, I absolutely love brand new content relating to things I love, so this “special” bonus was intriguing. It seemed no one else was placing a bid, so I put in two dollars and paid for the five dollar shipping.
To nobody’s surprise, I won. It shipped a couple of days later. I was eager to insert it into the VCR, but I saw it came with a letter. “Hey there Dan, thank you for taking this off of my hands. It’s not haunted or anything, I just don’t really like it. The problem is, I have sentimental attachment to it but also bad memories. I hope whatever you attach to it is pleasant, though.” I took the VHS Tape, which had "The Secret of Nimh 2" on its label, out and laid the note on the floor.
When I started the film, I found the quality was surprisingly good. I don’t care for the nitty gritty details of how good the tape is, but it was really clear, especially for a VHS Tape. I let the movie play out, and I got to say, I don’t understand the hate behind it. It kept the tone of the first film, in-fact darker, and I was immersed the whole way. I really liked the main protagonist, Timothy Brisby, now an adult. One of the sons of Mrs. Brisby from the first, he spends the film looking for a cure for his mother’s sickness. Something that shocked me however, was the ending, as his mother died. It was almost heartbreaking, as the film drew to a close and he realized the sickness was just old-age. I couldn’t tell you if anything was unusual, as I hadn’t watched the film before, but I liked what I had seen. This is when the bonus features started.
You see, before DVD menus, the extra content would play when the movie was over. I enjoyed these as well, showing me a documentary of the making of the film. However, half-way I realized that they weren’t talking about the film I just watched. The plot they had described sounded more along the lines of what people were bashing on this film for. Then it hit me, this was an early version. It didn’t make sense, as the quality was good and the film looked finished, but it makes even less sense for this documentary to be covering a film that doesn’t exist.
It seems right as I made this realization, the documentary abruptly ended. The screen as black, but I knew something was playing, as there was deterioration. A sudden voice from the TV rang “Hey there, Dan.” I just sat there, shocked at this tape knowing my name. “Did you like the movie? I sure hope you did. This is the version of the film you could’ve gotten.” I must have gone insane, because I felt the urge to talk back. “Well, I asked you a question.” I leaned forward and said quietly “Yes, I really enjoyed it.” 
It stayed silent, so I figured it was just a tape and the original owner was just fucking with me. “That’s good. I had doubts the general public would enjoy this.” I cut my losses and requested permission to ask questions. They allowed me. “What is the true story behind the production?” I asked. “They took his vision and they crushed it. When he didn’t comply with their treatment of his film, he was replaced. An entire film had been completed, but they were so enthralled with marketability that they restarted production. It doesn’t matter if the critics or audience enjoys it, just as long as it makes money. It’s simply impossible for them to leave it be. Now there is a remake in the works and he won’t say anything about it, because it isn’t him. He is no longer here, he is in hell.”
I was speechless. I hadn’t seen the real version of this film, so I had nothing to compare this to, but just based on the documentary, that sounded true. “Who is the man you’re talking about?” I asked. “Me. Now I’m afraid I must leave.” The tape restarted, showing the title of the film in a different location. It was the real version of the film.
Everything they said sounded plausible, because the actual movie turned out to be really watered down. The biggest sin of all was Timothy Brisby, still a child. In this film he’s approached to help find someone’s missing parents, and he does it because it wants to live up to his family name. This Timothy was the polar opposite of what I had seen before-hand. Once the film ended, I desperately tried to find the original once more, but I couldn’t. It was taken from the tape. So was the apparition. When I took it out, I noticed the title on the tape had gone from “The Secret of Nimh 2,” to “Timothy’s Hell.” The man they replaced was him.
Category:Lost Movies
Category:Lost VHS
Category:The Secret of Nimh 2: Timothy to the Rescue
Category:Lost Episodes