The Secret of Nimh (1982) movie review - Sneak Previews with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel

two thumbs way up my ass

When this came out, traditional full animation had become practically non-existent, so it was like a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, too many people didn't appreciate Don Bluth's work here and it had to find its success as a cult film.

This was a great film.

"The rats get so advanced, they start to feel guilty about sponging off of human civilization."
So basically, more advanced than Asians and Africans.

This movie seems pretty dark and kinda sad...I’m surprised they liked it like they did, they’ve criticised other animations for the same... I saw it when I was young, I have no recollection of it all ! 😝

I read the book that this was based on. It's one of the best books I have ever read, I prefer it to the movie, actually.

My mother read this to me several times...when the film arrived we were delighted.
Now as an adult, I finally how incredible my mom was at reading/telling the story.
Unreal.

You know what really strikes me about these old episodes of Siskel and Ebert? The length of the clips they show from the film. Same with the Oscars. They really used to show a lot more of the film. Nowadays you'd be lucky to get clips longer than ten seconds. I miss that; it really let you get more of a sense of what the movie was like and whether you'd be interested in seeing it.

I saw it at age 6 at the movies.

What a contradiction. They appreciate and enjoy the Secret of Nimh, yet they highly criticize An American Tail for being dark and sad. And the Secret of Nimh did exactly that too. I can argue, that Secret of Nimh is a much darker film. This is completely unfair, why are they highly open for Secret of Nimh? Yet in An American Tail, they act like whiny soccer moms? Pure complete terrible biases.

I like that Roger Ebert appreciates the full-body performance of the movie's characters. I've always believed that animated characters shouldn't stand around jawing at each other; they should PERFORM, and Bluth's unique animation style and direction has always appealed to me because of that.

It's so strange how they both really liked this movie when the bulk of other Bluth films in the '80s they disliked for the dark tone that they thought was inappropriate for the kids they're aimed for. I mean, I love this movie with all my heart so I won't hear a bad thing about it, I'm just saying it's kinda funny to hear them hype it up compared to what they thought of An American Tail.

Kind of sad that half of this review is replays of the film

The secret of NIMH is great and that is why I love the movie so much.

This movie is just awesome and I love Mrs brisby so much she is so cute and has a very sweetheart like voice that is nice the way it sounds.

I'm guessing this was before the “two thumbs up” was invented by Siskel and Ebert.

Definitely more of a cult favourite. I knew a lot of kids who didn't like this movie much when it came out and I feel like I enjoyed it more seeing it as a teen having read the book series in junior high. It's very dark and moody and paced with an intruiging and clever concept which is always refreshing for Western animated stuff. Another movie I can closely compare is Ralph Bashi's WIZARDS.

The secret of nimh is an fantastic animated movie. 😀👍🐭

This movie made me cry when I was in the second grade; I don’t know why.

😊

The secret of nimh should have rated "PG" instead of "G" and, it would have a bigger following.

Good film with lots of thorough animation. Good stuff.

This is absolutely my favourite animated movie of all time. Well, maybe this and Akira tied for first, but for the same reason, you never EVER see animation or storied like either anymore. Nobody does cel animation anymore.