Sadly, The Secret of NIMH is beautiful but unbalanced: The animators gambled when they should have gamboled.

| Nov 11, 2021

Parents wistful for the world of mystery and magic fondly remembered from the best of the Disney cartoon features should hasten along to this rather endearing fantasy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 11, 2021

This American full-length animated cartoon lives up to its publicity as a return to the meticulous artwork and storybook charm of the golden days of Disney.

| Nov 11, 2021

It is a highly competent piece of work, well organized, sometimes imaginative and beautifully detailed.

| Nov 11, 2021

The animation is excellent, but I wonder about the overall tone of the film. It ends happily, but along the way there is so much reference to illness, tragedy, grief, pain and other depressing subjects that it bothered me.

| Nov 11, 2021

A sumptuous celebration of the animator's art... If it were not for E.T., this would easily be the best children's film released this year.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 11, 2021

The Secret of NIMH should prove that there is still a market for an intelligently made, G-rated family movie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 10, 2021

Purely delicious, a perfect summer treat for the entire family, and finally a cartoon film that will not insult the intelligence of any child from 6 to 60.

| Nov 10, 2021

As they deliver NIMH's crisply written narrative, the drawing-board creations come to life. Papa Walt would have been pleased.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 10, 2021

[The animation], however, would be mere decoration, the frosting without the cake, if it didn't serve to enhance a strong, engrossing story line and vivid characters. And NIMH has an ample supply of both.

| Nov 10, 2021

Wonderfully effective in its animation, done in the classic, full-fashioned Disney style with richness, whimsy, loving detail and brilliantly used voices. But... it makes you wish the story line were more satisfactory.

| Nov 10, 2021

The art work is excellent. And, yes, I think adults, most of them anyway, will enjoy it just as much as the kids.

| Nov 10, 2021

As visually rewarding as it is, NIMH finds its real forte in the area of voice characterization. The actors speaking the lines were chosen with scrupulous care, and they're perfect.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 10, 2021

If The Secret of NIMH had been made in 1942 instead of 1982, the name would be swept along in that same wave of nostalgic good feeling as Pinocchio, Bambi, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Its animation is that good.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 10, 2021

The Secret of NIMH is charming, but it could use a little bit more of Disney's bad guys versus good guy's mentality... And yet the second half of NIMH is a genuine pleasure, taking us to a secret rat world that should amaze little ones.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 9, 2021

Don Bluth, a former Disney Studios animator, has created a sophisticated, visually stunning, dramatic feature that may very well end Disney's dominance of the animated feature film market.

| Nov 9, 2021

The picture is extremely well made and imaginative and its exquisite drawings ought to be real eye-openers for kids raised on Saturday morning dreck.

| Nov 9, 2021

They've infused conservative style with new and bizarre energy. The result is slightly lunatic, and all the more fun for it.

| Nov 9, 2021

Oddly enough, Secret of NIMH may be more enjoyable for adults than for kiddies. Because of the intensity, the picture is definitely not recommended for anyone under six.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 9, 2021

The film's look is lush. Loaded with rich colors and painstaking backgrounds, "Secret" includes tons of fairy dust along with some impressive light effects. Even more important, the characters' motion is fluidly believable.

| Nov 9, 2021