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Jul 05, 2016chriscoleman rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is still one of my favorite kids' films. Girls like it more than boys, especially around the age of six or seven. It's taken from the novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The plot is pretty simple and it goes like this. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) performed several experimental tests on rats and mice. Those tests made them smarter. One evening, a mouse named Jonathan Frisby helps the rats escape. He's the only one of them small enough to release the outer lock. For that, they are forever in his debt. The rats have formed a community and they meet regularly, stealing electricity from the farmer to maintain their elaborate underground network of tunnels. Jonathan is killed before the film begins and Mrs. Frisby, not knowing her husband's past, finds herself desperate for help. Her youngest son Timmy is dying. She goes to the Great Owl who eats mice, that's how desperate she is. He tells her to see the Rats of NIMH. That begins her adventure into the world of the rats who are friends of her husband's. She learns of Jonathan's past and when her house must be moved in order to save her children, it's the rats who come to save her. Anyway, it has a villain and a hero and a mother who will do anything to save her children (and does). The secret to their future lies in the stone of a necklace Jonathan left his wife. Fantasy for children at its best. The novel won a Newbery Medal in 1972. So this isn't just some dumb cartoon.