| The straight-to-video sequel The Secret of NIMH 2 was a huge letdown after the grandeur of Don Bluth's 1982 adaptation of Robert C O'Brien's book, offering far poorer art and thinner characterisations. The story finds Timmy (voiced by Ralph Macchio), son of the Jonathan Brisby character from The Secret of NIMH, leaving the family farm and heading to Thorn Valley, where the rats of NIMH live. There, Timmy seeks a path in his father's footprints to become a hero, and meets a girl mouse who tells him her parents are among some NIMH mice wrongly presumed dead for years. A rescue ensues, of course, in which Timmy and the refugee rats risk getting caught themselves. At about an hour in length, genuine entertainment is at a premium in this production, making it even harder to ignore point-by-point comparisons between this film and its predecessor--especially when those comparisons, time and again, find the sequel wanting. The very best element here is the vocal and singing performance by Eric Idle as the villain, Martin, who resorts to electric shock to "improve" his intelligence and whose song, "Just Say Yes", is a real highlight. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com |
