BLU-RAY RELEASE OF THE WEEK

I could easily go with Black Swan, but I've gushed enough over Natalie Portman's performance, Darren Aronofsky's direction et al. It's about time some animated rodents got some love up in here.

Based on Robert C. O'Brien's children's novel 'Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH', Don Bluth's 1982 film follows Mrs. Brisby (why the one letter change, I'm not sure. Perhaps the heads thought that the audience would confuse a mouse with the popular throwing disc.) as she attempts to find help for her son who is dealing with pneumonia.

 

There's a wise owl with glowing eyes, some creepy ass rats, and a fat cat named Dragon. Although it's animated (which more than holds up to this day), there's some pretty dark images here. I remember watching this is as a kid, and will plan to revisit many more times in the future. On an extremely sad, and all-too-real note, Elizabeth Hartman--the voice of Mrs. Brisby, who was nominated for the Academy Award for 1965's A Patch of Blue, committed suicide a few years after finishing her voice work. She apparently suffered from severe depression most of her life, and NIMH ended up being her last completed role.