From my 2022 Christmas haul. Slowly, I'm starting to find time to work through them before I continue with the Wheel of Time series that knocked me off course before my life went sideways for a while.
It's also the third story from my golden trio of movies that I watched on repeat as a child and have since read the books they were based on. Watership Down was a masterpiece and it made the movie even better for me. The Last Unicorn movie was a touch different from the book, but true enough to the source material that, again, I could hold nothing against the movie and appreciate it all the more. I'd heard for years that the book behind The Secret of NIHM was vastly different than the movie. But, it really wasn't that much different. In fact, it hit most of the beats almost exactly as I remembered them from the movie. Now, there were definitely more differences with the movie adaptation of this than the other two. But it didn't change the story that much. Mostly the ending... But not so much Mrs. Frisby's ending.
The synopsis, for those who don't know, goes thus: Mrs. Frisby is a widowed mouse with four children living on a farm over the winter time. One of her sons is sick with pneumonia and after getting it under control with the help of an somewhat mysterious family friend, she still can't move him in early spring to the safe place where they spend summers because the evenings would still be too cold. A crow she helped takes her to see a wise owl who directs her to some hyper-intelligent rats that also live on the farm. She discovers that they, along with her late husband and the family friend were all experimental animals from NIHM explaining why they could read, write, and use tools. They agree to move the cinder block she's living in to a better spot in the farmer's field so that her family won't be hurt by the plow and they can stay until the weather is warm enough for her son to be moved. She helps by drugging the farm cat so they can work freely and ends up getting captured by the farmer's son. But, she's rescued in time to warn the rats about the possibility that NIHM is coming to destroy their home in the thorn bush. So, they move up the time on their plan to leave for an untouched piece of land sooner - only just in time actually and a couple of the rats are sacrificed in covering the escape of the rest.
Anyone who knows the movie will recognize most of that synopsis except for some obvious details. And the details are what make the book good without necessarily making the movie bad.
The big changes were the name change - from Frisby to Brisby.
Also the movie had an added element of fantasy married to the otherwise science fiction premise with the magical locket that is nowhere in the book. It didn't have to make sense to kids but as an adult I appreciate not mixing the genres without sufficient explanation.
In the book there's a lot more documenting of the rats' time at the laboratory and journeys after their escape because it's one of the hooks of the story and it filled in a lot of holes in the movie. For example, it was good have some things fully explained like Thorn Valley, which was just a vague ideal in the movie... again because it didn't need to make sense for kids.
The biggest difference is that Jenner is not an evil usurper but only disagrees philosophically with Nicodemus. He and his followers both lived and died "off page" because their presence wasn't necessary to enhance the tension of the final threat posed from the rats possibly being reacquired by NIMH.
The movie is more colorful and fantastical and the book is more cerebral. It was written in 1971 so it was still from a time when children's books were more mature anyway, like Watership Down and the dark fairy tale that was The Last Unicorn. Yes, it was quite different from the movie but I think I still like them both about the same. It depends on the season of your life. Recommend for fans.
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