Today’s quick review: The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue. Timmy (Ralph Macchio), a young mouse destined to become a hero, bids farewell to his family and journeys to Thorn Valley, an idyllic hideaway where the intelligent, escaped lab rats of NIMH have made a new life for themselves. After years of waiting, Timmy finally gets a chance to prove himself when a young mouse named Jenny (Hynden Walsh) brings word of impending danger.
The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue is a family animated fantasy adventure that picks up years after the original Secret of NIMH. The sequel has none of the merits of the first film. The premise is ill-conceived, the execution is sloppy, and the cheery, silly tone is an about face from the mature drama of the original. Even a cast of voice actors that includes Ralph Macchio, Eric Idle, William H. Macy, and Dom DeLuise does not help much.
The Secret of NIMH 2’s chief failing is that it does away with all of the gravity of the original. The death and injury, menacing scenery, and true peril of the first film give way to the cheerful color palette, lackadaisical characters, and forgiving challenges of the second. Nothing in the movie carries any dramatic weight; everything comes easily to Timmy, and his few failures are quickly corrected. The story panders to him and to the audience.
Even taken on its own terms, The Secret of NIMH 2 comes up short. Timmy makes for a bland, one-dimensional protagonist. He’s accompanied by a new cast of equally flat characters, while the few familiar faces are unrecognizable. The script struggles with even the basic mechanics of storytelling, such as motivating its characters or setting up plot points. To cap it all off, the movie is peppered with needless songs with overly literal lyrics.
The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue is only worth watching for those with young children to entertain. Those who enjoyed the original Secret of NIMH will be sorely disappointed, while anyone looking for family-friendly fare can do better. For another movie that makes better use of its mouse heroes, try The Secret of NIMH, The Rescuers, or The Rescuers Down Under. For a Disney movie with better characters in a similar vein, try The Jungle Book.
3.4 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 4.0 for unlikable characters, flimsy writing, and abandoning the qualities that made the first film a classic.