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smcscot's review
4.0
It had been years since I've seen this movie, but I got this on Bookstagram and needed a small, fun book to read in transition and I gotta tell you, this book holds up! I actually went back and watched the movie today while being home sick, and though I still love it, doesn't hold a candle to the book. Bluth changed things around to make them more magical and to dumb down the danger. Where the book doesn't pull any punches and doesn't shy away from the (semi) science of what's going on. The character are actually much more realistic (as much as anthropomorphized animals can be), than they are in the movie as well. In fact the only reason I took away a star is there is a point in the story where the actual text says something like "..they had many adventures, but I wont tell them here." Most of the time this wouldn't bother me, but here it actually gives a little bit of backstory for one of the characters (this was very difficult to write and not give out spoilers!), and it felt like it was cut by he publisher, or it was something that the author never got around to. Totally worth it, especially if you have fond memories of the movie.
abomine's review
4.0
My initial exposure to this story was the Don Bluth film. I know, I know. I'm a terrible person for watching the movie before reading the book.
When I first started reading this, I was expecting something a bit...different from what I actually ended up getting. I remember the film as having a very dark and mystical atmosphere. I figured that if the film adaptation (in the case of film adaptations of books, film adaptations are usually pretty watered-down compared with the author's original work) was already very dark, then the book would be even more so, and therefore better.
So I was fairly surprised to find that the book (at least the first half of it, but I'll get to that later) was not nearly as "dark" as I was expecting it to be. Elements that I enjoyed in the film (the element of magic, Jenner as the primary villain) were missing in the novel, and this, to be honest, disappointed me (at first, but again, I'll get to that later). When Don Bluth added the ability of the rats to use magic, it gave the film a feeling of mystery and mysticism. The idea that those scientists at NIMH may have tapped into a power greater than even they could possibly imagine, a power that could literally change the world, that the rats with their magic just might be higher on the evolutionary ladder even than humanity, also created a sense of wonder. It also set me pondering, "If those injections could turn mere street rats into magicians and engineers, just imagine what such injections could do to humans...] I imagine that the results would not be unlike the events that unfold in [b:Akira,|93371|Akira, Vol. 1|Katsuhiro Otomo|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343804802s/93371.jpg|90020].
And with Jenner as the villain in the film, rather than just a footnote in the book, it created much more tension (at least, that's what I believed at first, but again, more on that later). A villain is much more dangerous inside of the fortress than outside, and his prescence served as a dark reflection of the rats themselves, showing the less-than-noble side of progress, science, and pride. Without that element of danger, I felt as though the book was 'tamer' and less exciting.
But that was only how I felt about the first half of the book. Once I got to the second half, when the story of the origin of the rats of NIMH was unfolded, I was completely engrossed. It almost felt like a different book altogether, a little like [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down|Richard Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg|1357456] but with genetically altered lab rats instead of British bunnies. The discussions of evolution and devolution, of living and surviving, of giving and taking, of the bittersweet joys and sorrows of becoming 'enlightened' while everyone else around you is still stumbling in the dark, were absolutely fascinating. All previous doubts I had of this book were completely washed away, and the ambiguous-but-still-somewhat-hopeful ending struck an unexpected chord in me.
I still enjoy the Don Bluth film, but this book surprised me in a wonderful way, and there are very few books these days that can brag of such a thing.
When I first started reading this, I was expecting something a bit...different from what I actually ended up getting. I remember the film as having a very dark and mystical atmosphere. I figured that if the film adaptation (in the case of film adaptations of books, film adaptations are usually pretty watered-down compared with the author's original work) was already very dark, then the book would be even more so, and therefore better.
So I was fairly surprised to find that the book (at least the first half of it, but I'll get to that later) was not nearly as "dark" as I was expecting it to be. Elements that I enjoyed in the film (the element of magic, Jenner as the primary villain) were missing in the novel, and this, to be honest, disappointed me (at first, but again, I'll get to that later). When Don Bluth added the ability of the rats to use magic, it gave the film a feeling of mystery and mysticism. The idea that those scientists at NIMH may have tapped into a power greater than even they could possibly imagine, a power that could literally change the world, that the rats with their magic just might be higher on the evolutionary ladder even than humanity, also created a sense of wonder. It also set me pondering, "If those injections could turn mere street rats into magicians and engineers, just imagine what such injections could do to humans...] I imagine that the results would not be unlike the events that unfold in [b:Akira,|93371|Akira, Vol. 1|Katsuhiro Otomo|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343804802s/93371.jpg|90020].
And with Jenner as the villain in the film, rather than just a footnote in the book, it created much more tension (at least, that's what I believed at first, but again, more on that later). A villain is much more dangerous inside of the fortress than outside, and his prescence served as a dark reflection of the rats themselves, showing the less-than-noble side of progress, science, and pride. Without that element of danger, I felt as though the book was 'tamer' and less exciting.
But that was only how I felt about the first half of the book. Once I got to the second half, when the story of the origin of the rats of NIMH was unfolded, I was completely engrossed. It almost felt like a different book altogether, a little like [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down|Richard Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg|1357456] but with genetically altered lab rats instead of British bunnies. The discussions of evolution and devolution, of living and surviving, of giving and taking, of the bittersweet joys and sorrows of becoming 'enlightened' while everyone else around you is still stumbling in the dark, were absolutely fascinating. All previous doubts I had of this book were completely washed away, and the ambiguous-but-still-somewhat-hopeful ending struck an unexpected chord in me.
I still enjoy the Don Bluth film, but this book surprised me in a wonderful way, and there are very few books these days that can brag of such a thing.
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