Secret of NIMH remake?!

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Berserker
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Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Berserker »

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... f17982cc1f

Even if this new one is slightly more accurate to the book, there's no way you can improve on Bluth's masterpiece. I feel safe in saying that it is impossible and cannot be done.
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by FoxOfWar »

Yep, not going to best "the original" Bluth masterpiece. Just like in the article, I just kind of smell riding on the popularity of rodents lately :P
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Silverclaw »

Bluth's 'Secret of NIMH' is a classic; I really doubt any remake would reach its level of awesomeness :P
But I really love the original book, 'Miss Frisby and the Rats of NIMH', which is extremely different from what Bluth did with it. I just hope that the people making it now don't mess it up by filling it with stupid comedy/fart jokes. :P If they can make a movie that follows the book well, then I'm all for it. :)
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Terastas »

Sounds like we're all of one mind on this. My first thought was that this didn't need to be remade; the animated version by Bluth is a true masterpiece (the Nostalgia Critic listed it as #1 on his "Underrated Films" list). This coming out now of all times seems like a really cheap attempt to piggyback off of A) the fan following of the previous title, and B) the recent success of squeaky-rodent films like *shudder* G-Force.

What they're going to find out the hard way, I imagine, is that Bluth's NIMH was so good because he was not afraid to baby it for his viewers. His philosophy was that kids could handle anything as long as the ending was happy (or bittersweet at the very least), so he had absolutely no problem sending Ms. Brisby and the rats straight to Hell and back.

If these people are using G-Force as their inspiration for considering this remake, they are in for a world of disappointment. G-Force was an escapist movie; people went to see that knowing it was going to be total stupidity. There should be no comparison.

If they try to soften it and dumb it down, they're going to get a Razzie for it. All the people that had nightmares when they were kids after watching the scenes with the Great Owl, Brutus or the flashback in the magic mirror -- they aren't going to take their kids to see it. And all the fans of the original aren't going to bother with a lesser product just because it's got live actors and fancy CG effects (on the contrary, I've noticed a lot of the NIMH fanatics are also hand-drawn advocates), especially not when they can watch Don Bluth's masterpiece for free on Youtube.

In other words, its going to suffer the same fate as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The FF fans had no interest in the movie because they had deprived it of all the fantastic elements Final Fantasy is known for, and the larger target audience Square had simplified it to attract disregarded it as geek-driven dribble anyway. The only difference is that FF: TSW didn't deserve to be the box office bomb that it became. The people using the success of G-Force to justify this remake, however, deserve exactly what's coming to them.
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Silverclaw »

I really, really hope that they use the examples of Alvin and the Chipmunks and G-Force just to get funding from studios. :P Kindof like how Anthony could try to get Freeborn made by telling those with power and money that it would be profitable because of the success of Twilight/New Moon. :P
I'll be happy if they stick to the original book and keep a darkish tone. I'll have to kill someone if they turn it into G-Force with rats... :x
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Terastas »

Silverclaw wrote:I really, really hope that they use the examples of Alvin and the Chipmunks and G-Force just to get funding from studios. :P Kindof like how Anthony could try to get Freeborn made by telling those with power and money that it would be profitable because of the success of Twilight/New Moon. :P
I'll be happy if they stick to the original book and keep a darkish tone. I'll have to kill someone if they turn it into G-Force with rats... :x
Problem with that is that it could sabotage the project one of two ways:

1) The studio refuses to give funding for what they interpret will be a rehashing of the same vampire / hamster-centric stupidity.
2) The studio thinks they are funding a stupid rehash and threaten to take the project away from you.

#2 is what happened to Cool World; the original writer had intended it to be more of a horror story, but he sold it as being related to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the studio ended up tacking some other guy onto the project who did a rewrite without the original writer's awareness.

Which is yet another reason I think this movie is doomed to failure; they're using movies that should have absolutely no relation to it to justify it. So even if they don't intend on making just another cutesy rodent movie, I have a feeling the studio they've pitched it to is going to make it into one.

If they really wanted a fair justification to fund a remake of NIMH, they should have used Reepicheep from Prince Caspian as their justification. It's still a far cry away from the true depths a proper NIMH remake should delve into, but it would at least be more accurate than the Alvin & The Chipmunks reference.
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by cjkrythos »

Terastas wrote:BLAH BLAH BLAH Geforce BLAHBLAHBLAH
sorry, all I heard in there was Geforce, and I suddenly had an urge to see someone make a sequel to Geforce titled "Geforce vs the hungry werewolf"

not quite the same.... but close enough
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8297072274#
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Renorei »

Don't fix what isn't broken. If the original movie was made so long ago that the methods just weren't there to make a good animated film, then I could see how a remake would be a good idea. But, we've been able to make quality animated films for decades now. We don't need to remake these classics when they still have so much life left.
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Terastas »

Renorei wrote:Don't fix what isn't broken. If the original movie was made so long ago that the methods just weren't there to make a good animated film, then I could see how a remake would be a good idea. But, we've been able to make quality animated films for decades now. We don't need to remake these classics when they still have so much life left.
*nods* I didn't have much of a problem when they remade The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe because the acting and the special effects in the prior title were both pretty bad. The Secret of NIMH, however, I would actually consider to be ahead of its time and would still be considered up to standard even now (they're starting to advertise The Princess & The Frog, and I actually think NIMH's animation looks better). It doesn't need to be remade. If you want to squeeze some extra money out of it, take a page from Disney and just re-release the damn thing digitally restored if you must. :P

Unfortunately, the only things that really need to be remade are the movies that were bad or bombed as originals, but those are usually looked at as money pits that even the bravest and dumbest of corporate execs won't have the balls to go near. As far as I know, only one originally bad movie has sever been attempted a second (and a third) time, that being The Punisher.
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Re: Secret of NIMH remake?!

Post by Scott Gardener »

I'm all in favor of adding this to the list of remakes that do not need to be done. Having finished remaking the entire Seventies, Hollywood is moving on to the eighties now, with NIMH, Teen Wolf, and now I saw a promo for a new V miniseries. Babies with forked tongues are back!
Taking a Gestalt approach, since it's the "in" thing...
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