The Secret of NIMH vs. Princess Mononoke

vincemale

on 2/4/2011

Both of these are animated films, but neither of these are meant for children, no matter how much the DVD cover to The Secret of NIMH lies to you. Don Bluth movies generally have a dark edge to them (hell, the first Land Before Time has got some scary parts in it), and NIMH takes all that to a twisted extreme. Sure, everything ends on a happy note, but to get to that happy ending involves traumatising children with rat sword-fights, evil glowing eyes, and a dying-underling-finding-redemption-by-throwing-a-knife-into-his-boss'-back as the way to have the good guys win. This film is creepily reminiscent of '30s/'40s Disney, as opposed to '80s Disney. This is my favourite Don Bluth film. Fitting, then, that it goes up against my favourite Miyazaki film. Princess Mononoke is another good one for giving little kids nightmares. The giant boar-demon will scare the wits out of any child not raised by boar-demons themselves. I'm fairly certain very few animated films contain lepers, too. Just get your children to focus on the kodama, the forest spirits, but even those contain an element of what-the-hell-were-you-thinking if you look at them for too long. I prefer Princess Mononoke, but you really can't go wrong with either movie. Just be prepared to comfort your nightmare-having offspring if you make the mistake of letting them watch these.