AM: I recently watched "NIMH" again, for the countless time, but had the pleasure of viewing it with a good friend who had never seen the movie before. Needless to say, he was enchanted by the movie and astounded by the animation. Out of curiousity, we then popped in tapes of both THE RESCUERS and THE LITTLE MERMAID -- Disney films made before and after NIMH, respectively -- to compare the qualities in animation, and frankly there was no comparison. NIMH still holds up, while even MERMAID's acclaimed animation seemed a bit "rubbery" in character movements, and less striking in its dramatic color palettes.

DBS: Thank you for the compliments.

AM: I was curious about how you went about adapting Robert C. O'Brien's book into the final script, as the movie is quite different from the original source.

DBS: His (O'Brien's) book was actually two stories: the Rats' journey and Mrs. Brisby's journey. While debating our way through several story meetings, we concluded that we should concentrate on the widow's story and her efforts to save her sick son, Timmy, from the farmer's plow. And actually, we really liked the Rats's story just as much. We just felt that the drama of the mom trying to protect her invalid son was more powerful. We did our best to include the power struggle going on, within the Rats' society. Nicodemus is a spiritual leader of the rats and the Great Owl is his counter-part in the forest, both wise and powerful characters. We show their relationship with their glowing eyes, suggesting that they may be the same entity, almost God-like characters.

AM: I wondered about the element of magic that you introduced in the storyline; it's obvious Nicodemus possessed some magical, "wizardry" qualities (his being able to levitate his cane and diary, the illuminated writing, and the hologram), but the addition of the amulet, and how it's used it the end by Mrs. Brisby, were significant departures from the rather ambiguous, downbeat finale of the book. I was curious to learn how the concept of the amulet was introduced... It's a mysterious thing that is never really explained, and hoped you could shed some light on it. My friend and I really talked a lot about the subject!!! We know the amulet once belonged to Jonathan, and that he had entrusted it to Nicodemus' safekeeping until it could be passed on to his widow...but where did it come from? How did Jonathan acquire it? How did it get its magical abilities? (I like to think that Jonathan's spirit and the amulet were somehow connected, and it's power was Jonathan's gift to his wife from beyond the grave... Just food for thought.)