The Secret of NIMH

The Secret of NIMH (1982) is Don Bluth's animated fantasy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Mrs. Brisby, a widowed field mouse, has a problem that won't wait: her youngest son is too sick to be moved.

Plowing season is coming. Once the farmer's blade reaches her field, the family's burrow is gone. But the boy can't survive being carried out into the cold, so Mrs. Brisby turns to the one group that might know what to do — a hidden colony of rats living beneath the rosebush. These rats escaped a lab called NIMH, where experiments left them able to read, wire electricity and engineer their own world. They also guard a secret tied to her late husband.

Bluth quit Disney to make animation darker and stranger again, and this debut feature earned its cult status the hard way: deep shadows, real menace, none of the usual cuteness. The voice cast pairs Derek Jacobi with a young Shannen Doherty and Wil Wheaton. Stream The Secret of NIMH (1982) online on iFILM.