Cast _* Interesting Facts _* The Steps in Making The Secret of Nimh _* Don Bluth Interview _* Classical Animation

This page is partly based on Steve Vanden-Eykel's The Secret of NIMH Archive.
 
 

Directed by: Don Bluth
Written by: Don Bluth & Will Finn
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith

Released on: July 30, 1982
Running Time: 82 minutes

Budget: $
Box-Office: $13.6 in the U.S., $ million worldwide
 
 

CAST
 

Mrs. Brisby... Elizabeth Hartman
Martin Brisby... Wil Wheaton
Teresa Brisby... Shannen Doherty
Cynthia Brisby... Jodi Hicks
Timothy Brisby... Ian Fried
Mr. Ages... Arthur Malet
Justin... Peter Strauss
Nicodemus... Derek Jacobi
Jeremy... Dom DeLuise
Auntie Shrew... Hermione Baddeley
The Great Owl... John Carradine
Miss Right... Edie McClurg
 

Elizabeth Hartman's Hollywood career began with the 1965 film A Patch of Blue. Though only her first film, her performance earned her an Oscar nomination. Her last live-action credit was Full Moon High, completed in 1981 but not released until years later. Sadly, The Secret of NIMH was the last film she completed before taking her own life in 1987.

An actor since 1963, Arthur Malet has also voiced for Disney, portraying King Eidilleg in the 1985 film The Black Cauldron. Most recently, he acted in the Robin Williams film Toys and in A Little Princess. Arthur Malet was one of only two original voice actors to reprise their roles in The Secret of NIMH II: Timmy to the Rescue.

Dom DeLuise was an established comedian long before The Secret of NIMH, but his performance brought a lot of laughs to the film as a whole. He would team up with Bluth again in 1986 in the role of Tiger for An American Tail. Dom Deluise was the other voice actor to reprise his role for The Secret of NIMH II.

Shannen Doherty is best known for her roles in Beverley Hills 90210 (as Brenda) and Charmed.

Born in 1906, Hermione Clinton-Baddeley's career in films and television started in 1941, and included roles in A Christmas Carol (playing Mrs. Cratchit in the definitive 1951 production starring Alistair Sim), The Belles of Saint Trinian's, Mary Poppins (as the maid Ellen) and The Aristocats (as Madame Adelaide Bonfamille), as well as the television series Maude. She died in 1986, at age 79.

John Carradine, father of Kung Fu star David Carradine, has been a horror movie draw since the thirties, and his career ended only with his death in 1988.

Peter Strauss enjoyed the role of Justin so much he named his first son after the character!

Edie McClurg was also part of Disney's The Little Mermaid voicing cast.
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

  After nearly a decade of training under the revered animation pioneers who led Disney Studio to the pinnacle of worldwide success, Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy left that company on September 13, 1979, followed by 14 artists to set up shop full-time in Bluth's garage, where they had worked on a special project during nights and weekends for several years, rediscovering techniques used by Walt Disney in his early films--techniques now abandoned, considered by some to be too expensive for contunued practical use.

  Don Bluth explained that "we started NIMH with no studio, in January of 1980. We found a building to rent, built desks, bought equipment, hired about 100 staffers,artists , editors, cameramen plus 45 freelance ink & painters (all union), and completed the film in 28 months for $6.385 million. About half of the cost of Fox and the Hound."

  The film's story is loosely based on the children's novel "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien. First published in 1971, the book won the 1972 John Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature and has displayed the medal on its cover ever since. Robert O'Brien died in 1973, never seeing the film. His daughter, Jane Leslie Conly, has since taken up where her father left off, and has written two sequels, "Racso and the Rats of NIMH" and "R-T, Margaret and the Rats of NIMH".

  The producers first learned of Robert C. O'Brien's Newbery Award-winning book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" from a highly-respected animation storyman. They read and loved it, and urged Disney to make the film. Although the idea was rejected, the three never lost sight of the project, and together with Aurora, finally obtained rights to it after their departure from Disney in 1979. In January of 1980, now out of the garage and into larger quarters, the new company began production on the ambitious project, scouring television and movies for vocal talent and art houses for potential animators.

  Gary Goldman recalled in August 2002 that "Rich Irvine and James Stewart were executives at Disney when we all worked there. Rich was the President of Walt Disney Educational Media and Jim Stewart was a Vice President under then President Card Walker. They left the studio to start their own production company in 1977 or '78. Jim had met Don, John and Gary before he left Disney. In early 1979, they heard that we were frustrated and not happy with the situation at the studio. Jim Stewart called Gary at Disney to set up a meeting between everyone concerned. Don, John, Jim George and Gary met them at the Aurora offices in Beverly Hills, after work, to discuss possibilities. They asked us if we could make a feature film. We said yes. They asked what film we wanted to make, if they could finance it. We told them about Robert C. O'Brien's 'Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H.' a Newberry Award winning children's novel. We also told them that we had tried to get the film rights to the book but were not allowed into the negotiations that were already underway. We did not resign from Disney until money was in place. The investor (one person) financed N.I.M.H. and provided completion funds for Banjo the Woodpile Cat. Once they read 'Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H.' and saw the almost-finished Banjo, they moved quickly to put the financing deal together."

  The future of the Bluth group was seen to depend on this film, and as such maximum work and effort went into its production: "We worked very long hours, every day. Don spent his days storyboarding and his nights writing. He also would schedule time to do rough layouts, poses for the animators, reviewing final layouts, backgrounds, color models and animation for approvals. Don, Gary and John would all attend recording sessions with the actors and everyday they held storymeetings with Will Finn. John was a workhorse Directing Animator, working on his own scenes and helping other animators get their scenes done. Gary animated, worked with other animators on their scenes, scene planned the camera moves for 90% of the scenes. Worked with Don John and Will on Story, supervised the final sound and color on the film. We worked 7 days a week for the majority of the film. During the last 6 months we worked 110 hour weeks. Sundays were short days. We only worked from 9 until 5 on Sundays."

  Production began in January, 1980, and was completed in early June, 1982, with more than 6,800 feet of film completed by 120 artists. "N.I.M.H. was not easy or slow, with only 11 animators and 3 background artists, with 28 months," recalls Gary Goldman. "It was shortened by 2 months, to meet a release date set by MGM/UA. We humped all the way thru that production, especially in the last 6 months."

  Bluth was convinced the classical animation techniques could be resurrected and put back on the screen. It is his desire to "preserve this valiant art form."

  The film features many animation methods discarded or ignored by other studios as being too expensive. These include multiplane camera shots and multiple passes of the film through the camera to add depth and dimension to scenes; characters' shadows, reflections and other special effects animation scenes; the orchestration of color throughout the film to achieve emotional impact and, most importantly, an uncompromised story line.

  While the release prints for the theater were fine, Don Bluth revealed in early 2003 that "even our studio print has now begun to lose its original color correctness. We showed it in Savannah at the College of Art and Design and the colors have gone RED. It looks muddy. We should contact MGM/UA and inform them and be sure they have a protection master for the original negative. The most correct for home entertainment is the video master we did for the PAL video release. We were not involved with the domestic NTSC mastering. MGM/UA did it without notifying us. When we arrived for the official approval, it was done. They had taken 8 days to fix all of the colors. Instead of Brisby's colors matching our release print of the film, they changed all of her colors so that she was a brown mouse with a red cape all the way through the film. So, in shadowed scenes where we painted her fur with cooler colors with a magenta cape, they warmed her up to match her standard daylight colors. We were devastated when they told us that they wouldn't go back and correct it. We supervised the foreign video mastering (Warner Bros released the video in PAl) and did it in 3 days. This error has never been repaired."

  The song "Flying Dreams" was not nominated for an Oscar. Why? Don Bluth admitted that "it was up to us and MGM/UA to submit different elements to the academy for consideration. In late 1982 and early '83, we were in a financial crisis, struggling to keep Dragon's Lair alive and moving forward. We didn't even know we were responsible for submitting the Score or the song or sound and sound effx for consideration. Stupid us! You learn alot over the years."

  Co-director Gary Goldman recalled in August 2002 that "we had access to the title between October and December of 1979. We were in the final crunch of Banjo the Woodpile Cat. We began story meetings and script writing just after completion of Banjo, around the 19th of December 1979. We completed the final sound mix (dub) in June 1982. It went into theatres on the west coast on the 4th of July 1982. It had a 30 month schedule. But, we completed the film in 28 months. The preproduction and animation crews moved over to East of the Sun, West of the Moon in January 1982. So concept to final product took 29 months. We were very excited when making that film. We lived, slept, ate and breathed The Secret of N.I.M.H. for the entire schedule. We thought we were going to change the animation world. The disappointment with its theatrical boxoffice ($13.6M) was devastating to our morale. We didn't really see that MGM/UA was putting us into the market surrounded by 6 blockbuster projects, including their own Rocky II. The Secret of NIMH was the best kept secret in Hollywood. It's great to see all of the fan sites and continued enthusiasm for the motion picture."

  In a 2000 interview, Don Bluth was asked which was his favorite film: "I've tried to find an answer to this one for forty years.  Just when I think I have the answer, the current film overtakes the previous favorite.  Not withstanding, I'll always be partial to NIMH.  She was my first love."

  The director further went on to explain, in February 2002, that "there was a real issue with the original release of NIMH, back in July of 1982. MGM/UA was also releasing Rocky III. It was their main film that summer. International really wanted to sell The Secret of NIMH, in fact, it was UA international that picked it up to distribute it in late 1980 (we were still in the front end of production), they saw the tractor sequence and the owl sequences only, when they agreed to distribute. By the time we finished the film, UA had been sold by Trans-America to MGM. Suddenly, we were the unwanted step-child to this new conglomerate. No one there had ever distributed animation. The Chairman was David Begelman. He did not want this picture. He did not like animation and he told his marketing executives that when Aurora's (the executive producers and film financing entity) marketing money was spent, that they were not to spend any of the MGM/UA "matching" money. Aurora had raised $4.2 million to do prints and advertising. MGM/UA had agreed put up an additional $2+ million in advertising dollars. This never happened. Plus, they did what was called a "roll out" campaign. Opening the film in theaters on the West Coast, then rolling the film across the country, sections at a time, finally getting into theaters on the East Coast a few weeks later. Remember, NIMH was competing with some real money-makers at that time, films like: Poltergeist, ET, Rocky III, Star Trek II, Conan The Barbarian, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Porky's and Friday the 13th were all in the theatre in the summer of '82. These are not all family films but in the end, with the minimal advertising on NIMH, and even with great critical acclaim, The Secret of NIMH was the best kept secret in Hollywood. Even the eventual release of the video, didn't really get a launch campaign. They just stuck it on the shelf and hoped that it would sell. You are right, most people, when they are introduced to the movie, they are amazed and really love it. Another thing to remember, at the time of NIMH's release, the general expenditure on marketing a film was around $8 to 9 million. Only $4.2 million was spent on NIMH's prints and ads ($1.3 million of that was the cost of the release prints). So, less than $3 million was spent on national advertising. It only grossed $13.6 million in the domestic market. Just 4 years later, An American Tail, with Universal WANTING to sell animation, with $11 million committed to do prints and advertising, plus they recruited McDonald's and Sears to come aboard with a collective promise of an additional $34 million in advertising dollars. Tail had a $45 million ad campaign. Only the Universal $11 million had to be recouped. The film's domestic gross was $48.6 million. This was a major hit for animation in 1986-87. The film stayed in the theaters for 26 weeks. The whole process changed the way animation would be sold, even for the Disney animated films. We would really love to see NIMH get rereleased in the theaters. ET is getting a 20th anniversary rerelease, by Universal. NIMH should too. It would have been less expensive for MGM/UA to rerelease the original The Secret of NIMH, than to produce and market a sequel. Maybe if the fans starting writing to MGM/UA we could urge a rerelease of the film. We don't think MGM/UA really knows how many fans NIMH has. We've spoken to them about a rerelease and even producing a new DVD with correct colors and a Producers' commentary with Don, Gary and John, but they don't believe it has the power to make the investment profitable."

  "We were criticized by some studios for making such a dark animated film (N.I.M.H.)and they blamed the style and approach for its box office failure -$13.6 million domestic," recalls Gary Goldman. "NIMH did get us an audience with Steven Spielberg (thru Jerry Goldsmith). Spielberg found the An American Tail project and called us in. We all liked the title but the story wasn't working. They hired Judy Freudberg & Tony Geiss and they worked with us in our Hart Street studio to rewrite the story. We were animating the Programm within 25 days of getting a green lite from Universal and we didn't have a finished script for 6 more months. The success of this film and subsequent films from Disney and our own Land Before Time really put us in the children's zone. Remember, those who can afford to invest in an animated film want a success story (profit). Most are convinced that these films are for the family and especially for children. We always believed that animated films are for the 'child' in all of us. So we don't really need to talk down and do babysitter projects. It's just difficult to find money that agrees with this philosophy."

  Gary Goldman recalled in November 2002 that "Don Bluth designed the poster on 11" X 17" paper when we were in London recording the Jerry Goldsmith score. The larger version of the design, drawn on the foundation of the masonite board, was Tim Hildebrandt's drawing--but it was true to Don's original (he made some minor alterations that we agreed to). We faxed 3 different poster designs from London to Aurora Productions. They agreed on the one that became the final poster and secured Tim Hildebrandt to paint it. He painted it in Gary and John's office over a 6 week period."

  In September 2001, Don Bluth commented on the direct-to-video sequel: "We only looked at a small portion of the sequel. That was enough. It wasn't a pleasant experience. We wish that MGM/UA had spent the money on a re-release of the original film on the big screen. Then remaster the original for a new Video and DVD with some supplimental material and director's comments. Oh well... They didn't contact us. Aurora productions called to see if 20th Century Fox would be interested in having us do the sequel. We were interested but Fox was not. As we were contractually obligated to Fox we had to proceed on Anastasia and watch as Aurora allowed MGM/UA produce the sequel. There are [currently] no plans to do anything on NIMH. The property is under the control of MGM/UA."

  A few months later, in February 2002, Don Bluth added: "We do not know if the rumor [about NIHM III] is true or not. As far as we know, MGM/UA has shut down their animation division. They are the ones with the right to do a sequel. No one has contacted us about it. We would love to do a proper sequel."

  "The NIMH video was a particular disappointment because the domestic video transfer was done without us present," explained Gary Goldman in July 2002. "Not only was the pan-and-scan done with no direction, they worked very hard to make Mrs. Brisby the same color throughout the film. She had 47 different color model lists customizing her for each lighting situation. Warner Brothers did the foreign (PAL) version and we were very involved with the color transfer and the choices for the pan-and-scan. This was much more satisfying. If the audience would accept it, the best solution is to present all films with some cut-off, top and bottom, to give the entire framing of the film as it was intended."
 
 
 

DON BLUTH INTERVIEW

Article published at the time of The Secret of NIHM's release:

"He is, like many real-life heroes, unlikely enough.

His white jeans, oxford shirts and tennis shoes set the casual mood he likes to work in, and his easy smile and professionalism give other artists the motivatioon they need to reach just a little further.

Don Bluth, producer and director of The Secret of NIMH, his first animated feature, unfolds across the chair in his cluttered office and talks of risk.

"All art is a risk," he says. "Art wihout risk is simply industry."

Risk is a subject the 44-year-old knows something about. Nearly three years ago, Bluth, heir apparent to the Disney animation department, left an assured future at that studio and set out with partners Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy and a handful of animators in a dispute over creative quality.

Bluth had felt that it was not too costly to make an animated feature in the classical style, using artistic methods discarded or ignored by other studios. His aim was to make a film as rich and engrossing as the early animated classics.

And now The Bluth Brigade has done it.

"It was very scary when we left. We felt as if we had cast off from the Queen Mary in a very small dinghy. Some people said we were crazy, that it couldn't be done." He laughs. "There were times when we thought they might have been right."

But detractors' comments were far fewer than the votes of confidence they received from people who ached to see a finely orchestrated animated film and who cheered the courage and--(blush!)--heroism of the men who chucked it all to follow a dream.

Bluth shuns the assessment. "The world needs heroes now more than ever, I agree, but I don't see my own life as heroic because I'm IN here. My heroes were people who set about to make world peace, love, harmony and understanding so that people can live together and enjoy the world. In that sense, I'd like to be a hero. Right now, I animate because it brings joy to people, and joy, when it's shared, is absolutely explosive."

The producer is acutely aware that he has a responsibility to the public. "I'm not sure the world needs any more movies right now. But if a man is going to go ahead and make one, surely the film he makes ought to offer something to the audience."

There are, Bluth says, two types of entertainment, that with a message of some sort, either good or bad, and that which is strictly escapist fare.

"Both have their importance," Bluth says. "Right now I choose to make films that have a message, but I want to do it well enough so the audience doesn't feel the needle when the medicine's injected."

"About the only truly anti-heroic thing I know of is selfishness," he ocntinues, "We live in an age where everything is for the self. Self-love, self-aggrandizement, self-realization. Heroes are those who can find enough within themselves to pour it out to others for the betterment of mankind. In this Age of Realism and Naturalism, what too many people don't see, I think, is that the truth isn't just physical facts; it's also feelings.

Bluth says he wants his art to elevate. "If I can lift one person's life by this movie, then perhaps he will affect another, and they will change a family, and who knows, then a city, then maybe the world. All art should do this.

"I have to believe that it should, I have to try to make mine do it because I've got to make my own existence worthwhile to myself. I'm not in this alone, there's a whole army of people doing this; scientists, poets, artists. If we don't keep trying, then society gets sucked down and down until it's just a question of survival over who owns which stones."

Born in El Paso, Texas, the second oldest of seven children, Bluth moved six years later with his family to Payson, Utah, where he grew up milking 24 cows every morning, picking tomatoes for school money and dreaming of one day becoming a Disney animator.

"I'd ride my horse to the movie house in town and tie him to a tree while I went in and watched the latest Disney film. Then I'd go home and copy every Disney comic book I could find," Bluth says. He never took art lessons.

His family moved to Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, when Bluth was a senior in high school.

He landed a job as assistant animator at Disney in 1956 and worked under veteran animator John Lounsbery on Sleeping Beauty.

"Of course, I couldn't tell them I trained myself at home copying their art, so when they talked about my 'natural abilities,' I just sort of smiled," he says, "and thought that somewhere there's a kid with this horse tied to a tree, and he's going to love this work I'm doing."

After a year-and-a-half, he grew restless and left, first to conduct a teaching and recruiting ministry in Argentina for the Mormon Church, then to attend Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah, where he majored in English.

He and a brother ran a little theater in Culver City, California, for three years, and during this time, Bluth picked up a few pointers on resourcefulness.

"One time while we were all performing, someone realized that we'd just done the third act instead of the second. We panicked. We knew the audience didn't seem to care, but they would expect a longer show. So, he shrugs, "we made up another act."

In 1967, he joined Filmation Studios as a layout man. In addition to humdrum work on Saturday morning kidvid, Bluth formed a touring young people's singing group called "The New Generation."

In 1971 he returned to Disney and joined their new training program for animation. He animated on Robin Hood, released in 1973, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, a featurette released in 1974. He was directing animator on The Rescuers, released in 1977, and director of animation on Pete's Dragon, a musical fantasy combining live action and animation released at Christmas, 1977. He produced and directed The Small One, a featurette released the next year at Christmas, and was animating on The Fox and the Hound until he resigned in September, 1979.

In 1972, Bluth and Goldman started working nights and weekends in Bluth's garage on their own animated featurette. Pomeroy joined them in 1973, and soon others came, interested in learning and restoring the classical animation techniques that had fallen by the wayside. They scrapped the original venture, but started another called "Banjo the Woodpile Cat," which they finished after their departure from Disney in 1979. It recently aired on ABC-TV.

After completion of Banjo, Bluth and some of his crew produced a two-minute segment from Universal's "Xanadu," starring Olivia Newton-John and Michael Beck.

He is a member of the Shorts Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He currently resides in Culver City, California."
 
 

THE STEPS IN MAKING THE SECRET OF NIMH

If the audiences sees the brush strokes, the artist hasn't done his job. However, making an animted film is a long and complicated process. Here's a simplified list of steps that were followed in the making of "The Secret of NIMH."

  STORY SELECTION AND SCRIPT ADAPTATION. Classic stories are the best, ones that have a message that is somehow timeless. Such stories, often found in book form, must be adapted not onl yfor the screen, but for the animation medium as well.

  CASTING. The producers of "The Secret of NIMH" listened to hundreds of films and voices to find the ones with the proper qualities for their characters. The selection of Dom DeLuise as the voice of Jeremy the crow happened one night when all three producers, unknown to each other, were watching a televised performance of DeLuise's film, "The End." Phones rang back and forth and before the film ended, the decision to contact the actor had been made. Actors are recorded separately at this time.

  STORY SKETCHES AND STORYBOARDS. The entire film is put into sketches which are tacked up in order on bulletin boards and filmed, with the same approximate timing given to each scene as is planned for the final film. This is the first time that the movie is filmed.

  ANIMATION. Animators get the character from here to there, doing this and that while staying within the character's personality. Full animators do "key poses," while "in-between" artists do all the drawings of action between the key poses, and clean-up artists make sure each drawing has sharp, clear lines. After the drawings have been cleaned up, they are filmed and this pencil footage replaces the sketch footage in the film.

  XEROGRAPHY. Here each cleaned up drawing that has been approved is put onto plastic sheets called "cels" by a special electromagnetic process with is much refined from its early days for "The Secret of NIMH."

  INK & PAINT. Each xerographed cel is sent to this depeartment where the cel is turned over and the xerography lines are smoothed out by hand inking. here, too, according to complex color charts, each cel is painted from the back.

  LAYOUT. This is where each scene is staged. Decisions are made now as to whether this will be a closeup or longshot, inside or out, daytime or nighttime. Formal layouts to to background artists and to animators at the same time.

  BACKGROUND. This is the set design and scenery department of the film. The paintings give a three-dimensional illusion and are meticulous in detail as to color and period of furniture, architecture and props.

  PRODUCTION CAMERA. This actually marks the fourth time each scene is filmed, but it marks the first time it is done in color, with the full color background. When it is finished here, it means that this part of the film is complete.

  RECORDING SESSIONS - MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS. These are recorded separately. Music for "The Secret of NIMH" is being composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith with musicians from London's National Philharmonic Orchestra. Paul Williams is writing the lyrics. Dave Horton is preparing as many as 38 tracks of sound effects for each reel of film.

  FINAL DUB. Here the tracks from all the recording sessions are added to the film, replacing any temporary tracks that might have been used as reference to this date.

  COLOR LAB. Here film is adjusted and color corrected, scratches are polished away. The final result here is the Answer Print, from which hundreds of prints of "The Secret of NIMH" are made and sent to theaters.

On The Secret of NIMH, Bluth was a producer, director, layout designer, story adaptor, storyboard artist and animator.
 
 

CLASSICAL ANIMATION

  Classical animation is full, rich, warm, colorful. The art is of high quality, the characters move fluidly and fully in settings which are meticulous in detail, color and period of furniture, architecture and props. There are shadows and changes in lighting which occur from day to night, from sunshine to shade. When water splashes, the audience sees those splashes and sees through them. When water glistens, we see that too. When a gold necklace is put in a box, the sparkles of some of its links can be seen. Mood changes in a scene are reflected in the color of the backgrounds; when feeling runs high, colors tend to oranges or reds; when action calms down, blues and greens are used. There are more than 600 colors at work in "The Secret of NIMH," nearly 500 of which were developed by Don Bluth Studio. There are also more than 1,000 backgrounds.

  In all movies, there are 24 frames of film projected onto the screen per second. In classical animation, there are 24 drawings of each animated character or special effect per second when the camera is moving, as in a dolly shot or a pan. In shots wehre the camera is stationary, there are 12 drawings per second, or one for every two frames of film. Many times the characters or effects are each done on separate plastic cels. In some shots in "The Secret of NIMH," there are 96 drawings in a single second of film. By the time the film is finished, including all the preliminary sketches, key poses and cleaned up art, there will be a million-and-a-half drawings done.

  Special effects play an important role in classical animation. 'Special effects' in animation is defined as anything that moves on screen that is not a character. Basically there are two types: natural phenomena, such as trees blowing in the wind and the sparkle of a gold chain; and supernatural phenomena, such as the hologram into which Nicodemus can forecast and even shape the future, the amulet and its pulsating glow, or the laser-like dust that burns Nicodemus's words into the parchment of the 'Great Book.'

  Technology in camera work also adds up to the richness of classical animation. Hand-built cameras called multiplanes (Bluth has two), feature a camera about eight feet off the floor and pointed downward. On various levels, or planes, are placed the background, character and special effects cels needed for each scene. Bluth multiplanes are operated electronically, making their operation easier and less expensive than those of other studios. Multiple passes of the same film through the camera are also used extensively. In some scenes there are 12 'passes.' Both of these camera "tricks" add depth and dimension to scenes.

  Classical animation stands out from the limited or flat animation found in Saturday morning cartoons, where many times only one part of a character moves in a scene, and from the computer animation or stylized "arty" types of animation employed in other animated feature films.