I liked the original NIMH film, I did. Dark and somber. I'd say it's Don Bluth's best film. The sad thing, sequels to Bluth films tend to be better than the original film (An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven) but I betcha he's happy for once that did not happen. Not with NIMH 2.

We start off with a recap of what happened in NIMH 1. Seeing that they re-used the old footage instead of re-animating them I was hoping to see the same sort of dark visual style. I was wrong. NIMH 2 looks like an episode of the Smurfs without the Smurfs on crack. It's the antithesis of the previous film. Bright, cheery, uninspired backgrounds and basic character design devoid of any detail. Yeah, good stuff.

Either way, without going into too much detail, after seeing your favorite characters from the original film make horrid re-appearances the protagonist Timmy and his stacked girlfriend along with yourself are thrust into a land where the headquarters of NIMH is Castle Frankenstein and Timmy's brother becomes a British insane genius voiced by Eric Idle possibly singing the most cheery "I'm gonna take over the world" song ever. You know, I seriously think the original VHS tapes came with complimentary marijuana to enhance the viewing pleasure and ease the pain. That's what sucks about DVDs, you don't get stuff like that no more.

I was laughing my ass off for the entirety of the film because nothing made sense. Suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but mine won't stretch this far. Watch it back-to-back with the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and your drug addiction will have been cured. I feel pretty sure that you will not think this film is a complete waste of time if you see it after not having slept for 72 hours, like me. It's not that bad of a film really.