Question 1

True or false: All of the rats in NIMH were voiced by actual lab rats trained to speak through a special audio process.

Accepted Answer

False. The rats were voiced by human actors, including John Carradine and Dom DeLuise. No real rats were trained to speak—that's a silly myth.

Question 2

True or false: NIMH stands for the National Institute of Mental Health, a real U.S. government agency that funded animal intelligence experiments.

Accepted Answer

True. The real National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) did conduct rodent research. The book’s author, Robert C. O'Brien, used this actual agency as inspiration.

Question 3

True or false: The character Jeremy the crow was based on a real crow that lived in Don Bluth's backyard.

Accepted Answer

False. Jeremy was voiced by Dom DeLuise and designed as a comic relief character, but no specific real crow inspired him. It's a charming but untrue story.

Question 4

True or false: Mrs. Brisby was originally named Mrs. Frisby in the book, but was changed to avoid trademark issues with a toy company.

Accepted Answer

True. Robert C. O'Brien's novel originally used 'Frisby,' but a toy company had a 'Frisbee' trademark. Director Don Bluth changed it to 'Brisby' for the film.

Question 5

True or false: Don Bluth funded the film partly by selling a plot of land he owned in Nevada.

Accepted Answer

True. Bluth and his team mortgaged their homes and sold personal assets to fund the film. Bluth himself sold a Nevada property to help cover production costs.

Question 6

True or false: The film's score was composed by James Horner, making it one of his earliest major film scores.

Accepted Answer

True. James Horner’s first major score was for 'The Secret of NIMH' (1982), launching his career. He later scored 'Titanic' and 'Avatar.'

Question 7

True or false: In the original book, the rats escape from NIMH by digging a tunnel using stolen human tools, not by flying.

Accepted Answer

False. Actually, the rats do escape using their intelligence and stolen tools, but the tunnel escape is correct—the false part is claiming they didn't fly; they never flew in the book at all. This statement is tricky but technically true.

Question 8

True or false: The film was produced entirely without CGI; the glowing amulet effect was done with hand-drawn rotoscoping on glass.

Accepted Answer

False. The amulet's glow was actually achieved with optical compositing and backlit cel animation, not rotoscoping on glass. Still purely pre-CGI, but the method is often misremembered.

The Secret of NIMH Trivia Questions