Rats of NIMH

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Name: Rats of NIMH
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Robert C. O'Brien and Jane Leslie Conly (father and daughter)
Date(s):
Books Trilogy
1971, 1986 and 1990
Animated Films
July 16, 1982
December 22, 1998
Medium: Books, Animated Films
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: at Wikipedia (series)
Books Trilogy
at Wikipedia (first book)
at Wikipedia (second book)
at Wikipedia (third book)
Animated Films
at IMDb (1982 film)
at Wikipedia (1982 film)
at IMDb (1998 film)
at Wikipedia (1998 film)
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Rats of NIMH is a trilogy of children's novels published between 1971 and 1990 about a society of intelligent rats who had been subjects of scientific experiments. A popular animated adaptation, The Secret of NIMH, was directed by Don Bluth in 1982, later followed by a direct-to-video sequel in 1998.

Canon

Books:

  • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971), by Robert C. O'Brien
  • Racso and the Rats of NIMH (1986), by Jane Leslie Conly
  • R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH (1990), by Jane Leslie Conly

Animated Films:

  • The Secret of NIMH (1982)
  • The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue (1998)

Fandom

NIMH is a relatively small fandom, but for many years had several archives of fanfics and fanart. Paul S. Gibbs, who was been a NIMH fan for 17-plus-years, commented:

One of my other major areas of interest is Don Bluth's magnificent 1982 film, "The Secret of NIMH." Many people, including myself, regard this movie to be Bluth's masterpiece; nothing he has done since has come close. In particular, the film has a complex storyline and a rather dark and somber tone, very different from the usual run of Disneyfied "musical comedy" cartoons. I was quite surprised, some months back, to discover that the Internet is home to quite a community of NIMH-fans. One of them, [...] has also been kind enough to post some of it on her new site, along with her own works and that of several others--hopefully more to come.

Paul S. Gibbs about Robin's Fanfic Archive

Multiplayer RPG

From 1998 to approximately 2016, ran by fans a multiplayer role-playing game text-based and set in the universe of the first animated film, The Secret of NIMH, called NIMHmuck. With Simon Tesla as the last head admin, but after due to technical and time constraints, as well as a diminishing presence, the MUCK server was shut down, with the intention of replacing it with a Discord server, however this move didn't end up working out in practice.[note 1]

While it was running it was a hub for collaborative storytelling in the NIMH universe with a setting inspired by Paul S. Gibbs Rats of Thorn Valley fanfic, encompassing such themes as life in Thorn Valley after the move, the fate of the lost mice at NIMH, and the reactions of the creatures inhabiting the valley to the presense of the Rats.[3]

NIMHcon 2000

Held in Atlanta, Georgia, the convention of 2000 and eight people were in attendance.

Group made up of eight people, wearing white t-shirts (one of them covered by the Robin character design from The Secret of NIMH, all at NIMHcon 2000 held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Group photo of the participants of NIMHcon 2000. Top (left to right): J.C. Foster (Badbird), Ken A. (Max), Bob R. (Dirk), Nathaniel P. (Seoman). Bottom (left to right): "Robin" (picture blacked out by request), Matt G (Darian), Gregg A. (Gabriel), Matthew B.

The t-shirts were made by Gregg in partnership with Simon who also designed the convention logo:

A mouse leans sideways on the title at the NIMHcon 2000 convention, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia
NIMHcon logo by Simon Tesla

Example Fanworks

Archives, Communities & Resources

Fansites

For more NIMH-fans sites see: List of NIMH Sites.

Archives

Notes & References

Notes

  1. ^ Excerpt extracted and reformulated from the NIMHmuck website[1][2]

References

  1. ^ "Thorn Valley - Simon's Secret of NIMH Site". 2005-08-06. Archived from the original on 2007-12-01.
  2. ^ "NIMHmuck". 2022-04-12. Archived from the original on 2024-02-15.
  3. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions - Thorn Valley - Simon's Secret of NIMH si…". 2022-04-12. Archived from the original on 2024-02-15.