Martin Brisby

Martin Brisby is a fictional character from the movie The Secret of NIMH, as well as the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, on which the movie was based.

Story

A young male mouse, Martin is the second of four children born to Jonathan Brisby and Mrs. Brisby and the eldest son. He appears in The Secret of NIMH movie and as Martin Frisby in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. He also appears briefly in the two semi-official sequels written by O'Brien's daughter Jane Leslie Conly. Finally, he made an appearance as the main antagonist in The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, the animated sequel to the first film.

In the story, Martin is one of Mrs. Brisby's children and wants to take on more responsibility in order to become more of a Man of the House. His character deviates between the book and film, possibly more so than the other Brisby/Frisby children. The book describes Martin as being relatively well mannered. Although slightly impetuous and maybe even a little mischievous, he is in general a well behaved young Mouse. In stark contrast, the movie version of the character was a considerably more disruptive character, portrayed as somewhat of a loudmouth braggart wishing to prove himself.

Although he isn't as essential to the plot as his younger brother Timothy, he and his siblings are still a major motivation behind Mrs. Brisby's actions in the story. He generally spends the duration of the first story helping to take care of his siblings until Mrs. Brisby's return.

In the book, Martin is described as being a large and well-built mouse, with a dark and handsome complextion like his father. He has scruffy head fur, and is often pictured as having a light brown fur color with peach-ish fur on his stomach area. In the movie, he is still arguably the largest of his siblings and seems to be somewhat overweight. Martin also appears to be the strongest of the four children. His clothes are often blue.

Although disruptive and mischievous, Martin shows signs that he has a very serious side to his personality, which comes out with very little hesitation and no panic during the film's climax.

Future
Don Bluth once posted on his Question and Answer section of his website, that if he had ever been given the chance to make sequel as opposed to the one MGM produced, he would have made Martin one of the main protagontists, and possibly made Timothy as somewhat of an anti hero antagonist. The sequel was produced with no involvement from Bluth.

Voice

Martin was voiced by Wil Wheaton, the youth who would go on to play Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as become somewhat of a geek culture phenomenon and a rather respected voice actor. In the sequel movie, Martin was voiced by Phillip Glasser whom also voiced Fievel from An American Tail, another Don Bluth film. There was also an evil version of the character in the sequel voiced by former Monty Python star Eric Idle.

Family

Martin's mother is Mrs. Brisby, and his father is Jonathan Brisby, who died before the events in the first book and movie. Martin has an older sister, Teresa Brisby, a younger sister, Cynthia Brisby, and a younger brother, Timothy Brisby.

Martin has an argumentative relationship with his sister Teresa, as is depicted in the movie. Even in the book, Martin and Teresa had been known to bicker from time to time. In most cases, Martin cares for Teresa a great deal. Martin's relationship with Timothy ranges from an extremely close brotherly relationship to being literally at each others' throats.

Frisby to Brisby

In the original book by O'Brien, the family name of the main characters is Frisby. However, when Don Bluth was about to release the movie there were worries that trouble would be caused by using the name Frisby, as it was the same name of the famous Frisbee toy. To avoid copyright infringement, the last name was dubbed as "Brisby" at the last minute. Although Brisby usually relates to the movie versions of the said characters, and Frisby the book versions, they are basically the same thing.

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