Hero of the Month - Edition N°18

For the February 2017 edition, I wanted to present an animated character, the main character of a rather dark animation film, and unfairly underrated. She became one of my favorite animated female characters. Here is Mrs. Elizabeth Brisby.

Mrs. Brisby is an ordinary field mouse, living in the middle of a field with her four children. She has been widowed for several years since her husband, Jonathan, was killed by the farm cat. But Timothy, one of her sons, falls gravely ill and is therefore impossible to move, and the day of plowing approaches, putting the Brisby family in great danger of death in front of the tractor of the farmer. Mrs. Brisby, ready to do anything to protect her children, does not hesitate to face fear and will seek advice from the great owl, wise of the forest but also predator of mouses. However, the owl is wise and seeing that she is the widow of Jonathan Brisby, decides to help her. Mrs. Brisby then learns that the only ones able to move her house are the rats of the rosebush, which for years, live hidden and steal electricity to the humans.

Going into the hiding-place of the rats, Brisby discovers a very strange den, equipped with advanced technology, for rats. She finds Mr. Ages, an old mouse who seems to be friends with the rats, and meets Justin, a rat, captain of the guard, Jenner, a member of the council, and Nicodemus, old wise and leader of the community, who will make great revelations to Mrs. Brisby, for example, the fact that the rats in the community are in fact the rats escaped from a genetic laboratory, and having undergone mutations that have made them more intelligent. Mrs. Brisby also learns that her husband, Jonathan, was part of genetically modified mice, such as Mr. Ages, and that he helped the rats to escape. Nicodemus reveals to Mrs. Brisby that Jonathan never said anything about it, because unlike her, he would not have grown old and would have remained young. In memory of his late friend, Nicodemus agrees to help Mrs. Brisby, and gives her a golden amulet with a red ruby.

But what Nicodemus and Brisby do not know is that Jenner plots in the shadows, wanting to take the place of Nicodemus at the head of the community. While Mrs. Brisby volunteers to asleep the cat of the farm, the rats begin to move the house of the mice with their equipment. But Jenner had planned everything, and triggered a terrible accident, and Nicodemus found himself crushed, and died on the spot. Mrs. Brisby, who had been caught by the farmers' son but managed to escape, arrives too late. Brisby tells the rats that the farmer has appealed to Nimh's scientists, and that they come to eradicate the rats until the last one. Jenner, blinded by his desire for power, does not want to hear anything and tries to kill Mrs. Brisby to silence her, and also take the amulet. But Justin interposes and after a terrible fight, Jenner is killed.

But after bad weather, the house of the mice begins to be swallowed by the mud, and Mrs. Brisby, at the peril of her life, will awaken the power of the amulet with her heart and manages to save her family. Following the departure of Nimh's rats to a better lair, Mrs. Brisby resumed her normal life, with her family, in a safer place, sheltered from the farmer's tractor.

Mrs. Brisby is one of the most courageous characters I've seen, because despite her small size, she does not hesitate to brave fear and danger to save her children. She represents, in a way, innocence and kindness, in a dark world filled with giant and terrifying creatures.

Mathias, the Killmaster

Fire and Blood \m/