Just curious I guess because the name in the book is Frisby, and when I watched this movie as a kid I always thought they were saying Frisby anyway. It didn't even occur to me that the names were different until I read the book recently and then heard someone refer to her as "Mrs. Brisby" and it confused me. Does anyone know why they changed it?
share[deleted]
That was the main reason. Frisby sounded like Frisbee and the producers just weren't in the mood to deal with trademark names or copyright problems when it had nothing to do with the story. In the book you could see it was spelled differently, but in the movie, you can only hear it and they sound the same.
It was much easier to just change the name and not worry about it, especially since it didn't make any difference.
"The lead character's name was changed from Mrs. Frisby (in the novel) to Mrs. Brisby to avoid legal entanglements from the Wham-O company (makers of the Frisbee). Unfortunately this change came late in the film's production, long after the actors had recorded their dialog. Because it was not feasible to have every actor using the word "Frisby" in the movie re-record his or her lines, the change from "Frisby" to "Brisby" was actually made by the sound editors, who, by hand, carefully sliced the "br" (taken from other words spoken by the actors) into the "fr" on the magnetic dialog tracks."
shareI didn't know that. It must of took forever.
shareWow, that is interesting! I didn't think about the legal issue, and so it seemed rather arbitrary since it still sounds just as fey. Makes sense though.
Although I wonder if maybe one of the voices never used a word with the "br" sound, what then? xD
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i go to an audio engineering class. we mostly do digital hard drives. just got into analog tape. and we have to do edits like this. i can't imagine for a ninety minute movie scanning it for half of a syylable and cutting it out then taping the BR in it's place. i give credit to those audio engineers. huge credit
"WeareHeavyMetalPirates
Wesailacrossthesky
Inourbattleshipsofcosmicsteel
We'retheterroruponhigh"
dude, they have this thing called a script. It has all the words spoken in the movie written down on paper. It would make finding the places needed to make the edits easier... like using a map. Not that it still wasn't a pain in the ass, but not the insurmountable task you make it out to be.
Good luck doing things the hard way in your audio-engineering career.
[deleted]
yeah, the name was changed because they didn't want any trouble with the makers of Frisbee. an interesting fact: the change wasn't made until most of the actors' lines had been recorded, so to avoid having to re-record the entire thing the sound people cut out the 'fr' sound from her name and inserted the 'br' sound from other lines it had been said by the actors. so basically, every time you hear her name it's actually two pieces of vocal sound.
shareI have a question, at the risk of sounding stupid. So, they definitely changed the name in the movie BEFORE the movie actually came out? Because I used to watch this movie ALL the time as a kid, and I always heard it as "Frisby", and I had never even known it was a book at that time, so I would have had no reason to assume it was Frisby and not Brisby. It was only when I recently rewatched it on DVD that I heard and knew about the name change and assumed it was a recent change. And it was obvious to me in the audio on the DVD that it was "Brisby". So, am I just imagining things? I haven't been able to find the old video of "The Secret of NIMH" I used to watch for years now, so I couldn't even check it...
But the trivia section here said it was done during production...so I MUST be imagining things! I only ask because I wondered if there might have been any early versions where the name was still "Frisby". And if not, does anyone else remember it definitely sounding like "Frisby" when they watched it when it was new?
I'm probably just crazy...
No, I remember Frisby and I didn't find out about the book until late elementary school (maybe 5th grade). I'd been watching it since I can remember. I might have the VHS, if I can find a player, I might watch it and listen, because I definitely remember Frisby, too.
shareI'm watching the dvd now and I can hear Frisby? Not sure why, but only heard Brisby about once, I think. I also read the book when I was in elementary school and remember her name being Mrs. Frisby too. Kind of stupid to change it just because the name sounded like Frisbee. It's spelt differently and it's just a name in a story. I can see if they used an actual Frisbee in the film and the book, but they didn't? lol
I'll always catch you when you fall.. -Will Young, Who Am Ishare
I don't have it anymore, but I know at one point someone had a photo of the promotional artwork for this film when it was still called 'Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH'. Yes, the artwork actually showed that as the title of the film. And yes, I've heard every Frisby had to be changed to Brisby. What a pain.
No clue as to whether a 'Frisby' version ever made it out.