The Last Mimzy

Starring: Joely Richardson, Rainn Wilson, Timothy Hutton, et al.

Two children discover a mysterious box that contains some strange devices they think are toys. As the children play with these "toys," they begin to display higher and higher intelligence levels. Their teacher tells their parents that they seem to have grown beyond genius. Their parents, too, realize something extraordinary is happening. Emma, the younger of the two, tells her confused mother that one of the toys, a beat-up stuffed toy rabbit, is named Mimzy and that "she teaches me things." As Emma's mom becomes increasingly concerned, a blackout shuts down the city and the government traces the source of the power surge to Emma's family's house. Things quickly spin wildly out of their control. The children are focused on these strange objects, Mimzy, and the important mission on which they seem to have been sent. When the little girl says that Mimzy contains a most serious message from the future, a scientific scan shows that Mimzy is part extremely high level electronic, and part organic! Everyone realizes that they are involved in something incredible... but exactly what?

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 794043106934
• Release Date: January 2007
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Publisher: New Line Home Video
• Director: Bob Shaye
• Starring: Joely Richardson, Rainn Wilson, Timothy Hutton, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Chris O'Neil, Kathryn Hahn, Kirsten Williamson
• Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: DTS Surround Sound; Surround Sound; Full Screen; NTSC
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Mimzy was the borogoves.

Gather around as we tell the tale of long ago when children (Chris O’Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) on a vacation find a mysterious object on the Whidbey Island seashore. When the container opens, they find unfamiliar objects and some familiar ones. And so, the adventure begins. The selection of actors was excellent; there is a mixture of known and unknown good and great actors. The film is loosely built on an expansion of a 1943 short story “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. Of course, they did not have to build the filler with several other sci-fi themes to distract from the mystery. And someone is obsessed with daily technology, as we see with the cute bus scenes where everyone is texting. This time it is not a story of a neglected single parent-child, or of kids being superior to flippant parents. Some fluff added to expand the story time was the Homeland Security stuff with Michael Clarke Duncan, which is lifted right out of “War Games” (1983). This was a total distraction to the story. Bruce Joel Rubin did not read the book or at least slow down to realize that the toys in the box were not meant to serve a purpose, but as with many things in life, they inadvertently did serve an unplanned or unforeseen purpose. So, he destroyed the mimsy by changing the toys into a cheap plot purpose. Yet in his infinite wisdom, on the plus side, changing the rabbit's name to Mimzy was a nice touch. The extra goodies on the “Infinifilm Edition” DVD suffer from the same mistake made in the retelling of the story. They rely on technology to integrate the DVD extras into the film instead of having them as separate features. This can be annoying, having to constantly press Enter and select buttons. This may also be the cause of the fact that you can only move a chapter at a time forward or backward during the actual viewing of the movie. Read “The Last Mimzy: And Other Stories” Originally published as The Best of Henry Kuttner, or The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SF Hall of Fame), or The Best of Henry Kuttner With a special introduction by Ray Bradbury or search the net for William Shatner reads Henry Kuttner's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"