Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the movie two positive "yes" votes on a July 15, 1982, episode of their television program "Sneak Previews", with Ebert stating "Walt Disney would've liked "The Secret of NIMH"." In his print review for the "Chicago Sun-Times", Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "an artistic success", praising the quality of its animation and that it "contains that absolute rarity among feature-length animated cartoons, an interesting premise". However, Ebert found that "NIMH" may not resonate as well on an emotional level with younger viewers, since "it has so many characters and involves them in so many different problems that there's nobody for the kids in the audience to strongly identify with." Siskel, writing for the "Chicago Tribune", found the movie "charming", but stated that the narrative was "littered with too many unimportant characters" and that Dom DeLuise "insert too much of himself" into the character of Jeremy. Despite this, Siskel found the film, particularly the second half, to be a "genuine pleasure" and felt that even adults will be drawn into the story by the end, giving it three stars out of four.