Review for Wind in the Willows: The Original Movie

The Wind in the Willows is one of the most beloved children's tales ever written and never before or since has it been shown in such a wonderful way than in Cosgrove Hall's stop motion animation. Now people of my age will probably remember the television series, but here this is the original feature film which went on to win a BAFTA and International Emmy which is even better.

The story is simple, and those familiar with Kenneth Grahame's original story will all know it off by heart. It involves the riverbank adventures of the characters Mole, Rat, Badger and the wonderfully eccentric Toad. These characters all bandy together to help Toad stop his crazy antics, including the many things he becomes obsessed with (Boats, Carts or Cars Poop Poop!) and the problems caused by the dastardly Weasels.

This is shown through the wonders of stop motion animation, before the crazy antics of Aardmann Animation or when CGI took over and it is amazing just what the animators were able to achieve (remember this is 1983) and even just looking at the way the characters are animated surpasses even what most cinematic films were able to create at the time. It is surprising that Cosgrove Hall did not release this theatrically or did not go on to do more.

One of the most wonderful things about the story is the voice work
provided by Ian Carmichael as Rat, Richard Pearson as Mole, Michael Hordern as Badger and of course David Jason stealing the show as Toad. The story is told in such a way that even if you are just listening to the audio the wonderful performances, music and sound effects mean you don't even need the visuals. But combined it makes it even better.

I did worry that my nostalgia glasses would either be blurred by my memory of watching it as a child, or would be smashed by it being awful, but thankfully that is not the case. The story is perfect, the characters fun and though there isn't as much humour as I seem to recall, I found myself smiling a few times at Toad and in my head whenever I think of Toad the only thing that comes to mind is the voice of David Jason. It is not surprising that the film spawned a TV series that spanned fifty-two episodes and is almost as beloved as this tale.

It is a shame that they did not include some extras with this DVD, as it would have been nice to have had some sort of retrospective from the people who made it. A commentary track would have certainly been interesting to listen to. However, I understand that if this is being marketed to children that they would have no interest in these things. It would have been nice to have had a few episodes or clips from the TV show (especially if the complete series is also being released) or even to have included the difficult to find 1988 sequel A Tale of Two Toads, just to make this more of a 'must-have' item.

Cosgrove Hall's The Wind in the Willows is simply marvelous. This is not nostalgia talking, but simply fact. If this was the first time I had seen this, I would still be saying the same. Everything about it shows just why Cosgrove Hall were such a huge entity in the 1980s and when you consider this is a company that brought us Dangermouse, Count Duckula amongst others it is often surprising to some when you hear people declare the best thing they ever did was this. Watching it again, I would absolutely agree.