I have enjoyed a lot of Rankin/Bass productions in the past, so when I stumbled upon a copy of it - and saw that it was written by Romeo Muller, one of the best writers for Rankin/Bass - I plunked down my money and took it home to watch.
Unfortunately, I was severely let down by this movie. While I have not read the original Kenneth Grahame novel this is based on, I think Grahame would be appalled by this production. While I know this was made for TV in the '80s, and the animation quality wouldn't be top grade, the animation left a lot to be desired. (Not just that the design of the human characters was downright grotesque.) The character of Toad was extremely annoying and hard to warm up to. And the songs are not only horrible, they bring the overlong story to a screeching halt for several minutes whenever they play.
Not everything about this movie is bad. I found the relationship and dialogue between the characters of Ratty, Badger, and Moley warm and compelling. Unfortunately, there is only a few minutes of this in the entire movie. Had there been more of this, I am sure I would have liked this movie a lot better.
While I only paid 25 cents for this movie, I still feel ripped-off.
Unfortunately, I was severely let down by this movie. While I have not read the original Kenneth Grahame novel this is based on, I think Grahame would be appalled by this production. While I know this was made for TV in the '80s, and the animation quality wouldn't be top grade, the animation left a lot to be desired. (Not just that the design of the human characters was downright grotesque.) The character of Toad was extremely annoying and hard to warm up to. And the songs are not only horrible, they bring the overlong story to a screeching halt for several minutes whenever they play.
Not everything about this movie is bad. I found the relationship and dialogue between the characters of Ratty, Badger, and Moley warm and compelling. Unfortunately, there is only a few minutes of this in the entire movie. Had there been more of this, I am sure I would have liked this movie a lot better.
While I only paid 25 cents for this movie, I still feel ripped-off.