Als die Tiere den Wald verließen

I remembered loving (and being disturbed as well) "The Animals of Farthing Wood" as a kid. At 17, I still love it, it is truly a great show for kids and adults that teaches very good life lessons without preaching. I for one liked the animation style, the look of it reminded me of "Watership Down" which is one of my favourite films. The backgrounds are nice and evergreen, the colours are beautiful and the character features were excellent. The music was amazing, I have always loved the main theme. The characters are endearing and all had unique personalities, particularly Fox, Weasel, Toad and Adder, and the story lines are gripping, intelligent and well done. The voice acting is impressive too, Rupert Farley, Susan Jefferson and Ron Moody all do a stellar job. Is there a drawback? Maybe a small one, the third series wasn't as compelling as the first two series, but it was watchable and ended more than decently. All in all, this is a great show, maybe with one or two minor discrepancies but it is definitely worth the look and I recommend it strongly. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This show is an excellent series for children to watch. I would rate it even higher than I have here (8 out of 10) if it wasn't for the fact that you can't help but feel the show is a little bit "dated" in it's look and style. The storytelling is very good but that is something else which you can tell from watching is from a previous era of television.

The animals and characters are all great with some really fantastic voice acting.

The stories are age appropriate for children, well written and also teaching some very good lessons in a way that is fun for the kids and does not beat them over the head.

I grew up with the animals of farthing wood I don't know how i would have turned out if i hadn't had the ultimate joy of experiencing it.

I have all 3 series on video as well all the original books and all the magazines too.

I still watch them now and again and they still have that same wonderful effect on me. I love the characters so much. There's so much you can relate to in the story; you have the fear of something, courage to stand up, forbidden love, rebelling against your parents and most especially friendship and looking after others.

I thing i didn't like about the series is that in series 2 and more noticeably in series 3 the animals movement became more cartoon like and less animal like, so you have fox giving a big over dramatic yawn, then noticing that owls there suddenly sits up with big shocked eyes, it's just very unanimal-like. I think that because of this some of the animals like mosey lost their adroability when they became more cartoon like.

Either way though it was a fantastic show and i want the complete set to come out on DVD - it would be soooooo much handier than video.

I watched this on and off as a kid, then as an adult I re-read the whole series of Farthing Wood books and got hooked once again.

THE GOOD:

The series is very faithful to the books; a lot of the script has been taken directly from it. It covers all the story lines (lately released prequel notwithstanding) from the initial flight to White Deer Park to the problems posed by the likes of Scarface and Trey and the rats at the end. While some parts of it take two separate books and combine them into one storyline, this is done so well and so cleverly that it really doesn't matter. The animation is basic but sound, and consistent all the way through. The voice acting is reasonably good (Badger in particular is excellent) The characters act more or less as they do in the books, with two notable exceptions (see below for details)

THE BAD:

Most of the animals seem to have undergone a sex change. Adder, Tawny Owl, Weasel and Kestrel are all female in this adaptation, whereas in the books they were all male. Out of all four, Owl's voice is the best; the persona is completely identical to that of the book.

Character redesign: Weasel comes across as a silly clown with possibly the most irritating laugh I've ever heard

Character redesign: Adder comes across as an evil, sneaky villain, even going so far as to alter the words of the Oath (in the book, Badger insists Adder swear first, and Adder complies willingly and serves as a full member of the group). This really did disappoint me, as Adder was easily my favourite character from the books.

All in all, though, a fantastic series and well worth a watch!

I know many Brits grew up with this show, so it's a fond childhood memory for them, and if that's the case for you then by all means take a trip down memory lane.

If (like me) you read the books first and then found this series, I'd recommend skipping it.

My 5 star rating is generous, and based on the first season alone. Season 1 covers the book 'The Animals Of Farthing Wood', and with the exception of a few gender swaps (which I understand would've been to attract more female viewers) it is a fairly accurate representation and decent viewing.

Season 2 is based on the books 'In The Grip of Winter', 'Fox's Feud' and 'Fox Cub Bold', and here's where things start to fall apart. Characters that survive the entire book series are killed off while characters that are killed off in the books survive the whole series.

Season 3 is based on the books 'In The Path of the Storm' and 'Battle For The Park' (with a tiny hint of 'The Siege of White Deer Park') and it's pure rubbish.

Weasel (with her insanely annoying voice) is promoted to main character for some reason. The plot BARELY resembles the source material, and begins to contradict itself. Characters go missing for no reason. I could go on...

Bottom line, if you want to read a wonderful series I couldn't recommend the books by Colin Dann more than I already do...just make sure not to watch this series directly afterwards.