The Animals of Farthing Wood

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 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 first watched this when it was on the TV.Then when I was about 11 we found a copy in the library.It had several of the original episodes crushed together with some of the story lines taken out but we still wanted to see all of the videos.It was nice for me to see it again and to see the parts I remembered. It is not like Percy the Park Keeper where the animals are babyish and silly.Call me horrid,but personaly I couldn`t care wether the rabbit stayed down the well.Let her stay there! Unlike some things that are not like the books,this show is not awful. The first series was great but the second series was fantastic!It was very exciting and sadder than the first series.I felt like crying at some bits.There third series was weak.It just wasn`t gripping. This is still a classic show.Very endearing. I would give it 10\10 if it wasn`t the third series so I will give it 8\10

When you look at kids shows today you can't believe the things you watched when you were a kid. Today no one would make a show like this because now it's politically incorrect. And if they did it would be marketed for older teenagers. This show had violence, complexity, depth, realism, moralistic debates and good wry humour. Today's show's for the same age group by comparison are childish, shallow and plain silly which don't get me wrong they have a place in our TV viewing habits but when it is the only thing you can give your kids to watch, well it's rather sad.

This was a show were they didn't shy from the fact that predators eat prey, the characters had real personality clashes and there was no fully good or fully bad character they all had a bit of both. They even dealt with the issues of death, loss and grief. We have become so afraid of children getting hurt our TV shows treat our kids like idiots. I was 7 to 8 when I watched this show and I understood all the themes and moral dilemmas moreover I wanted to know about them and since parents aren't going discuss things like that with a 7 yr old kid I really got to thank shows like this for helping me build a moral character.

Come on TV land be daring make kids shows like this again. Kids need stimulation not constant mindless candy floss.