The Willows in Winter

It was a pleasure working on The Willows in Winter, as a cell painter. I have some very fond memories and a few copied cells on my walls. I think this was a lovely piece of work, I like to watch it at Christmas. Excellent example of great British hand made animation at its best. The Wind in the Willows was just as good.

The Willows in Winter continues the story of Ratty,Mole,Toad and Badger and the other animals.We are also joined by moles nephew.Mole goes missing and the animals look for him.Toad also gets an airplane but crashes it on to someones conservatory.It turns out the persons conservatory is the judge who put him in prison in the last story.I will not give away too much of the plot and leave that for you to see what happens.

The animation in this is beautiful.It is very charming,enjoyable and funny.The character voices are well chosen,especially Rik Mayal as Toad,he is a winner.

I saw both 'The Wind in the Willows' and this growing up, and have vivid memories of most of the first one. This...well, I remember the tarantula in the greenhouse, and that's about it. I mean it's still OK, but boy does it become The Rik Mayall Show compared to the first one.

That must be a real treat if you love Rik Mayall - personally I think he was always best in small doses, like his occasional 'Blackadder' appearances. He was pretty exhausting in anything where he had a lead role, and the 1995 'Wind in the Willows' at least reined it in just enough. Plot seems a bit weakly clichéd, manic, and thrown together too, and the 'no-one knows it's Toad if he has the tiniest disguise' is stretched to breaking point, after just about working in the first film.

It speaks volumes (pun intended) that this was based on a sequel NOT by Kenneth Grahame, but someone else entirely. Dare I say it, neither book nor adaptation was necessary. The originals were understatedly beautiful. This has the same great animation...but it's a very poor cousin to the original in terms of story.

Sequels are rarely ever as good, or even rarer, are they better than the original film. This sequel is nothing fancy, and definitely cannot hold a torch to the 1995 Wind in the Willows. The animation in this sequel is nowhere near as beautiful as the original, and that's telling when they were only made a year apart. Its evident that Willows in Winter was made to be on television.

I believe if they would have taken the same time and care for this film as they had the first, it would have been better. The story is still fun, and kids will most likely enjoy the film, especially if watched back to back with the first, which is how it should be!

After the fantastic Wind in the Willows, The Willows in Winter was a wonderful continuation, with all the charm and likability of its predecessor. The animation was just stunning, and so was the music. The story(which was a great idea) and script were engaging, and the film is made memorable chiefly by its characters. The voice cast was perfectly refreshing, Rik Mayall reprising his role as Toad, and he was hilarious, but Alan Bennett, Michael Gambon and Michael Palin were also brilliant. And lovely narration from Vanessa Redgrave. On the whole, not quite as good as its predecessor, but beautiful and engaging nonetheless. 10/10 Bethany Cox.