The Wind in the Willows

A quintessentially British classic, brought back for a new generation.

It's a pleasure to watch a new children's movie without dead parents or body fluid slapstick. The film is surprisingly close to the book, with saturated colours director Talalay seems to have been denied with her TV work.

Most of the casting is superb; standouts are Mark Gatiss as Ratty, Bob Hoskins as growly Badger and Oscar-nominee Imelda Staunton as the Barge Lady, with some surprisingly attractive Romanian weasels and underrated Canadian Mary Walsh as the unattractive bosom-rearranging washerwoman. Little Britain's Matt Lucas is a scenery-chewing disappointment as Toad, driving down the stars from 8 to 7; whenever he's on screen, despite his good music-hall turns with the songs, he jars us back to the 21st century.

Like most great stories, 'Willows' survives beyond its period-piece setting with a moral for young and old. Whether you subscribe to the id/ego/superego trio, or the class structure of the stupid rich Toad, proper Rat and afraid-but-brave homebody Mole, there's more to the tale than Toad's latest toy.

Children younger than 6 likely won't stand more than a few minutes of this, but nostalgic adults will enjoy watching this with school-age children who hopefully will ask for the whole story.

A friend of mine was kind enough to burn me a DVD from the BBC-TV presentation, and send it to me in America. I was delighted, as I had been looking forward to it for some time and took for granted it would not come to the US.

I was not disappointed. This film is completely wonderful, from the saturated colors of the landscapes to the marvelously witty and creative camera work, to the absolute perfection of the actors in their roles -- each one entirely believable as the creature he was meant to be. Mark Gatiss' Rat was a bit underplayed--it was only on second viewing that I became aware of the subtleties of his performance: the little ratlike twitches of the nose and the occasional baring of the teeth. Bob Hoskins gave a solid, workmanlike performance as Badger, and of course Matt Lucas' Toad fairly stole the show.

But the absolute revelation of the film was Lee Ingleby as Mole. Somehow in watching him I was able to see two presences on screen at the same time: the full-scale human and a tiny shadowy creature of delicacy, timidity and great vulnerability. The humble little Mole, so earnest and willing to please, is of course the center and the heart of the story, and Ingleby brought him to life with extraordinary grace, sensitivity and humor. His parting line, "Perhaps there's room in the world for all sorts of creatures" (paraphrased) is a lesson to be lived by even today.

This is not the "Wind in the Willows" you grew up with. This is live actors in limited make-up, breathing life into the characters through their own talent, rather than through special effects. (Though there are a few of those too, and quite clever ones at that.) As soon as a commercial release of the DVD became available (March 26), I bought it. My first copy was well-worn long before then.

This is not the best version of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful book, but it is a very enjoyable one. It is amusing and charming with memorable, quirky performance and great costume and set design.

The adaptation does look visually pleasing, with colourful costumes and sets and the scenery is beautiful. The camera work was also creative, with interesting angles. The story is still well-constructed, well-paced, fairly true in essence and has many charming interludes particularly the Piper at the Gates of Dawn sequence which was a delight to see.

The writing is also playful and witty, particularly with Toad, and the characters are still their likable selves. The acting is in general very good. Matt Lucas occasionally overdoes it, but he also seems to be enjoying himself. Bob Hoskins is a wonderful badger, while Lee Ingleby is a touching Mole and Mak Gatiss a suitably subdued and subtle Ratty. Mary Walsh is lovely too, Imelda Staunton is very amusing and while the weasels are a slight disappointment they aren't in a lot of it to distract too much.

Overall, a very enjoyable TV adaptation. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Venturing out from his underground home, Mole joins Ratty for a river trip. They come across the rich Mr Toad, who has taken up caravanning as a new hobby. However this hobby is replaced by a new one when he is run off the road by a motorcar – sparking a new passion in his life. While Badger, Mole and Ratty try to cure Toad of his car obsession, the weasels use it against him in order to get the deeds to Toad Hall.

That this was screened on New Years Day in the early evening slot should give you a clue about what to expect from this version. On the final day of the Christmas holiday, this is aimed at families with the parents enjoying the final day off work, looking for something warm, familiar and undemanding to watch that has enough of a family glow and wholesome feel to it to do the job. And that is just what this delivers nad it has the perfect material to do it with since Wind in the Willows is a family classic that many of us have affection for. Of course that is not saying that it is brilliant (it is not) but rather it is just safe family warmth without too much to really mark it out or justify watching it when not in a turkey-and-wine-induced stupor. The plot is well known and the film delivers it with a "jolly-old-England" air and light humour but not much else. It isn't that funny or inventive but again it does what it needed to do. Fans might also be narked that the weasels are squeezed into a silly panto action conclusion which seems like an afterthought for all concern.

Visually the film looks good and the minimal design of the characters was a nice touch. The sets look good but the jump-edits and backgrounds were modern touches that jarred with the rest of the film and didn't work – the very occasional use of special effects were terrible too. The cast has one or two "holiday BBC family drama" faces in there to draw the audience but nobody does that well. Lucas hams it up in the main role and he seems to be enjoying himself. He will amuse children but he is closer to "silly" than "funny" from where I was coming from. Gatiss is a solid "Oxford-type" as Ratty and he is OK without being distinguished; likewise Ingleby's mole – good but not really memorable. Hoskins was a good piece of casting and he gives good badger with his constant grump. The weasels are poor characters and not that well delivered by a group cast for their tumbling ability rather than anything else but small turns from Staunton and a few others are amusing.

Overall then a warm and basic bit of family entertainment that more or less did the job over the Christmas holidays by being pitched at a sedated family audience on their last day off work together and recovering from a New Year's Eve hangover. However it is not good enough to offer much if you are approaching it without this reduced set of requirements, not being funny, imaginative or engaging enough to stick in the mind even an hour after watching it. Of course it isn't helped by me having the memory of the 1996 version which, to be blunt, sh1ts on this version. OK it was floated down the river by Disney but it is better in almost every way and should be sought out by anything considering watching this because this 2006 version isn't a patch on it.

The Wind In The Willows' latest BBC adaptation is definitely an enjoyable watch - even if it is just for Matt Lucas's depiction of Toad of Toad Hall. Some nice settings and good historical settings (this is meant to be set in the 1920s) ensure that this isn't just stupid fun for thick kids. But unfortunately, the show's main sense of humour lies in Matt Lucas' ability to make stupid noises and just generally be an idiot - a shortage of sharp wit or cruel sarcasm is a shame and ensure that this will only be fully enjoyed by lovers of Little Britain. But to be honest, this wasn't meant to be the Beeb's latest comedy breakthrough. This was made purely to entertain the family for 100 minutes. And revisiting old classic tales has always done that. There's also a bit of human emotion in the film - from Mole (or was it Badger? I don't know), who wishes he had a real home and a real family again, as testified to a number of times in the film. But as I said earlier, most people would only watch this for Matt Lucas anyway, and he's great as the massively over-the-top, scheming and barmy Toad of Toad Hall. He brings the technology-obsessed Toad to the screen with his own unique humorous signature and manages to help make these 100 minutes very enjoyable indeed. Some of it is well made (take the dream sequence with the floating boat which bordered on Lord of the Rings quality), and some of it is a bit duff (take the CG plane at the end, although this manages to help the film reach the conclusion it wanted), but it is all very fun, and the BBC have thrown a few million out of their money pot in the right direction. Some photography is neat and on the whole, this film is nice to look at. It would have been more original if the story had taken a more mature and adult twist instead of being aimed solely at the whole family - after all, Matt Lucas does specialise in adult comedy. Unfortunately, it's practically all family friendly and there ain't much to satisfy a mature audience, although some guns and fighting at the end help to keep it slightly away from PC-mush-land. But who cares? The Wind In The Willows is a family story, and with Narnia-esquire photography in parts, this will be two hours that you won't regret sitting through. And I must admit, I did chuckle when Toad pranged his car. 7/10