Silverwing

This show was quite enjoyable. The story is great since it's based off an amazing book. I don't know if I would've enjoyed the show as much if it weren't for the book nostalgia. But the art is great, the story is gripping and constantly keeps you on the edge of your seat. I'd recommend this show for kids and adults alike.

After Kenneth Opel's rousing story of the invigorated me back into the pleasure of reading during grade school, I had high hopes for this series. The story of an underdog bat voyaging across country to reunite with his colony captivated my imagination and resonated deeply with my burgeoning imagination.Upon hearing of this series, I began browsing Bardel Animation's site and liked what I saw. The character design looked impressive and the fast-paced plot seemed to have been stretched respectably across a thirteen episode arc. Much was my disappointment, then, when I decided to watch a rerun early one morn.

The opening episode shows our hero, Shade Silverwing, pursuing a tiger moth in the deep hours of the night. Chirruping an echolocatory song, we see a nifty if crude CGI effect illuminate the moth, and the chase takes on a frenetic turn as the tiny insect creates numerous illusory copies of itself do deceive its pursuer. As a lover of biology, I had a decent understanding of the principles in place (tiger moths can sense the sounds their predators use for echolocation and spin a sonic cover for themselves) but without such exposition I would have surely been lost. A minor quibble, I thought. Surely they director will fill us in momentarily. I waited in vain.

Once our protagonist roosts down with some of his fellows, we are treated to some of the dullest dialog I've ever seen on television. Chinook, Shade's childhood rival, begin taunting the diminutive hero with the stupidest lines I've ever seen on a show. I can understand the writers not producing Shakespeare, but one would think they'd have had some social contact in their lives - surely enough to make communication seem natural. Oh, how wrong I was.

The voice acting, while not horrendous, hardly was a shining example of human achievement. "Oh Shade, you're broken the law!" Shade's mother sighs emptily. "You must come with me, young one." croaks Frieda, the wizened elder of the Silverwing Colony. The actors try, but it hardly matters at this point, as the story becomes less and less compelling with each pass minute.

While each episode deals with a problem of the week, as is typical of with most television series, overarching story arcs pervade the saga, for better and worse. While the main point of the story is Shade's reunion with his family, later episodes tack on other story arcs, involving cannibalistic bats from the Southern jungles and a brewing war between birds and beasts. The writers try to do too much at once, fighting to compress as many promising ideas as possible in the hopes that it will grab audience interest enough to keep the bloody show going on. Unfortunately, these attempts are futile to all but the eight to ten year olds at whom this show is aimed.

While it's nice to see Canadian media be perpetuated, it would be all the sweeter if the enjoyability of the series wasn't limited to the immediate family of the animators or frothing fans of Kenneth Oppel's books. There are worse things out there your children could be watching than Silverwing, but far better programs are out there, too. Pass on the mediocrity and read the books instead.

I had never heard of Silverwing before, then I saw it on Toon Disney and instantly loved it! I also think that it is not just for kids, and that people of all ages would enjoy it. It has a great plot, great effect, and cool characters. I will always love the show, and I heard it will be coming on on DVD worldwide soon, and I'm going to get it! I haven't read any of the books, but I intend to. The show deserves a 10 out of 10, and I hope the books are just as good. Well, that's all I have to say. But I still have 2 lines I have to fill up, so...who do you all think is the coolest character? Mine is Shade, and my second favorite is Marina.

To me, this show brings back quite a few good memories, having watch this in about grade three. It inspired me to learn more about Bats and to read the actual book. But enough about that, lets look at the review. First off, the animation is pretty solid. The transition to a scary bat to ones with humanoid features was a pretty good transition. The show had combined a couple of CGI scenes that weren't those perfect Hollywood effects, but were still pretty nice. Second:The voice acting was pretty good, and the book to TV transition had some changes, some for good, others not so much. It was originally meant to last over 36 episodes, but the budget didn't quite last, and had instead ended the show at the end of the Book "Silverwing" but had some "Sunwing" scenes in it as well to not make the show a (Complete) cliffhanger. In the end, I give it a 7/10, for good animation and voice acting, and a fairly solid TV adaptation. It really wouldn't do much justice if you didn't already read the book, or watch the show growing up. But I'd still recommend watching the show if you feel like watching a fantasy show. After all, how many books get a thirteen episode TV adaptation, rather than just a cinema?

I had first heard of 'Silverwing' when it first started airing on Teletoon, however never did watch it. Recently I found the books for cheap at the thrift store and, after reading them, knew I had to see the series. I purchased a videotape containing every episode off of someone. I was expecting the storyline to be watered down, full of fillers, and to deviate far from the book.

What I saw was the exact opposite.

'Silverwing' is pure, epic action, straight from the beginning. The show, though changing small aspects of the book, remains very faithful to the overall flow of the original novels. The key points are all still there, and in some places, better explained. The animation is rather good for a TV series, and the voice-acting is bang-on.

'Silverwing' also has a very strong movie-feel to it. The tape I bought had all the episodes edited together with the beginning and end credits absent (except for the beginning and end of the entire tape), as well as all commercials cut. Each new episode began immediately where the last one left off. No jumping around (something Watership Down had a tendency of doing throughout the first two seasons).

Though this is a cartoon, it is not exactly for children. Younger kids might be frightened at times. As for adults, well, I'm 21 and hold Silverwing amongst my favourite TV shows of all time.

My fingers are crossed that they make new episodes of Silverwing.