Review for The Animals of Farthing Wood: The Complete Series

The Animals of Farthing Wood is a classic animation based on the classic book by Colin Dann. In this day of computer generated wizardry, it is refreshing to watch this classic animation from the early 1990s and now all 39 episodes are brought here for you to relive and enjoy.

A group of animals are forced to move after humans drive them away. The main characters are Fox, Badger and a few other animals who try and band the animals together in their struggle to survive. Across the three series of twenty-thirty minute episodes they pack in a lot of high drama for what is essentially a children's cartoon and it is hard to dispute the effort and brilliance that goes into every episode.

However, in some ways for me this series is either too brilliant or just far too grim to be successful. I found myself bored quite frequently as I was watching. I appreciated what the show was trying to do and the mix of serious and comic moments worked most of the time, but there are times when I really struggled to get through some episodes and I think one of the main reasons is that very little happens in some episodes. It is true that the animation is sophisticated and the characters and the way they are played is wonderful, but there is simply nothing that grabs me when watching this show.

It is possible that I am just not used to watching animation like this. I am used to hard action, jokes and explosions rather than this very intelligent drama. In a way, it remind of the work of Studio Ghibli and at times I felt that there was too much of a Watership Down influence with what was going on.

The fact that the entire show is here is a plus and maybe if there had been some behind the scenes or discussion of the show I might have appreciated it more. However, I just felt that I couldn't get into the show and despite all the plus points I could give it, I couldn't help but feel that this is a show that I would never watch again.

The Animals of Farthing Wood is not a great animation series for me, however you may find it perfect. If you are a fan of the books or indeed of a more serious animation then you might enjoy the sophisticated tale that is shown here and if you did enjoy it when it was first shown you will love to relive these adventures again.