The Wind in the Willows (1987)
- Directed by
- Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
- Genre
- animation, drama, family
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 1h 36m
- Rated
- NR
- Rating
- 6.2 of 10 from 12 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
Four animal friends in the English countryside have adventures together. Moley, Ratty, Mr. Toad, and Mr. Badger face trouble and rely on each other.
whimsicalgentlecozynostalgicplayfulmusicalleisurelyheartfelt
What happens
The Wind in the Willows is a 1987 American animated musical television film directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, co-founders of Rankin/Bass Productions in New York, New York. It is an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows. Set in a pastoral version of England, the film focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters (Moley, Ratty, Mr. Toad, and Mr. Badger) and contains themes of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie. The film features the voices of Charles Nelson Reilly, Roddy McDowall, José Ferrer, and Eddie Bracken. The screenplay was written by Romeo Muller, a long-time Rankin/Bass writer whose work included Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), Frosty the Snowman (1969), The Hobbit (1977), and The Flight of Dragons (1982), among others. The film's animation was outsourced to James C.Y. Wang's Cuckoo's Nest Studios (also known as Wang Film Productions) in Taipei, Taiwan. This was the last project produced by Rankin/Bass before the company was shut down on March 4, 1987. The film was finished in 1983 and released on video in the UK in November of that year, but its American television premiere was delayed several times trying to air in 1985, before finally airing July 5, 1987 on ABC. In this version, the horse pulling the barge is the same horse who pulls Mr. Toad's caravan, Portly is Badger's nephew, and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Wayfarer's All chapters are included, although the events of Wayfarer's All occurs before the events of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Ratty actually leaves the Riverbank, only to be found later by Mole (alongside Portly). Rankin/Bass had previously produced a television show with the Wind in the Willows characters in 1970, The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show, with the voices of Canadian actors Paul Soles, Donna Miller, Claude Rae and Carl Banas, the production artwork of Paul Coker, Jr., and the animation of Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production in Tokyo, Japan. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
Wind in the Willows (1988)
The Wind in the Willows (1996)
The Wind in the Willows (1949)
The Wind in the Willows (1983)
The Wind in the Willows (2006)
The Wind in the Willows (1983)
Oh, Mr. Toad (1990)
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.