BEFORE: Matt Lucas carries over from "Bridesmaids", and provides me with a link back to animated films and/or children's films (this one's not animated). This topic will take me nearly to the end of the month, and a fair number of these are based on children's books, so that ties in well with this very literary month that kicked off with "Les Miserables", "The Three Musketeers" and "Mutiny on the Bounty", et. al.
THE PLOT: One spring, Mole decides that he can ignore the spring cleaning for a little longer, and begins a series of adventures with his new friend Rat.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Once Upon a Forest" (Movie #1,018)
AFTER: Well, this was a weird one. I guess I was expecting something a bit more like the old cel-animated Disney film I saw as a kid, which was combined with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and screened under the title "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad". But as I said, tonight's film was NOT animated - it just had actors playing the parts of the animals, with minimal make-up and costumes.
They did cast people with facial features that sort of resembled the animals they were playing - a rat-faced guy, and Matt Lucas is very roundish, sort of toad-like I guess. But they still relied heavily on the power of suggestion - British kids know this story very well, so they'd be more likely to "see" the people as animals. But I might not have known that guy was supposed to be a mole if he didn't introduce himself, and thankfully his name happens to be Mole.
This story ended up following the book very closely, because the British kids would probably scream if it deviated greatly. But I think that also ended up hurting it somewhat, because the book doesn't seem to have one clear narrative - instead it consists of four separate yet interconnected stories. It's kind of like the "Pulp Fiction" of kiddie lit.
I kind of wish I'd started a section in my reviews long ago, based on "What I learned" from each film, like Craig Ferguson does at the end of each show. All along I should have been relating what specific knowledge was gleaned from each movie, either straight or sarcastically. For example, tonight I learned that you should never let a toad drive your motorcar, you can escape from jail just by disguising yourself as a washerwoman, and that badgers growl a lot.
I'm left not knowing how seriously to take this story. The nitpicky side of me wants to point out that Toads can't drive cars - is it a giant toad, or a really small car? And that rats don't use rowboats, etc. Plus, you might be able to tell this story better if you have a bigger budget for make-up and costumes. Or ANY budget for make-up, for that matter.
This really needs to be re-made in full animation, similar to "Fantastic Mr. Fox". Which apparently has been done a time or two, but not by a big Hollywood stop-motion studio. There has also been another animated version with the voices of Michael Palin and Rik Mayall, and another live-action version directed by Terry Jones and starring Palin, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Steve Coogan and Stephen Fry. Why couldn't I have watched one of those versions instead of this one?
Also starring Lee Ingleby, Mark Gatiss, Bob Hoskins (last seen in "Vanity Fair"), with cameos from Imelda Staunton, Tom "Dr. Who" Baker.
RATING: 3 out of 10 sardines
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