Psycho's Movie Reviews #151: The Wind In The Willows (1996)

The Wind in the Willows (released in the United States as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride) is a 1996 British adventure comedy film based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows written and directed by Terry Jones, and produced by Jake Eberts and John Goldstone. The film stars Terry Jones, Steve Coogan, Eric Idle and Nicol Williamson. The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 18, 1996.

Plot

Mole's underground home is caved in when the meadow above is crushed by a steam shovel, driven by the Weasels, who are demolishing it for a new location. Mr. Toad, had sold the land to finance his latest obsession: caravanning. Mole finds the Water Rat for solace. Seeing Mole's pain, Rat takes Mole to see Toad. Toad encourages them to join them in his newly bought horse-drawn caravan. A speeding motor car frightens the horse, tipping the caravan over. Toad instantly discards the cart and becomes infatuated with motoring. He is a terrible driver and funds his cars with loans from the Weasels. Their vindictive Chief blackmails him to sell Toad Hall.

After Toad's uncontrollable drive into the Wild Wood destroys a seventh motor car, Toad, Rat, and Mole are lost in the unwelcoming lair of the Weasels. The Weasels attempt to coerce Mole into stopping his friends from interfering with their plans. Toad is also attacked by the Weasels. The three end up in Mr. Badger's underground house. Badger, a close friend of Toad's late father who feels protective of Toad's inheritance, attempts to end Toad's love of motor cars. However, Toad refuses to listen to Badger and is ultimately arrested for stealing and crashing a motor-car outside a pub. During his trial, Toad's defence lawyer is no help at all due to Toad's obnoxious attitude. Furthermore, the Weasels are dominating the public box. The Chief Weasel poses as one of the rabbits in the Jury and manipulates the Jury to give a guilty verdict. After Toad insults the Court and makes a botched escape attempt, the furious Judge gives him a 100-year sentence in a castle dungeon.

Back in Toad Hall, Rat and Mole are evicted by the Weasels, who have taken Toad Hall for themselves. Rat and Mole tunnel under the castle to free Toad, but he is helped by the kind-hearted Jailer's daughter and her sardonic Tea Lady Aunt. Toad escapes, disguised as the latter. Having left Toad's wallet in his cell, Toad, Rat, and Mole board an Engine. The police, who have stowed away on the carriages, demand that the train be stopped. Toad confesses the truth and begs the driver to help him evade his captors. Feeling sympathetic, the driver agrees to help. He tosses coal at the police, but gets caught in a mail catcher. Toad takes control of the train, Mole accidentally uncouples the coaches and Rat and Mole are left far behind, Toad eventually derails the engine. Having survived, he sets off again but is abducted by the Weasels.

The full extent of the Weasel's plans are now revealed: they have built a dog-food factory over the remains of Mole's abode and are planning to blow up Toad Hall and build a slaughterhouse in its place, with which they will turn all of the peaceful Riverbankers into dog food. They have also damaged the area near to Badger's home, which provokes him into wanting revenge against them. Badger and Rat attempt to infiltrate Toad Hall disguised as weasels, but are discovered. Along with Toad, they are placed over the factory's mincing machine. The Chief, Clarence and Geoffrey return to Toad Hall to prepare the victory celebration, leaving St. John in charge of the machine. Mole, who has broken into the factory, disables the machine allowing Toad, Badger and Rat to escape.

In a premature sense of victory, Clarence and Geoffrey attempt to murder their Chief using a birthday cake. Clarence and Geoffrey begin to fight each other for leadership, with the other Weasels drunkenly taking sides. This distraction allows the protagonists to stage a raid on the house, leaving all of the Weasels incapacitated in the ensuing fight. It turns out that the Chief has survived the coup against his life. Toad attempts to stop him from reaching the factory, which contains the detonator to blow up Toad Hall, to no avail. Unbeknownst to both of them, the explosives are actually in the factory (Rat had switched the labels on the explosive's containers earlier, leading the Weasels to believe the explosives were actually bone supplies for the factory), and as such the Chief blows himself up along with the factory, leaving Toad Hall intact and Toad's friends alive.

Afterwards, Toad makes a public speech swearing off motor cars and promising to be more mature and less selfish in the future. Mole's home has been repaired. However, Toad is seen secretly talking to an airplane salesman, which shows that he has only moved on to a new craze. Toad flies over the crowd in his new plane, causing mass hysteria and a disappointed Badger swears never to help Toad again. During the end credits, Toad flies across the country and eventually over the sea.

Production

The Wind in the Willows was produced by Allied Filmmakers in the UK. Terry Jones (who plays Mr. Toad), one of the legendary Monty Python cast, teamed up with some of the remaining Pythons to bring the classic tale up to date for another generation to enjoy. Eric Idle as Rat, plays a major role, but John Cleese and Michael Palin have only small roles. John Cleese plays Toad's inept defence lawyer, and Michael Palin plays a sardonic talking Sun, who occasionally chastises Toad for his reckless behaviour, and briefly speaks to Ratty and Mole. Terry Gilliam was asked to voice "The River", but busy filming schedules with 12 Monkeys kept him from joining the cast. "The River" only has one instance of dialogue in the entire film- he is shown with a mouth and sings a couple of lines of the first song.

Filming and Locations

• The filming was done mostly during sunset, and the colours were then readjusted.

• Filming for the railway scenes were shot on the Bluebell Railway, disguised as part of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (the Bluebell is home to a number of SE&CR locomotives, and as part of the old London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, the neighbouring railway to the SE&CR the disguise was not difficult to complete effectively). This is the first film to use the SE&CR for the Wind in the Willows - the railway in most adaptations of the story is portrayed as the Great Western Railway (although the text of the book itself does not specify this).

• The scenes of the outside of Toad Hall were shot at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk.

• The external scenes of the Gaol are Dover Castle in Kent.

• The Old School, now the post office in Chiddingstone, features as the Welcome Inn where Toad dines before stealing and crashing a motorcar.

Reception/Box Office

The film holds a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and holds three stars out of five on the film critic website AllMovie.com. Film critic Mike Hertenstein wrote a positive critical review of the film.

The films won the Best of the Fest award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival in 1998 and the WisKid Award at the Wisconsin International Children's Film Festival in 2000.

The film sub-totalled £1.303 million in the U.K. and $72,844 in the U.S.

Budget £9.75 million

Box office £1.303 million

My Review

I sought out this seldom-seen film because of the director and cast. I am a Monty Python fan and wanted to see many of the show's cast in a film--though it is NOT a Python film nor do they in any way pretend it is. In addition, Terry Jones didn't just act in it but also wrote and directed this film. So my curiosity was definitely piqued. But apparently few were impressed by the film or its unusual pedigree, as it barely received a release and was a huge money hole for the studio...and is a film few realize was ever made or released by Disney on DVD.

When this film began, I was very, very surprised by the look of the characters. While the sets were absolutely lovely, the actors simply looked like people with very minor changes to make them look, a bit, like the characters from the book. For example, Rat just looks like Eric Idle with some tiny whiskers and a tale and Terry Jones' face was painted a very, very, very light shade of green to play Mr. Toad! I had expected characters who were animals--but I guess to economize they did it this way. Oddly, also, some did not appear to be animals at all--just people! While I didn't like this look at all, I must say the acting was top-notch--something they might not have been able to get out of CGI characters or actors in clumsy animal costumes.

As for the story, the animals are worried. Toad is spending his fortune with reckless abandon--buy and destroying car after car. The weasels are thrilled, as they want to buy this property in order to do SOMETHING dastardly, so it's up to the nice animals (Mole, Rat and Badger) to try to stop Toad from destroying himself. But, with so many determined weasels AND Toad's total lack of control, it's a huge battle to say the least!

Overall, I really liked this version despite it's odd costumes--a few more dollars spent on giving EVERYONE more animal-like features would have improved it a lot--and I would have given it an even higher score. But on the plus side, the songs are bright and fun, the writing quite clever and funny, the acting uniformly wonderful, the wonderful little touches (such as the accelerator on the train saying 'even faster' and the mile marker saying 'many miles to go'), the music and sound excellent and the sets and colours are lovely. But I also think it's a story without much of an audience. I am not sure kids (particularly younger ones) would be interested in the film--particularly with the very adult vocabulary (with words like 'immure' and 'incarcerated' strewn throughout the film). And, I am not sure that most adults would even consider watching this film--after all, it's traditionally a kids' book. It's a shame, really, as it is lovely and fun. I particularly loved the courtroom scene--one of the few scenes that actually did look like it came right from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"! 8.6/10

{The songs in this are good but forgettable, except for the Weasles' Song 'Secret Of Survival" which is a lot of fun}