Absolutely the worst movie.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This show is an excellent series for children to watch. I would rate it even higher than I have here (8 out of 10) if it wasn't for the fact that you can't help but feel the show is a little bit "dated" in it's look and style. The storytelling is very good but that is something else which you can tell from watching is from a previous era of television.The animals and characters are all great with some really fantastic voice acting.The stories are age appropriate for children, well written and also teaching some very good lessons in a way that is fun for the kids and does not beat them over the head.

When you look at kids shows today you can't believe the things you watched when you were a kid. Today no one would make a show like this because now it's politically incorrect. And if they did it would be marketed for older teenagers. This show had violence, complexity, depth, realism, moralistic debates and good wry humour. Today's show's for the same age group by comparison are childish, shallow and plain silly which don't get me wrong they have a place in our TV viewing habits but when it is the only thing you can give your kids to watch, well it's rather sad.This was a show were they didn't shy from the fact that predators eat prey, the characters had real personality clashes and there was no fully good or fully bad character they all had a bit of both. They even dealt with the issues of death, loss and grief. We have become so afraid of children getting hurt our TV shows treat our kids like idiots. I was 7 to 8 when I watched this show and I understood all the themes and moral dilemmas moreover I wanted to know about them and since parents aren't going discuss things like that with a 7 yr old kid I really got to thank shows like this for helping me build a moral character.Come on TV land be daring make kids shows like this again. Kids need stimulation not constant mindless candy floss.

There are a lot of good things about this series. In many ways it's a throwback to the old days of British animation, and certainly stands out against the background of most of today's modern American cartoons. This is not always a strength, however.The backgrounds and animation are disappointing; in particular the backgrounds often appear faded and washed-out, drawing unfavourable comparisons with the highly-detailed landscapes used in other nature cartoons, like Watership Down. The animation frequently produces problems with scale, the sizes of some animals varying even within scenes, and while the character design is mostly excellent there are too many instances of motion looping: the same pieces of animation getting used again and again.The voice acting is inconsistent, and the series clearly suffers from being unable to hire more than a few voice actors. The problem with having several characters voiced by one actor is that , more often than not, the actor will have to go to extremes of accent or pitch in order to produce voices that sound different, and as a result many of the supporting characters sound so irritating it's hard to sympathise with them. Having said that, the main characters are quite well done, and in particular the second-series' villains Scarface and Lady Blue are invested with suitable malevolence.So why is Farthing Wood a good cartoon, despite its problems? Perhaps its greatest achievement is to take a very mediocre series of novels, distill the best elements from them and use that as a starting point to develop stories and characters. Often the first thing discarded in the transition from page to TV is violence, but Farthing Wood deserves credit for retaining much of the book' realism; characters are killed off like it's open season in the safari, and the series doesn't shy away from depicting copious amounts of blood.Sad, thrilling and ultimately uplifting, Farthing Wood is a relic of the days when children felt more connected with nature and the Great Outdoors, and although a small budget limited its excellence, very likely it will be the last great British nature cartoon.

I watched this on and off as a kid, then as an adult I re-read the whole series of Farthing Wood books and got hooked once again.THE GOOD:The series is very faithful to the books; a lot of the script has been taken directly from it. It covers all the story lines (lately released prequel notwithstanding) from the initial flight to White Deer Park to the problems posed by the likes of Scarface and Trey and the rats at the end. While some parts of it take two separate books and combine them into one storyline, this is done so well and so cleverly that it really doesn't matter. The animation is basic but sound, and consistent all the way through. The voice acting is reasonably good (Badger in particular is excellent) The characters act more or less as they do in the books, with two notable exceptions (see below for details)THE BAD: Most of the animals seem to have undergone a sex change. Adder, Tawny Owl, Weasel and Kestrel are all female in this adaptation, whereas in the books they were all male. Out of all four, Owl's voice is the best; the persona is completely identical to that of the book.Character redesign: Weasel comes across as a silly clown with possibly the most irritating laugh I've ever heardCharacter redesign: Adder comes across as an evil, sneaky villain, even going so far as to alter the words of the Oath (in the book, Badger insists Adder swear first, and Adder complies willingly and serves as a full member of the group). This really did disappoint me, as Adder was easily my favourite character from the books.All in all, though, a fantastic series and well worth a watch!