Sadly in season 3, they decided to not follow the books. The book the season is based on is quite dark itself, in the book for example toad gets killed off. The rats are actually killed off. And Badger, badger in the books didn't actually die. The series also skips one book, where what is most probably a lynx or a bobcat which is known as The Beast gets into the park and goes on a killing spree.
Yep. They only merged 2 books but that weasel story which was entirely original should never have been there in the first place. And Battle for the Park is devastating. That should have been used properly. It's a truly heartbreaking story with some horrible deaths. Bully dies in the book. And doesn't in the show. Enough said. I swear at times the show tried to make him sympathetic, which is ridiculous. Fox or Adder should have done the honours in the show.
That made me mad because The Beast Could of been an attempt to create a villain as intimidating as Scareface yet had difference, like they could of still had the series start with the death of the great white stag but have be that the Beast Kills him in an attempt to take over because he reckons the strongest should survive and have it that the reason Weasel and Measly leave is to escape from that danger yet Owl goes with them too keep an eye on them and also find a mate and whilest they are a way they are finding out a way to come up with a plan to get rid of The Beast without having the trouble of it being a danger to them.
Oh my God, when The Beast killed Huskey I had to put the book down for a good week afterwards until I could go back to it!! I cried so much!! At all of the deaths, really. The books are amazing...
2:10 I thought he said "Bitch, taty" Edit: Ok so it went from the realistic struggle of animals and possible childhood trauma, to a slightly semi graphical Disney show
Haven't seen this show but, just based on your reviews of it, they could've chosen not to characterize the rats and instead make the rats force of nature villains. Like the swarm of rats simply ran out of food where they were and coincidentally ended up at the park just after weasel, measely and owl left. The rats would burn through a lot of food and other resources along with attacking the other animals (that could be how fox would end up dying due to just not strong enough in his old age to fight the swarm off.) while having the humans also trying to take care of them with traps and poisons that unintentionally affect everyone else. Wouldn't that have been a neat apocalypse-like survival scenario?
all things come to an end, some go out with a bang, others quick and somewhat random and then some, some slowely unravel until they are but a shadow of their former self at best
Yeah...she was a lot like Scarface when he emotionally abused Lady Blue. Only worse, in a way. Since Measly is meant to be kinder than Lady Blue. It was bad enough when she suffered it.
In the book Toad died by the rats, Mole also got killed by the rats.. owl had chicks and they took took part in the battle it was months n months of dealing with the rats, Although Adder, Owl, Kestrel and weasel were all male in the book.. books are always better. As mentioned before in part 1 or 2. Kestrel vanished but I cant recall how in the book. Some say she flew into a tree due to her bad wing from the cat attack with Badger Badger never died in the book but was probably months away. Speedy and measley so annoying, thankfully never existed
kestral passed away naturally somewhere in the 2 years before the invasion of white deer park(shortly after the end of series 2). thats a failure in the original book and in the show for not explain it.
@@kawrght Yeah I read the book again about a year ago theres was no mention of her in battle for the park which they could have said.. ooh even Kestrel could ahve taken out a few rats.. but no, nothing... nor friendly which he should have had morea direct link to fox than Plucky But not much mention of him at all
To be fair, weasels are one of the primary predators of rats since they're the only other predator apart from adders that can get into their burrows and they are quicker and more agile than the snakes so they can chase them through the burrows more effectively. Just a minor point tho
Well, a big problem is that the show never actually shows the weasels as a threat. They are comedic relief and owl is more threatening than the weasels. It is not a good idea to basically build them up as comedic relief and then just say, “hey, these guys, yeah, those guys. They are the only reason why the park hasn’t been taken over yet”. Especially since there are a lot of predators that could keep the rat population in check, with the snake and foxes, the rats should not be attempting an invasion
The snakes, although a natural predator to rats, do not eat a lot. One rat will last a snake for quite a while. Young snakes will eat smaller prey about twice a week. An active adult snake may eat one rat a week under good summer conditions. But they can go for 6 months without a meal. Their digestion works differently than it does for other animals, especially warm blooded animals, so they would not pose much threat to the rats. Foxes are omnivores, so yes while they can kill rats their diet is not composed entirely from them and they'd still only kill a few each day. The least weasel, on the other hand is a full carnivore with an active metabolism and a huge threat to rodents, which are a large part of their diet. They eat every day and will kill prey even if not hungry, something foxes would do if the rats were presented and easy to kill, but would be unlikely to continue hunting when sated. So while it was not explained properly in the narrative, weasels probably would be the greatest 'population check' of the rats.
@@tayh3645 exactly. Most of the small mammalian predators like shrews and weasels have to eat a lot (in comparison to the size of the animal) so they will kill a lot more rats than a snek
I only got into Farthing Wood ten years ago. And still to this day, I am furious Adder didn't get more of a story line in this season. I'm still furious that Sinuous was a prop that got dramatically knocked over because a serious death was needed. He met her, said a few lines, and keeled over in the dumbest way possible. The entire weasel plot line could have been cut out. If there *had* to be baby weasels, they could have just stayed in the park and been mildly annoying in the back. It could have left time for everyone to uncomfortably watch Adder soften up a a little under Sinuous' influence. His personality would be developed more. Teetering on foppish, but reserved and assertive - enough so that he could call her out on her bullying and look completely chill doing it. And be acknowledged! The could have been an entire side story about her letting her guard down a little, even liking who she is while she's around Sinuous - and then disaster. Book style gnawed-to-death by the rats because of mistaken identity and she completely shatters. And unlike in previous reactions to friends losing their mates, no one has any idea how to console her. Because it's Adder who's gone to pieces. Adder who used to be so stone faced, her reaction to every other death could basically be "oh...that sucks" or "Oh shit, that sucks!" for closer comrades. Adder who was "too good" for friends or for close companions. It would be scary and uncomfortable enough to watch her be completely besotted with someone and have it reciprocated, but then to see her lose that could probably bring an extra layer of helplessness to the hero group. All plans to subdue the rats fall apart because Adder is in shambles, Trey is continuing to be a blockhead, and the weasels are too busy taking care of two tiny babies. It all ends with Owl killing Bully, more because of the way he's responsible for her best friend's emotional collapse than the fact that he was trying to take over her home. And also because, looking to her Season One Philosophy Lessons, there would be something about "being so focused on the ground he wasn't looking above" or some nonsense like that. But most of all, it would give more time to a snake designed with a stripey mustache! Also, Toad's "you'll be adding up adders soon" line went nowhere as well. I think there could have been a couple scenes where some baby adders were hanging around them, someone like Toad would ask Adder and Sinuous if they were theirs, and get a response along the lines of "We don't know?"...because they're snakes. Even if they're live-bearing I don't think they'd be paying too much attention to what their own offspring look like. They'd just mildly tolerate any random kid that needs a little extra heat for an hour or two and then accidentally end up with a bunch of them hanging around more frequently than they expected. ...I have a lot of feelings on how Sinuous' potential was wasted and squandered. How much so? My ball python is named after him. A good potion of my deviantART 2007-2010 is flooded with Adder and Sinuous.
I do wish snakes or reptiles in general got more attention (preferably positive) in cinema/media (or whatever). they're animals the same as the others, except for their lack of hair and their "cold blood." and should they be treated any differently? I dont think so. For all the "stop the discrimination" themes and propaganda in entertainment like this, theres actually quite a bit of *_legitimate_* discrimination going on when you take a closer look.
It is in later realization that there could have been a good angle to the Weasel family expanding; with Weasel realizing through the season that she needs to pull herself together and be a good mother. Maybe she and Measly were the ones who found Sinuous dead instead of Shadow and Hurkel and had that (as well as Adder's reaction to it) as their big wakeup call. If a snake isn't safe from the rats, no one is. Maybe she's the one who gets Bully in the end when he tries to attack one of her babies.
@@bluedragon8762 I did think about that. In the sense of a rewrite, I would have Bully be the one who was the most afraid of weasels out of all of them. And because Weasel and Measly would have been too busy adapting to parenthood, they wouldn't have had a lot of chances to meet each other until the babies were out and about. They don't need to leave in order for the rats to take over. Especially since they wouldn't be the only weasels in the park. Logically, there should be a lot more. As Steve said, all the other predators together didn't make much of a difference, even with Adder and Sinuous going underground to combat them, so I doubt the weasels could have been much help. Except maybe just to stop Bully in his tracks personally Maybe by the end, he would have gotten so cocky in his near-victory overrunning the park that when he tries to attack Weasels babies to prove his power, she takes him down then, in a moment of dramatic irony.
You wanna know why they modified it? Cause nbn its marketed as a KIDS SHOW. and they were prob told to change it or they're getting kicked off the air. Which is good since this clearly wasn't a kids show and especially not a g rated kids show.
...Why does the rat act like having his *tail* bitten off is nothing more than a minor inconvenience? You know, his *tail* a part of his *body* that has *blood* and *muscles* and *bone* and *tendons* I hate when shows do this. Also making animals that should be quadrupedal at all times start walking on their hind legs is soooo annoying.
Blobbert Mcblob true one time part of my gerbils tail was ripped off by a sharp object we presumed and we saw a little bone but I think it regrows but that was years ago
It isn’t a huge deal for a rat to lose its tail but you’re right in that there should have been a bit of blood and/or visible bone. There’s at least 1 species of rodent (can’t remember off the top of my head) that can actively shed its tail if a predator grabs it, but it’s a one time thing. It doesn’t grow back.
I'm afraid you guys are kinda right but wrong, dassie rats and spiney rats can both shed their tails but these are totally different species from the rats in England, which cant shed their tails but regular do lose them through fighting etc...also dassie rats arent really rats but more like gerbils and spiney rats are more closely related to guniepigs
Methinks that some parents must have complained about the dark tones of season 1 and 2, and because of them studio got less money to make season 3. Which explains the downgrade in quality and more kid friendly animation style.
You have no idea how deadly weasels actually are do you? Granted their characters aren't very threatening but weasels are incredibly bloodthirsty predators that actually would prove the greatest threat to the rats. The reason why you said it would have been a better plot point for Adder to leave also holds true to the weasels, as weasels can go down the rats' burrows after them. It is because of this that Weasels have been used by humans for hundreds of years to eliminate rat infestations. While a snake can go down a rat's burrow, it can only kill so much as it would run out of venom. A cat can kill rats in the open easily, but it can't go down their burrows. Only weasels can do both and are the deadliest animal for the rats.
@@monetmouling9678 in part you've answered your own question - their method of killing is comparatively slow. Besides, method of dispatch isn't actually the main reason snakes are a worse option that weasels. The main reason is that snakes don't tend to kill and eat anywhere near as frequently as weasels. Weasels may not look it but they are voracious.
Good point. I forgot about how weasels are small enough to go into rat burrows. I'd just like to add to the story with something a colleague once told me. He had ferrets as pets. Now ferrets aren't weasels of course, but they're closely related. He moved house to a street that had an old, bankrupt bakery in it. His new neighbours warned him how the bakery's old stock had caused a mice infestation in the area and my colleague answered with: 'oh, don't worry, give it some time and the mice will be gone'. And indeed, they all left the area. Not because he sent his domesticated ferrets out hunting actively, but because just the smell of ferrets living in the neighbourhood was enough to scare of the rodents. That's how far their fear of ferrets goes. This makes it easier for me to believe that the weasels being in the park is enough for the rats to stay away completely, even though the other animals pose a lethal threat as well.
The sad part is I thought the idea of a swarm of rats attacking the park was a really clever idea, showing off what happens when an invasive species is introduced to an echo system, its unchallenged, their numbers grow, and they start taking over everything. The show has been pretty good at showing how delicate nature can be, and the effects of things like deforestation, building roads and cities, pollution, and hunting, so when I realized what was going on I got super excited to see where they would go with it.. but yeah they kinda just.. copped out, the series was not as fun, I found Bully to be super annoying, you where right about Weasel who I dreaded watching due to it always being a group of annoying voices, doing annoying things, and being assholes to each-other. A lot of missed potential, but at least it ended here before it could go any further down this rabbit hole.
Completely agree. The rats should have been many starving street animals trying to survive, slowly taking over. Instead they got painted as villains and comic relief characters that bullied the other species.
"Why are two weasels the biggest threat to the rats?" Probably because out of all those other animals you listed, weasels would be considered the most fierce and bloodthirsty in regards to hunting and killing vermin such as rats. They are so good at killing rats that people actually use trained weasels and stoats to go onto farms and kill massive amounts of pests in one day. A weasel can handle twice its size in prey, and the other animals such as badgers, foxes and adders do not nearly hunt or prey on rats as often as a weasel does which has a very fast metabolism. Even pet ferrets are very skilled hunters, and the reason why they are banned in some places is because if they ever got loose and started breeding in the wild they could single handedly be the reason why certain species in that area go extinct or are damaged in their numbers drastically. So a breeding pair of weasels in the forest is a MAJOR threat to really any small animal, especially rats. Yes there are other animals that can kill or eat the rats but a weasel is enemy number 1 for them in nature.
Season 1: pheasants tragically shot by farmer, mice horrifically impaled on thorns. Season 3: owl comically and non-fatally encased in cement, infant weasel effortlessly bites off rat's limp pool noodle tail. I've never seen this show but I feel bad for anyone who waited excitedly for each new season only to have this third one come around and probably ruin their whole year.
I did see this show and as a child no one was ready disappointed in it. We just watched it, like any other show, and were happy with it no matter what.
Some of the complaints (such as Mole's death) has to due with how the series (and even more so the book) tried to be extremely accurate to nature, regardless of narrative. Moles have much shorter life spans than badgers. Yes, they could have handled it better, especially if they were going to kill off badger anyway, but I do think that was the logic.
OH, mY nAmE iS tReY aNd i'M rEalLy bAd tEmPeRed anD i HaTe alL oThEr AnImaLLsllsls- TrEy sTahP bEiN a DiIiCk- NOoOoOoO- Is anyone else dying because of that part, of just me?
Actually, Weasel and Measly being so intimidating to the rats makes more sense than Adder. Adder's a snake, cold-blooded. Just one rat would be enough to keep her satiated for a week, which a rate like that wouldn't put much of a dent on a rat population that's already so numerous. They're banking on numbers, not individual value, so Adder wouldn't be that big of a threat to their numbers advantage. Weasels on the other hand are... Monsters. They may look cute and not all that menacing to us since we're so much larger than them but weasels are still predators. Being warm-blooded they have a much higher metabolism and prefer to eat everyday, so Weasel and Measly's kill-rate is already much scarier than Adder's. It doesn't even stop there, weasels will still hunt even if they aren't hungry! While they may stash their surplus kills to eat later the more likely reason they do this is simply because they find hunting to be fun. They kill for fun. Additionally, the weasel's long, flexible spine and short legs are the way that they are for a reason: it allows the weasel to easily invade their preys' burrows. I feel like all the planning stages for Season 3 was spent on studying weasel hunting behavior rather than on a good plot.
It was a children's show marketed for children. Of course they're gonna cut the gore and violence as time goes on. Cause y'know. PEOPLE DONT WANNA FUCK UP KIDS BRAINS EARLY ON
@@tatir7081 death is but not a murderous bloodbath. You can do death without doing this. Look at linking, land before time, finding Nemo, etc. All deal with death. Many of them murders but non of them being the level of this show.
@@Dell-ol6hb reread my comment that's right above yours. If your gonna do death for kids there are far better ways to do it. Again the deaths arent the issue it's how the death is PORTRAYED. look at bambi. Mom got shot by a hunter. Still kid friendly. Look at land before time. Mom got mauled by a trex. Wasn't overly gory or a bloodbath. Kid friendly. Lion king. Dude was TRAMPLED BY WILDABEASTS and another was eaten alive. They all portrayed the deaths in a kid friendly manner. This show did not.
15:46. LMFAO This makes it hard to believe that the first 2 seasons were all dark and serious. It's almost like it's own show now. It's too silly now. I mean the villain is even a joke. He cries over losing his tail and leaves. I'm laughing so hard at how they screwed this up.
Actually Steve weasels are a huge threat to rodents especially rats . Least weasels which is what the farthing wood species are often partake in two deadly habits , one surplus killing with animals like wolves , weasels , and foxes if a safe place houses a lot of food say a henhouse the animals may slaughter the entire population and eat a small amount . this is because the henhouse is relatively stable and if no other competition can get to it the animal and its family can eat the carrion at its leisure so for the rats measly and weasel are huge threats , two the other animals can't really get to the rats apart from sinuous and Adder but the weasels which are thin enough to squish in could attack any place the rats could hide in .
Also I forgot to mention that while Adder and Sinuous are able to get into the rats hideout and have venom as snakes they actually have slight disadvantage. Snakes are very capable hunters of rodents like rats and mice but snakes can only kill and eat their prey one at a time since the prey leave bulges in their stomachs and leave them immobile for the time.
I think the problem here is that Weasel and Measley themselves are never a credible threat to anyone. Real life weasels are bad ass and can easily kill things 10x their own size and will do so basically just for fun, but in this show they're only ever portrayed as idiotic comic relief. After like 3 seasons of that, the show expects you to buy these two idiots are a terrifying threat to a rat army.
Fun fact: Rodents actually have the ability to harm and even kill snakes. Snake pet owners know this best. It's a risk to feed snakes live rodents, simply because, if the snake doesn't get a good hold on the rodent, the damn thing can bite into the snake's hide and actually SKIN IT. It's horrific, and can easily lead to the snake's death. So... it wouldn't be the best idea for the snakes alone to go after the rats. You might lose a few snakes...
Right? No game warden or ranger worth a damn would EVER consider using poison like that, especially in an ecosystem that harbored rare animals like the white deer, and shooting down the tunnel? Useless as hell! And with a shotgun! And apparently he never came back to see if the problem was resolved...he was a total waste of animation, even animation as bad as this.
@@thelanktheist2626 Hey, that would've been a great ending. The rats start mysteriously dying. Yay!! The rats died! There's a big celebration, and it seems like it's the end. But then the main characters start getting sick. Maybe the weasels, the snakes, and owl die, since they eat rats. Or maybe they get sick. Some humans take the ranger away, into a car with bright flashing lights. Some rangers show up, and take the sick and dying away. Time passes. Maybe, some of the sick animals come back, having been saved by the humans. Or maybe the sick animals are dead. But, the final scenes of the show are scenes of the remaining animals being happy.
the creators of this serie went on to create another serie about animals surviving togethers called "Noah's island" where animals survive on a drifting island
If I remember correctly, this season was written and animated by a different studio than the other two. I think this one was done by Warner Brothers, while the other two were by Funimation.
13:28 - toads live far longer, in fact. And Vixen was always younger than Fox. So makes sense he got old. Same as Badger, who also was old already when they set out from the park.
Season 1 = going on an adventure after a macgruffin in order to prevent the death(s) of (a) loved one(s). Generally the bloodiest part with the most deaths Season 2 = super generic plot that focuses on the family aspect of the story, lots of subplots that go nowhere and a very edgy antagonist that serves as the "evil version" of the main character Season 3 = super goofy asspulls, antagonist who is invincible/invulnerable and loses due to an asspull
Fireurchin Productions You make it sound like part 3 didn’t have it’s fair share of ass pulls. Not to mention the main antagonist being the same as part 1z
@@tjlnintendo Through a similar lens, Time was a common antagonistic motif for both part 1 and part 3. Whereas, Jotaro's gang was in a race-against-the-clock when it came to DIO, the flow of time played an upward role in developing Jonathan's character and swinging the final fight in his favor. Likewise, the journey to reach Whitedeer Park was an ultimate battle against the eventual flow of time, whereas the events leading towards the climax of season 2 gave the protagonists enough time to build up in strength.
They could have easily shown the use of the weasels by making the rats base underground. Adder would have been small enough to fit, but weasels have a much higher stamina.
There were parts of this season i liked. Like how awesome whistler is in it. "What are you going to do to me?" "I'm going to drop you from a great height." "You wouldn't dare" "Whoops" **shades** **joint** **yolo hat**
The weasel thing makes sense, though really it applies to the rabbits as well. If you have a family of rats/rodents living under your garden the weasels come in, crawl down into their burrows etc and decimate them. Then the weasels move on to the next burrow/hole when either they've killed and eaten all of them or they've scared them away.
I would've made Bully a darker villain, and smarter. make the rat problem a bigge rproblem by having the rats invasive and destructive, and clever in how they hid from their enemies and tried to take out their larger, more dangerous foes through trickery, traps and other such things. Hell, I would've made it that BULLY kilsl the White Stag and not have him just die randomly from drinking poison. I would've made it so Bully could spread disease or something, or smart enough to make weaponry or use poison himself (if we're sticking wth the more anthropromorphised style). Whether this wou;d've been better or not is...up for debate. But at the very ;east we'd get a better villain if nothign else.
I agree with almost all of this review but I LOVED Plucky and Dash and their wonderful friendship. Dash is an awesome character and I wanted to see more of her.
Much like domesticated ferrets which are trained to hunt rabbits and rats. Weasels are very good at killing many rats at once. A a guy here on TH-cam trains Mink to hunt and they can kill upwards of twenty rats like nothing in a few hours. Just need to get them on the trail and they can kill like little wolves.
Hey Steve, this may already have been mentioned but there were two separate animation production houses responsible for the show. They would tag team on the episodes, Telemagination in London did all of the episodes featuring the classic look of the characters, and La Fabrique in France did the cartoony ones. I mean, they should have been using the same model sheets but maybe they got lost in translation? All the best, great vids!... My prediction will be a new CG version of TAOFW next year after the Netflix/ BBC Watership Down miniseries does well this Christmas.
Yes! I was going to mention this but was trying to cut the script down. The most obvious example of this is the Motorway scene with the Hedgehogs, if you watch carefully you'll notice that the traffic keeps swapping sides of the road. This is because the UK animation company would animate the traffic on the left side (as it should be for UK roads), but the French company animated the traffic on the right side.
Hah. I had never noticed that~! Thats great. I'm an Animation Historian in San Francisco, but back in my animation training days (97), I pitched a potential fourth series to the Animation Directors at Telemagination. I did a ton of artwork for the potential show, based on 'The Siege of White Deer Park', which basically involves a Beast of Bodmin-style panther on the loose in the park (!) I spent time at the studio, got some great feedback and was gifted an actual cel from the production. More importantly, it really got me on the path to professional animation production. The book itself isn't all that great, But I wonder if it would have been better than the third season... @@SteveReviews
Even they did use the same model sheets, that doesn't necessarily mean much. Mook Ltd. did season two of SWAT Kats and would frequently go off model with their own interpretations of the characters (Razor especially), despite the fact the main models never changed.
"Talk about having one of the most anti-climactic finishes to a war, which has been building up the entire season." Replace "season" with "show" and you've got Game of Thrones S8E03
"Alright, we lost. I know we never really fought in the first place, but my arm got chopped off so I'm surrendering. Yeah, we've been building up to this fight for weeks and that winning this means that my people and I don't have to live in the literal sewers anymore, but an actual child just strolled up to me and chopped my arm off."
I've seen this sort of thing done before, in the Warriors series. A lost clan named Skyclan was overrun by rats and driven out of the only home that could have supported them, leaving all the cats to either die or abandon all they knew. They had to get help years later and they didn't drive them away by biting off a freaking tail. The cats (practically) murdered them all, suffering heavy loss in the process. I feel this could have been used here. Since they took so long to get to this particular place, why not make the stakes a bit higher? I mean, obviously the other animals who left didn't do so well. (As one died and the others returned) So having the rats drive them out of the home they journeyed so far to reach would have been more moving and motivating.
@@sarafontanini7051 he kind of did, he showed it ended with them entering the park. But yeah - skipping over Vixen/Fox meeting/being hunted in S1 and then Scarface and Bounder's demise in S2 was really ill thought out. I also felt Ranger and Charmer deserved a mention in at least one of these reviews.
You should really review the 1999 Watership Down cartoon too. I have the whole thing on DVD, 14 volumes - 3 seasons. Much like Batman TAS and The New Batman Adventures, it goes through a huge redesign in season 3, plus some mystical elements are added too in that season, but overall it is still a great show and well written with memorable characters. The voice acting is also amazing with John Hurt as Woundwort, Stephen Fry as Cowslip, and even Kiefer (24) Sutherland as Hickory.
I could see the weasel thing, I think they're actually great at hunting rats since they can crawl into burrows. So like a snake might be able to get in there too but snakes don't eat all that much but a family of weasels would eat a lot of them.
Kestrel died offscreen between seasons. The reason it's not mentioned is because they didn't adapt the book(s) that would have taken place between seasons two and three. I loved Weasel in season 1 to the point of identifying with Measly's constant off-puttingly awkward hitting on her in season 2. This season made them a really obnoxiously dysfunctional couple, up until Measly mans up and stops being such a twerp at the very end, having a sort of character arc. Once he takes his proper place as leader of the household, everything starts going better for him and his family. I liked laughing at Owl and Hollow's relationship. It was stupid, but a funny sort of stupid.
I just found your channel and I have to say it's really nice seeing people give actual reviews of these darker animated movies, and not just "oh my god the animals die isnt that shocking." Because from the perspective of someone who really likes animation and even wanted to be a 2D animator when I was younger, I really love Watership Down and Land Before Time. It's just nice to see someone give them enough respect to talk about the content of these movies outside of just some shock value.
Well I thought he was despite being uh, pushy towards the female black cat that got white paint dumped on her back for lack of a better word at the moment....
You make a very interesting thought on this. I too thought this season of Animals of Farthing Wood was too kiddy. Although, I thought the death of Sinuous was just tragic. And seeing Adder when she found him dead really made me feel sorry for her, even though she was a bit of a bitch in the series. BTW There's a TV series I'd like you to review that I think you'll find quite interesting. The show is called "Tugs", a show from 1988 - 1989. What I can tell you about it is that it's like Thomas the Tank Engine, but stars tugboats and ships, and has a much darker tone.
I think Trey is a tsundere. He's just using the park space an an excuse to be nice without being perceived as being soft. This season's art looks like a hybrid of Yayoi Neko cats, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Winnie the Pooh, Care Bears Nutcracker, Animaniacs, David the Gnome, & The Secret of NIMH. Still not as bad as the Land Before Time sequels, but the battle ending was really lame.
Weasels in reality would be the biggest threat to the rats. The problem is, the writers handled the characters and story so poorly that in the end, the plot point with the weasels ended up being lazy and forced when it didn’t have to be. Any of the other characters could have bitten Bully’s tail off. But none of the other animals have the speed, agility, and size advantage that weasels have. Had the show kept its realism maybe they would have highlighted the actual way the weasels would be a threat to the rats. Not this goofy comedic copout that could’ve been achieved by anyone.
You can tell how low the animation dropped when Bully gets his tail bitten off and the inside of the tail looks the same as the outside. In Series One, there’d at least be a bit of blood. But then in Series One, a rodent would probably die from having its tail bitten off. Bully doesn’t even immediately notice.
Have you ever seen the show about the silver brumby? It’s an old Australian cartoon that I assume predates the feature length live action movie and is incredibly hard to find nowadays (I think it’s mostly available on TH-cam)
I managed to live 27 years without ever hearing of this series. I love Watership Down and other dark cartoons, though. Now I'm ready to dive in to this series. Thanks for the reviews! I'll definitely be passing on the third season.
I actually liked s3 Measly, he steps up as a Dad, becomes the sensible voice of reason and even puts Weasel in her place, then kindly suggests they go back to the park. Hes also a great protector. Cut him some slack.
The thing that would of made this season impactful and a bookend to the series is if they did Kill off Fox but also passed on the torch to his Grandson. Like at the end of the season after seeing Trey and how big the park is we have Fox going to Badger's old set and saying "Well Badger, at least the park is in safe hands, mind if I join you" and then he drops down slowly.
I recently started watching the series, I finished 1 and 2 and loved them The moment i saw the art style of season 3, I instantly knew something went wrong...
I guess the reason why the weasels were crucial for the story was the fact like the rats they can also breed relativiely fast and in time almost match the rats in some numbers.
CartoonCrazy94 yeah her voice in the final episode particularly shows. I always thought she was a little bit younger than Fox. After all surviving for years in hunting country can't gave been easy but Fox was 5 in the first series. Series 3 starts a year after Series 2 ended so Fox would have been 8. Vixen possibly a year or 2 younger so they should not have become so old, especially when Toad is fine.
In the books Spike the rat does bond with the animals but instead of actually being brought into the pack and fully converting into a good guy Adder actually eats him before he can. So that’s one plus for season 3.
I was actually surprised Fox didn't die of old age before this season was over, if he even survived to make it INTO the season. Red foxes in the wild apparently live around 2 - 5 years, and he was already a full adult before leaving Farthing Wood, which was at least a few years before season 3. So... it's kind of weird that he lived this long, and then we have Toad being all spry when he was too easily tired due to being old to cross a street easily in season 1. Bit of a jumble.
Great video. I was looking forward to this one. Yes series 3 is unbelievably bad. Kudos for mentioning that rook. As bad as Series 3 was with things like Sinuous' ridiculous death, Trey and Bully being awful characters, Fox aging so much when only a year passed since Series 2 ended, Nothing is as stupid as a bird wanting one of another species. That is an insult to everything that the show stands for.
The rats are much more threatening in the book. When you put this in context with my comment on the other video it becomes fairly obvious that the creators/their masters lost their nerve. Your stuff about Fox relates to your issues with Badger, which ultimately appears a case of not appreciating what worked in the books. (I'd compare series one and two to the books but frankly it's a miracle I have my hands on the two adapted for series three.) In terms of the show itself... it's been years since we got these out on video and all I can tell you is that I liked them at the time. The intro sequence is awesome though and maybe you should have given it some explicit love. Hmm, maybe that last sentence should be rephrased.
In the second and third seasons, instead of blood and actual injuries, the animators made the characters stretch and behave like rubber. In some scenes bits of a character literally snap off. It looked, frankly, shoddy and ridiculous
Seeing how the three seasons of Animals of Farthing Woods process throughout the whole series makes me feel more appreciated to towards the three seasons of Redwall and its writings.
First I've got one more Farthing Wood video planned where I look at the top 5 deaths in the series. But then yes, Plague Dogs will be next on the list!
I watched each season with you up until now, like I watched Season One then your video on that same season. Same for Season Two. I couldn't do more then a few episodes of the third season before I gave up on it and just watched this video. Which is sad for me now because my favorite character was Adder and now I know I missed out on some work with her. I always suspected she and Owl would settle in together, even if just as close friends and not romantically because they found more companion ship with each other then any of the others. When I saw Owl left and Adder hooking up with random french snake it killed it for me. Then all the Weasel parts just kept coming and I gave up. I never would have watched this show if not for you and I am glad I watched it. I might even go read the books now. I don't think you'll ever see this but thanks for turning me on to this show.
One thing about weasels. Weasels are much better rat killers than adders. 1) Adders hunt much less, and avoid using energy. They are ambush predators too rather than one that persues their prey 2) Weasels do go into small holes to get prey, in fact we domesticated their cousins (ferrets) to do that job 3) Mustelids are vicious carnivores that you would never bet against in a fight. The biggest, the Giant Otter, kill caiman and anaconda. Wolverines are there too, and then you have honey badgers who require no more info. Weasels kill chickens and rabbits that are much bigger than them but their favourite is rodents. They even live in the burrows dug up by rats. So it would actually make less sense if it was Adder who went away. Oh and rats are scared of weasels. They might be the smallest carnivore but there's a reason why they do so well.
One of the things I had about this season was the fact that Adder had a perfect chance to kill the leader of the rats. (I think the reason could be that the rats are a good food source for her, but that's kinda stupid.)
Sadly in season 3, they decided to not follow the books. The book the season is based on is quite dark itself, in the book for example toad gets killed off. The rats are actually killed off. And Badger, badger in the books didn't actually die. The series also skips one book, where what is most probably a lynx or a bobcat which is known as The Beast gets into the park and goes on a killing spree.
Yep. They only merged 2 books but that weasel story which was entirely original should never have been there in the first place. And Battle for the Park is devastating. That should have been used properly. It's a truly heartbreaking story with some horrible deaths. Bully dies in the book. And doesn't in the show. Enough said. I swear at times the show tried to make him sympathetic, which is ridiculous. Fox or Adder should have done the honours in the show.
That made me mad because The Beast Could of been an attempt to create a villain as intimidating as Scareface yet had difference, like they could of still had the series start with the death of the great white stag but have be that the Beast Kills him in an attempt to take over because he reckons the strongest should survive and have it that the reason Weasel and Measly leave is to escape from that danger yet Owl goes with them too keep an eye on them and also find a mate and whilest they are a way they are finding out a way to come up with a plan to get rid of The Beast without having the trouble of it being a danger to them.
Oh my God, when The Beast killed Huskey I had to put the book down for a good week afterwards until I could go back to it!! I cried so much!! At all of the deaths, really. The books are amazing...
It would be nice if they remade this series, and made it more accurate when following the books.
@@HH-lo7jw Hopefully one day in the future someone remakes the series but they are pretty much identical to the books.
2:10
I thought he said "Bitch, taty"
Edit: Ok so it went from the realistic struggle of animals and possible childhood trauma, to a slightly semi graphical Disney show
Me too
Just What i thought to!
It was a show meant for children. And they changed it to appeal to children. It's called business buddy
I keep repeating it and that is all I can hear
"BiTcH tIttY"
Haven't seen this show but, just based on your reviews of it, they could've chosen not to characterize the rats and instead make the rats force of nature villains. Like the swarm of rats simply ran out of food where they were and coincidentally ended up at the park just after weasel, measely and owl left. The rats would burn through a lot of food and other resources along with attacking the other animals (that could be how fox would end up dying due to just not strong enough in his old age to fight the swarm off.) while having the humans also trying to take care of them with traps and poisons that unintentionally affect everyone else. Wouldn't that have been a neat apocalypse-like survival scenario?
i havent even watch the show and can already tell this is a hundred times better someone needs to make this happen
Nice, amazing idea.
I hate rats with a burning passion.
Holy shit that was a fantastic read! No bullshit here, that was solid writing there.
Awww, I really can't believe they kiddieified it. Dang, and here I thought it was going to end well
It would still be going if it ended well
What the fuck? Now is just Disney Channel
0/10 not enough animal deaths and collateral damage.
all things come to an end, some go out with a bang, others quick and somewhat random
and then some, some slowely unravel until they are but a shadow of their former self at best
@@NeonRahkshi like GOT
It seemed like the writers were trying to make Weasels constant abuse and teasing of Measly a joke. Some comedic relief that clearly doesn't work out.
It sounds like the poorly-done version of Vriska and Tavros honestly.
Domestic abuse is not funny and never will be.
Yeah...she was a lot like Scarface when he emotionally abused Lady Blue. Only worse, in a way. Since Measly is meant to be kinder than Lady Blue. It was bad enough when she suffered it.
It's like the writers just wanted to be really feminist or something.
Why owl looking like squidward in that one episode
Oh, I know the one you mean. I used to have it on DVD. The name of the episode was "The Thing".
Owl got covered in cement that's why,
Thanks for the name of the episode.
In the book Toad died by the rats, Mole also got killed by the rats.. owl had chicks and they took took part in the battle it was months n months of dealing with the rats, Although Adder, Owl, Kestrel and weasel were all male in the book.. books are always better. As mentioned before in part 1 or 2. Kestrel vanished but I cant recall how in the book. Some say she flew into a tree due to her bad wing from the cat attack with Badger
Badger never died in the book but was probably months away.
Speedy and measley so annoying, thankfully never existed
kestral passed away naturally somewhere in the 2 years before the invasion of white deer park(shortly after the end of series 2). thats a failure in the original book and in the show for not explain it.
@@kawrght Yeah I read the book again about a year ago theres was no mention of her in battle for the park which they could have said.. ooh even Kestrel could ahve taken out a few rats.. but no, nothing... nor friendly which he should have had morea direct link to fox than Plucky But not much mention of him at all
@@trunksGav when ranger's all:
"why is plucky the new leader? What about me?" I immediately thought about friendly too.
I thought there was a mention in the book that Kestrel passed away from age.
To be fair, weasels are one of the primary predators of rats since they're the only other predator apart from adders that can get into their burrows and they are quicker and more agile than the snakes so they can chase them through the burrows more effectively. Just a minor point tho
Tbh I just likes weasel because of her accent
But I haven't watched the 3rd series
Well, a big problem is that the show never actually shows the weasels as a threat. They are comedic relief and owl is more threatening than the weasels. It is not a good idea to basically build them up as comedic relief and then just say, “hey, these guys, yeah, those guys. They are the only reason why the park hasn’t been taken over yet”. Especially since there are a lot of predators that could keep the rat population in check, with the snake and foxes, the rats should not be attempting an invasion
The snakes, although a natural predator to rats, do not eat a lot. One rat will last a snake for quite a while. Young snakes will eat smaller prey about twice a week. An active adult snake may eat one rat a week under good summer conditions. But they can go for 6 months without a meal. Their digestion works differently than it does for other animals, especially warm blooded animals, so they would not pose much threat to the rats. Foxes are omnivores, so yes while they can kill rats their diet is not composed entirely from them and they'd still only kill a few each day. The least weasel, on the other hand is a full carnivore with an active metabolism and a huge threat to rodents, which are a large part of their diet. They eat every day and will kill prey even if not hungry, something foxes would do if the rats were presented and easy to kill, but would be unlikely to continue hunting when sated. So while it was not explained properly in the narrative, weasels probably would be the greatest 'population check' of the rats.
@@tayh3645 exactly. Most of the small mammalian predators like shrews and weasels have to eat a lot (in comparison to the size of the animal) so they will kill a lot more rats than a snek
I only got into Farthing Wood ten years ago.
And still to this day, I am furious Adder didn't get more of a story line in this season. I'm still furious that Sinuous was a prop that got dramatically knocked over because a serious death was needed. He met her, said a few lines, and keeled over in the dumbest way possible. The entire weasel plot line could have been cut out. If there *had* to be baby weasels, they could have just stayed in the park and been mildly annoying in the back. It could have left time for everyone to uncomfortably watch Adder soften up a a little under Sinuous' influence. His personality would be developed more. Teetering on foppish, but reserved and assertive - enough so that he could call her out on her bullying and look completely chill doing it. And be acknowledged!
The could have been an entire side story about her letting her guard down a little, even liking who she is while she's around Sinuous - and then disaster. Book style gnawed-to-death by the rats because of mistaken identity and she completely shatters. And unlike in previous reactions to friends losing their mates, no one has any idea how to console her. Because it's Adder who's gone to pieces. Adder who used to be so stone faced, her reaction to every other death could basically be "oh...that sucks" or "Oh shit, that sucks!" for closer comrades. Adder who was "too good" for friends or for close companions. It would be scary and uncomfortable enough to watch her be completely besotted with someone and have it reciprocated, but then to see her lose that could probably bring an extra layer of helplessness to the hero group. All plans to subdue the rats fall apart because Adder is in shambles, Trey is continuing to be a blockhead, and the weasels are too busy taking care of two tiny babies. It all ends with Owl killing Bully, more because of the way he's responsible for her best friend's emotional collapse than the fact that he was trying to take over her home. And also because, looking to her Season One Philosophy Lessons, there would be something about "being so focused on the ground he wasn't looking above" or some nonsense like that.
But most of all, it would give more time to a snake designed with a stripey mustache!
Also, Toad's "you'll be adding up adders soon" line went nowhere as well. I think there could have been a couple scenes where some baby adders were hanging around them, someone like Toad would ask Adder and Sinuous if they were theirs, and get a response along the lines of "We don't know?"...because they're snakes. Even if they're live-bearing I don't think they'd be paying too much attention to what their own offspring look like. They'd just mildly tolerate any random kid that needs a little extra heat for an hour or two and then accidentally end up with a bunch of them hanging around more frequently than they expected.
...I have a lot of feelings on how Sinuous' potential was wasted and squandered. How much so? My ball python is named after him. A good potion of my deviantART 2007-2010 is flooded with Adder and Sinuous.
I do wish snakes or reptiles in general got more attention (preferably positive) in cinema/media (or whatever). they're animals the same as the others, except for their lack of hair and their "cold blood." and should they be treated any differently? I dont think so.
For all the "stop the discrimination" themes and propaganda in entertainment like this, theres actually quite a bit of *_legitimate_* discrimination going on when you take a closer look.
It is in later realization that there could have been a good angle to the Weasel family expanding; with Weasel realizing through the season that she needs to pull herself together and be a good mother. Maybe she and Measly were the ones who found Sinuous dead instead of Shadow and Hurkel and had that (as well as Adder's reaction to it) as their big wakeup call. If a snake isn't safe from the rats, no one is. Maybe she's the one who gets Bully in the end when he tries to attack one of her babies.
Weasels needed to leave so the rats could come. If the weasels were there the whole time they would have killed the rats as they cMe in
@@bluedragon8762 I did think about that.
In the sense of a rewrite, I would have Bully be the one who was the most afraid of weasels out of all of them. And because Weasel and Measly would have been too busy adapting to parenthood, they wouldn't have had a lot of chances to meet each other until the babies were out and about. They don't need to leave in order for the rats to take over. Especially since they wouldn't be the only weasels in the park. Logically, there should be a lot more.
As Steve said, all the other predators together didn't make much of a difference, even with Adder and Sinuous going underground to combat them, so I doubt the weasels could have been much help. Except maybe just to stop Bully in his tracks personally
Maybe by the end, he would have gotten so cocky in his near-victory overrunning the park that when he tries to attack Weasels babies to prove his power, she takes him down then, in a moment of dramatic irony.
Hey, whats your deviantart account? because I would love to see your art!
Wow. They really kiddified the show in the final season. I'm really disappointed. The dark tone should've been kept in, but they ruined it.
I remember thinking it was dumb and disappointing even as a kid. It was that bad.
Your right if theres a season 4 I want the dark tone back
Ikr
maybe it's because of the kids watching the dark toned episodes
You wanna know why they modified it? Cause nbn its marketed as a KIDS SHOW. and they were prob told to change it or they're getting kicked off the air. Which is good since this clearly wasn't a kids show and especially not a g rated kids show.
...Why does the rat act like having his *tail* bitten off is nothing more than a minor inconvenience? You know, his *tail* a part of his *body* that has *blood* and *muscles* and *bone* and *tendons*
I hate when shows do this. Also making animals that should be quadrupedal at all times start walking on their hind legs is soooo annoying.
Blobbert Mcblob true one time part of my gerbils tail was ripped off by a sharp object we presumed and we saw a little bone but I think it regrows but that was years ago
Cmon bruh, no big deal
i lost a tooth once-
Jk
most rodents can lose their tail, rats often do when attacked. it may actually be possible they can shed them. can't remember.
It isn’t a huge deal for a rat to lose its tail but you’re right in that there should have been a bit of blood and/or visible bone. There’s at least 1 species of rodent (can’t remember off the top of my head) that can actively shed its tail if a predator grabs it, but it’s a one time thing. It doesn’t grow back.
I'm afraid you guys are kinda right but wrong, dassie rats and spiney rats can both shed their tails but these are totally different species from the rats in England, which cant shed their tails but regular do lose them through fighting etc...also dassie rats arent really rats but more like gerbils and spiney rats are more closely related to guniepigs
Methinks that some parents must have complained about the dark tones of season 1 and 2, and because of them studio got less money to make season 3. Which explains the downgrade in quality and more kid friendly animation style.
Most likely.
I laughed too loudly at the methinks
Also because IT WAS MADE. AS. A. KIDS. SHOW.
@@bluedragon8762 you know we are aware of this right?
@@bluedragon8762 As the first season
You have no idea how deadly weasels actually are do you? Granted their characters aren't very threatening but weasels are incredibly bloodthirsty predators that actually would prove the greatest threat to the rats. The reason why you said it would have been a better plot point for Adder to leave also holds true to the weasels, as weasels can go down the rats' burrows after them. It is because of this that Weasels have been used by humans for hundreds of years to eliminate rat infestations. While a snake can go down a rat's burrow, it can only kill so much as it would run out of venom. A cat can kill rats in the open easily, but it can't go down their burrows. Only weasels can do both and are the deadliest animal for the rats.
Theriomancer if that did happen
I want adder to roast weasel
what about constricters?
@@monetmouling9678 in part you've answered your own question - their method of killing is comparatively slow. Besides, method of dispatch isn't actually the main reason snakes are a worse option that weasels.
The main reason is that snakes don't tend to kill and eat anywhere near as frequently as weasels. Weasels may not look it but they are voracious.
Good point. I forgot about how weasels are small enough to go into rat burrows.
I'd just like to add to the story with something a colleague once told me. He had ferrets as pets. Now ferrets aren't weasels of course, but they're closely related. He moved house to a street that had an old, bankrupt bakery in it. His new neighbours warned him how the bakery's old stock had caused a mice infestation in the area and my colleague answered with: 'oh, don't worry, give it some time and the mice will be gone'.
And indeed, they all left the area. Not because he sent his domesticated ferrets out hunting actively, but because just the smell of ferrets living in the neighbourhood was enough to scare of the rodents. That's how far their fear of ferrets goes.
This makes it easier for me to believe that the weasels being in the park is enough for the rats to stay away completely, even though the other animals pose a lethal threat as well.
He always acts pretentious and condescending
The sad part is I thought the idea of a swarm of rats attacking the park was a really clever idea, showing off what happens when an invasive species is introduced to an echo system, its unchallenged, their numbers grow, and they start taking over everything. The show has been pretty good at showing how delicate nature can be, and the effects of things like deforestation, building roads and cities, pollution, and hunting, so when I realized what was going on I got super excited to see where they would go with it.. but yeah they kinda just.. copped out, the series was not as fun, I found Bully to be super annoying, you where right about Weasel who I dreaded watching due to it always being a group of annoying voices, doing annoying things, and being assholes to each-other. A lot of missed potential, but at least it ended here before it could go any further down this rabbit hole.
Completely agree. The rats should have been many starving street animals trying to survive, slowly taking over. Instead they got painted as villains and comic relief characters that bullied the other species.
Echo system?
You mean ecosystem? Autocorrect got you here maybe.
"Why are two weasels the biggest threat to the rats?"
Probably because out of all those other animals you listed, weasels would be considered the most fierce and bloodthirsty in regards to hunting and killing vermin such as rats. They are so good at killing rats that people actually use trained weasels and stoats to go onto farms and kill massive amounts of pests in one day. A weasel can handle twice its size in prey, and the other animals such as badgers, foxes and adders do not nearly hunt or prey on rats as often as a weasel does which has a very fast metabolism. Even pet ferrets are very skilled hunters, and the reason why they are banned in some places is because if they ever got loose and started breeding in the wild they could single handedly be the reason why certain species in that area go extinct or are damaged in their numbers drastically. So a breeding pair of weasels in the forest is a MAJOR threat to really any small animal, especially rats. Yes there are other animals that can kill or eat the rats but a weasel is enemy number 1 for them in nature.
It's.... Jarring how different this is from season 1.. Like. Damn. Downright cringy.
Or Season 2. This was a fail.
Made me really appreciate S1 even more.
Actually made the deaths there feel like a mercy killing.
The same can be said about a lot of shows that start out strong but devolve into something worse and entirely different with each consecutive season.
Sho like nantatsu no taizai
Season 1: pheasants tragically shot by farmer, mice horrifically impaled on thorns.
Season 3: owl comically and non-fatally encased in cement, infant weasel effortlessly bites off rat's limp pool noodle tail.
I've never seen this show but I feel bad for anyone who waited excitedly for each new season only to have this third one come around and probably ruin their whole year.
I did see this show and as a child no one was ready disappointed in it.
We just watched it, like any other show, and were happy with it no matter what.
Some of the complaints (such as Mole's death) has to due with how the series (and even more so the book) tried to be extremely accurate to nature, regardless of narrative. Moles have much shorter life spans than badgers. Yes, they could have handled it better, especially if they were going to kill off badger anyway, but I do think that was the logic.
OH, mY nAmE iS tReY aNd i'M rEalLy bAd tEmPeRed anD i HaTe alL oThEr AnImaLLsllsls-
TrEy sTahP bEiN a DiIiCk-
NOoOoOoO-
Is anyone else dying because of that part, of just me?
No, that part gets me too XD
@@cartoonmaster2401 yea same XD
You clever dick
Actually, Weasel and Measly being so intimidating to the rats makes more sense than Adder.
Adder's a snake, cold-blooded. Just one rat would be enough to keep her satiated for a week, which a rate like that wouldn't put much of a dent on a rat population that's already so numerous. They're banking on numbers, not individual value, so Adder wouldn't be that big of a threat to their numbers advantage.
Weasels on the other hand are... Monsters. They may look cute and not all that menacing to us since we're so much larger than them but weasels are still predators. Being warm-blooded they have a much higher metabolism and prefer to eat everyday, so Weasel and Measly's kill-rate is already much scarier than Adder's. It doesn't even stop there, weasels will still hunt even if they aren't hungry! While they may stash their surplus kills to eat later the more likely reason they do this is simply because they find hunting to be fun. They kill for fun. Additionally, the weasel's long, flexible spine and short legs are the way that they are for a reason: it allows the weasel to easily invade their preys' burrows.
I feel like all the planning stages for Season 3 was spent on studying weasel hunting behavior rather than on a good plot.
good thing the weasels dont try and hunt us, yikes
I'm starting to think it wasn't meant to end at season 3. This looks like grounds for a cancellation if you ask me.
It was a children's show marketed for children. Of course they're gonna cut the gore and violence as time goes on. Cause y'know. PEOPLE DONT WANNA FUCK UP KIDS BRAINS EARLY ON
@@bluedragon8762 but however, isn't death part of the life cycle?
@@tatir7081 death is but not a murderous bloodbath. You can do death without doing this. Look at linking, land before time, finding Nemo, etc. All deal with death. Many of them murders but non of them being the level of this show.
blue dragon yeah but this is nature, where death is a frequent part of life.
@@Dell-ol6hb reread my comment that's right above yours. If your gonna do death for kids there are far better ways to do it. Again the deaths arent the issue it's how the death is PORTRAYED. look at bambi. Mom got shot by a hunter. Still kid friendly. Look at land before time. Mom got mauled by a trex. Wasn't overly gory or a bloodbath. Kid friendly. Lion king. Dude was TRAMPLED BY WILDABEASTS and another was eaten alive. They all portrayed the deaths in a kid friendly manner. This show did not.
Rats taking over the park? Well the warrior cats author likes season 3.
BluePuppyStudios LMAO
LMAO (Oh wait, someone already said that...think, think!) HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH-
Sky clan was overrun by rats. And a weasel biting a tail off didn't solve it
Having never even heard of this show before today, I watched all three reviews in a row and thoroughly enjoyed it! Good work!
I did the same... and I think maybe I regret it, due to seeing some spoilers.
Even though I now know what happens, maybe I’ll check it out one day. But not season 3.
15:46. LMFAO This makes it hard to believe that the first 2 seasons were all dark and serious. It's almost like it's own show now. It's too silly now. I mean the villain is even a joke. He cries over losing his tail and leaves. I'm laughing so hard at how they screwed this up.
thats probably why i only saw the first 2 seasons and not the third xD
Actually Steve weasels are a huge threat to rodents especially rats . Least weasels which is what the farthing wood species are often partake in two deadly habits , one surplus killing with animals like wolves , weasels , and foxes if a safe place houses a lot of food say a henhouse the animals may slaughter the entire population and eat a small amount . this is because the henhouse is relatively stable and if no other competition can get to it the animal and its family can eat the carrion at its leisure so for the rats measly and weasel are huge threats , two the other animals can't really get to the rats apart from sinuous and Adder but the weasels which are thin enough to squish in could attack any place the rats could hide in .
Also I forgot to mention that while Adder and Sinuous are able to get into the rats hideout and have venom as snakes they actually have slight disadvantage. Snakes are very capable hunters of rodents like rats and mice but snakes can only kill and eat their prey one at a time since the prey leave bulges in their stomachs and leave them immobile for the time.
I think the problem here is that Weasel and Measley themselves are never a credible threat to anyone. Real life weasels are bad ass and can easily kill things 10x their own size and will do so basically just for fun, but in this show they're only ever portrayed as idiotic comic relief. After like 3 seasons of that, the show expects you to buy these two idiots are a terrifying threat to a rat army.
Fun fact: Rodents actually have the ability to harm and even kill snakes. Snake pet owners know this best. It's a risk to feed snakes live rodents, simply because, if the snake doesn't get a good hold on the rodent, the damn thing can bite into the snake's hide and actually SKIN IT. It's horrific, and can easily lead to the snake's death.
So... it wouldn't be the best idea for the snakes alone to go after the rats. You might lose a few snakes...
He’s always so pretentious and condescending
Oh my god why would you put out rat poison in a park FULL OF PREDATORS?
Right? No game warden or ranger worth a damn would EVER consider using poison like that, especially in an ecosystem that harbored rare animals like the white deer, and shooting down the tunnel? Useless as hell! And with a shotgun! And apparently he never came back to see if the problem was resolved...he was a total waste of animation, even animation as bad as this.
Moonstruck Are we gonna gloss over the fact the guy would’ve been arrested for tampering with Wildlife? Because it’s a *nature reserve?*
@@thelanktheist2626 Hey, that would've been a great ending. The rats start mysteriously dying. Yay!! The rats died! There's a big celebration, and it seems like it's the end.
But then the main characters start getting sick. Maybe the weasels, the snakes, and owl die, since they eat rats. Or maybe they get sick.
Some humans take the ranger away, into a car with bright flashing lights. Some rangers show up, and take the sick and dying away.
Time passes.
Maybe, some of the sick animals come back, having been saved by the humans. Or maybe the sick animals are dead. But, the final scenes of the show are scenes of the remaining animals being happy.
the creators of this serie went on to create another serie about animals surviving togethers called "Noah's island" where animals survive on a drifting island
Ou yes! I also remember that from my childhood! 😊😆
Oiskei Poiskei!
I have only just learned about this show, and it already makes me want to puke.
If I remember correctly, this season was written and animated by a different studio than the other two. I think this one was done by Warner Brothers, while the other two were by Funimation.
**doubt** do you have a source for this?
13:28 - toads live far longer, in fact. And Vixen was always younger than Fox. So makes sense he got old. Same as Badger, who also was old already when they set out from the park.
Season 3 not enough deaths
randomDS That's good.
@@asielmilian38 makes it less interesting tho
@@lance5755 it's a show meant for kids. Not for gore lovers
@@bluedragon8762 i know
I feel like taking this away it took away one of the best thing it had going adding a sense of suspense never knowing who might die
Season 1 = Stardust Crusaders
Season 2 = Phantom Blood
Season 3 = Battle Tendency
nice jojo reference, not sure I undertand though
Season 1 = going on an adventure after a macgruffin in order to prevent the death(s) of (a) loved one(s). Generally the bloodiest part with the most deaths
Season 2 = super generic plot that focuses on the family aspect of the story, lots of subplots that go nowhere and a very edgy antagonist that serves as the "evil version" of the main character
Season 3 = super goofy asspulls, antagonist who is invincible/invulnerable and loses due to an asspull
Woah there buddy, don't just insult part two like that
Fireurchin Productions
You make it sound like part 3 didn’t have it’s fair share of ass pulls. Not to mention the main antagonist being the same as part 1z
@@tjlnintendo Through a similar lens, Time was a common antagonistic motif for both part 1 and part 3. Whereas, Jotaro's gang was in a race-against-the-clock when it came to DIO, the flow of time played an upward role in developing Jonathan's character and swinging the final fight in his favor. Likewise, the journey to reach Whitedeer Park was an ultimate battle against the eventual flow of time, whereas the events leading towards the climax of season 2 gave the protagonists enough time to build up in strength.
They could have easily shown the use of the weasels by making the rats base underground. Adder would have been small enough to fit, but weasels have a much higher stamina.
There were parts of this season i liked. Like how awesome whistler is in it.
"What are you going to do to me?"
"I'm going to drop you from a great height."
"You wouldn't dare"
"Whoops"
**shades**
**joint**
**yolo hat**
The weasel thing makes sense, though really it applies to the rabbits as well.
If you have a family of rats/rodents living under your garden the weasels come in, crawl down into their burrows etc and decimate them.
Then the weasels move on to the next burrow/hole when either they've killed and eaten all of them or they've scared them away.
It boggles my mind that Owl is cased in cement and doesn't die from it, even though death is common in the series.
I would've made Bully a darker villain, and smarter. make the rat problem a bigge rproblem by having the rats invasive and destructive, and clever in how they hid from their enemies and tried to take out their larger, more dangerous foes through trickery, traps and other such things.
Hell, I would've made it that BULLY kilsl the White Stag and not have him just die randomly from drinking poison. I would've made it so Bully could spread disease or something, or smart enough to make weaponry or use poison himself (if we're sticking wth the more anthropromorphised style).
Whether this wou;d've been better or not is...up for debate. But at the very ;east we'd get a better villain if nothign else.
Sooo...your typical Skaven invasion then? I could dig that, but what Clan is he from?
@@serrashadetail2007 his own Clan : 3
I agree with almost all of this review but I LOVED Plucky and Dash and their wonderful friendship. Dash is an awesome character and I wanted to see more of her.
Apparently they were planning to give the weasels their own spin off hence the change in animation and character arch
Much like domesticated ferrets which are trained to hunt rabbits and rats. Weasels are very good at killing many rats at once. A a guy here on TH-cam trains Mink to hunt and they can kill upwards of twenty rats like nothing in a few hours. Just need to get them on the trail and they can kill like little wolves.
Wowwww
Wow, just wow. This season of Animals of Farthing Woods looks very horrendous.._.
Don't press read more
you best be careful, this could've been really long
Amethyst Sea Eggos oh shit, you’re right!
Amethyst Sea Eggos 😂
I pressed reply so I saw what you wrote but could have easily left it
This was well executed.
Haha, so funny.
Hey Steve, this may already have been mentioned but there were two separate animation production houses responsible for the show. They would tag team on the episodes, Telemagination in London did all of the episodes featuring the classic look of the characters, and La Fabrique in France did the cartoony ones. I mean, they should have been using the same model sheets but maybe they got lost in translation? All the best, great vids!... My prediction will be a new CG version of TAOFW next year after the Netflix/ BBC Watership Down miniseries does well this Christmas.
Yes! I was going to mention this but was trying to cut the script down. The most obvious example of this is the Motorway scene with the Hedgehogs, if you watch carefully you'll notice that the traffic keeps swapping sides of the road. This is because the UK animation company would animate the traffic on the left side (as it should be for UK roads), but the French company animated the traffic on the right side.
Hah. I had never noticed that~! Thats great. I'm an Animation Historian in San Francisco, but back in my animation training days (97), I pitched a potential fourth series to the Animation Directors at Telemagination. I did a ton of artwork for the potential show, based on 'The Siege of White Deer Park', which basically involves a Beast of Bodmin-style panther on the loose in the park (!) I spent time at the studio, got some great feedback and was gifted an actual cel from the production. More importantly, it really got me on the path to professional animation production. The book itself isn't all that great, But I wonder if it would have been better than the third season... @@SteveReviews
Even they did use the same model sheets, that doesn't necessarily mean much. Mook Ltd. did season two of SWAT Kats and would frequently go off model with their own interpretations of the characters (Razor especially), despite the fact the main models never changed.
"Talk about having one of the most anti-climactic finishes to a war, which has been building up the entire season."
Replace "season" with "show" and you've got Game of Thrones S8E03
Imagine your general having his arm hacked off, causing you to laugh at it. Wouldn't that be pretty traumitizing?
"Alright, we lost. I know we never really fought in the first place, but my arm got chopped off so I'm surrendering. Yeah, we've been building up to this fight for weeks and that winning this means that my people and I don't have to live in the literal sewers anymore, but an actual child just strolled up to me and chopped my arm off."
It Got A Disney Treatment!
2:10 listen carefully
BITCH
I swear I heard it too
For a second I thought he dubbed it over as a joke.
Lol, nice 2D pfp btw.
*_B i t c h_*
I've seen this sort of thing done before, in the Warriors series. A lost clan named Skyclan was overrun by rats and driven out of the only home that could have supported them, leaving all the cats to either die or abandon all they knew.
They had to get help years later and they didn't drive them away by biting off a freaking tail. The cats (practically) murdered them all, suffering heavy loss in the process.
I feel this could have been used here.
Since they took so long to get to this particular place, why not make the stakes a bit higher?
I mean, obviously the other animals who left didn't do so well. (As one died and the others returned) So having the rats drive them out of the home they journeyed so far to reach would have been more moving and motivating.
Kinda skipped over scar faces death in the season 2 review
he didn't mention how season 1 ended either
He skips alot of stuff and misses facts. Like how weasels are a rats main predator and can kill more than a snake.
@@sarafontanini7051 he kind of did, he showed it ended with them entering the park. But yeah - skipping over Vixen/Fox meeting/being hunted in S1 and then Scarface and Bounder's demise in S2 was really ill thought out. I also felt Ranger and Charmer deserved a mention in at least one of these reviews.
How did he die?
@@eless4221 Adder bit him I believe
Me: Clicks expecting a serious beginning
Also me: *Trips on air when Pinky and the Brain started playing*
You should really review the 1999 Watership Down cartoon too. I have the whole thing on DVD, 14 volumes - 3 seasons. Much like Batman TAS and The New Batman Adventures, it goes through a huge redesign in season 3, plus some mystical elements are added too in that season, but overall it is still a great show and well written with memorable characters. The voice acting is also amazing with John Hurt as Woundwort, Stephen Fry as Cowslip, and even Kiefer (24) Sutherland as Hickory.
I didn't even know there was a season 3.
funny that, cause there is no season 3 actually. weird, right?
@@aperson1 lol what?
I wish there wasn't
Or at least there was a better season 3
I could see the weasel thing, I think they're actually great at hunting rats since they can crawl into burrows. So like a snake might be able to get in there too but snakes don't eat all that much but a family of weasels would eat a lot of them.
It also makes sense that the rats would be terrified of them because weasels actually drink rats' blood.
Kestrel died offscreen between seasons. The reason it's not mentioned is because they didn't adapt the book(s) that would have taken place between seasons two and three.
I loved Weasel in season 1 to the point of identifying with Measly's constant off-puttingly awkward hitting on her in season 2. This season made them a really obnoxiously dysfunctional couple, up until Measly mans up and stops being such a twerp at the very end, having a sort of character arc. Once he takes his proper place as leader of the household, everything starts going better for him and his family.
I liked laughing at Owl and Hollow's relationship. It was stupid, but a funny sort of stupid.
I think I'll stick to season 1 and 2...
I just found your channel and I have to say it's really nice seeing people give actual reviews of these darker animated movies, and not just "oh my god the animals die isnt that shocking." Because from the perspective of someone who really likes animation and even wanted to be a 2D animator when I was younger, I really love Watership Down and Land Before Time. It's just nice to see someone give them enough respect to talk about the content of these movies outside of just some shock value.
Measly reminds me of a less likable Pepe Le Pew from Looney Tunes.
Wow. That's saying something.
Sabreena Raue Pepe le pew was likeable
True.
Well I thought he was despite being uh, pushy towards the female black cat that got white paint dumped on her back for lack of a better word at the moment....
1:37 The Rook was a simp before simp was a popular phrase
From the 'Pinky And The Brain' reference, I just knew how amazing this review would be!!!
Honestly the TV series doesn't do the books justice in my opinion.
You make a very interesting thought on this. I too thought this season of Animals of Farthing Wood was too kiddy. Although, I thought the death of Sinuous was just tragic. And seeing Adder when she found him dead really made me feel sorry for her, even though she was a bit of a bitch in the series.
BTW There's a TV series I'd like you to review that I think you'll find quite interesting. The show is called "Tugs", a show from 1988 - 1989. What I can tell you about it is that it's like Thomas the Tank Engine, but stars tugboats and ships, and has a much darker tone.
I think Trey is a tsundere. He's just using the park space an an excuse to be nice without being perceived as being soft. This season's art looks like a hybrid of Yayoi Neko cats, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Winnie the Pooh, Care Bears Nutcracker, Animaniacs, David the Gnome, & The Secret of NIMH. Still not as bad as the Land Before Time sequels, but the battle ending was really lame.
It just looks like shitty old animation to me. Being a weeb must be hard
I think Trey was just a dick from having a pretious father and having others look up to him.
Weasels in reality would be the biggest threat to the rats.
The problem is, the writers handled the characters and story so poorly that in the end, the plot point with the weasels ended up being lazy and forced when it didn’t have to be.
Any of the other characters could have bitten Bully’s tail off.
But none of the other animals have the speed, agility, and size advantage that weasels have.
Had the show kept its realism maybe they would have highlighted the actual way the weasels would be a threat to the rats. Not this goofy comedic copout that could’ve been achieved by anyone.
You can tell how low the animation dropped when Bully gets his tail bitten off and the inside of the tail looks the same as the outside. In Series One, there’d at least be a bit of blood.
But then in Series One, a rodent would probably die from having its tail bitten off. Bully doesn’t even immediately notice.
Have you ever seen the show about the silver brumby? It’s an old Australian cartoon that I assume predates the feature length live action movie and is incredibly hard to find nowadays (I think it’s mostly available on TH-cam)
Yeah, I remember that! :D I only remember a bit about the show itself, but the opening song was EPIC.
I managed to live 27 years without ever hearing of this series. I love Watership Down and other dark cartoons, though. Now I'm ready to dive in to this series. Thanks for the reviews! I'll definitely be passing on the third season.
Well technically that's not bold talking to trey in fact it's bold's twin brother friendly
I actually liked s3 Measly, he steps up as a Dad, becomes the sensible voice of reason and even puts Weasel in her place, then kindly suggests they go back to the park. Hes also a great protector. Cut him some slack.
The thing that would of made this season impactful and a bookend to the series is if they did Kill off Fox but also passed on the torch to his Grandson. Like at the end of the season after seeing Trey and how big the park is we have Fox going to Badger's old set and saying "Well Badger, at least the park is in safe hands, mind if I join you" and then he drops down slowly.
The beginning was hilarious...Pinky and the Brain reference
Spike: “Ge Bully what do you what to do today”
Bully: “the same thing we do everyday Spike try to take over the park”
I recently started watching the series, I finished 1 and 2 and loved them
The moment i saw the art style of season 3, I instantly knew something went wrong...
I'm glad that there's someone who knows about these classics.
I guess the reason why the weasels were crucial for the story was the fact like the rats they can also breed relativiely fast and in time almost match the rats in some numbers.
Also, I feel like Trey talking about the space in the park was him covering up how he actually felt grateful for them saving his life.
I think they did make Vixen look older, other than that totally agree with your review!
CartoonCrazy94 yeah her voice in the final episode particularly shows. I always thought she was a little bit younger than Fox. After all surviving for years in hunting country can't gave been easy but Fox was 5 in the first series. Series 3 starts a year after Series 2 ended so Fox would have been 8. Vixen possibly a year or 2 younger so they should not have become so old, especially when Toad is fine.
5:06 Serious "Redwall" vibes from this scene
2:19 hows an owl get covered in cement while in a tree? Pretty damn outlandish plot.
She flies into a cement mixer then into the tree. The cement dries in the span of seconds (as cement totally does irl).
In the books Spike the rat does bond with the animals but instead of actually being brought into the pack and fully converting into a good guy Adder actually eats him before he can. So that’s one plus for season 3.
Toads live 20+ years.
I was actually surprised Fox didn't die of old age before this season was over, if he even survived to make it INTO the season. Red foxes in the wild apparently live around 2 - 5 years, and he was already a full adult before leaving Farthing Wood, which was at least a few years before season 3.
So... it's kind of weird that he lived this long, and then we have Toad being all spry when he was too easily tired due to being old to cross a street easily in season 1. Bit of a jumble.
Great video. I was looking forward to this one. Yes series 3 is unbelievably bad. Kudos for mentioning that rook. As bad as Series 3 was with things like Sinuous' ridiculous death, Trey and Bully being awful characters, Fox aging so much when only a year passed since Series 2 ended, Nothing is as stupid as a bird wanting one of another species. That is an insult to everything that the show stands for.
Hopin' for a Remake/Reboot
The rats are much more threatening in the book. When you put this in context with my comment on the other video it becomes fairly obvious that the creators/their masters lost their nerve. Your stuff about Fox relates to your issues with Badger, which ultimately appears a case of not appreciating what worked in the books. (I'd compare series one and two to the books but frankly it's a miracle I have my hands on the two adapted for series three.)
In terms of the show itself... it's been years since we got these out on video and all I can tell you is that I liked them at the time. The intro sequence is awesome though and maybe you should have given it some explicit love. Hmm, maybe that last sentence should be rephrased.
Love these videos, firstly they’re crazy interesting and secondly your voice is calming it helps me sleep
There wasn't even any blood lol
I liked the use of Adder to compare the change in colouring style. Adder looked so fucking cool.
In the second and third seasons, instead of blood and actual injuries, the animators made the characters stretch and behave like rubber. In some scenes bits of a character literally snap off. It looked, frankly, shoddy and ridiculous
Seeing how the three seasons of Animals of Farthing Woods process throughout the whole series makes me feel more appreciated to towards the three seasons of Redwall and its writings.
Oh I love Redwall! Is there a cartoon version..?
So I’m assuming that you’ll be reviewing the Plague Dogs after this? (:
First I've got one more Farthing Wood video planned where I look at the top 5 deaths in the series.
But then yes, Plague Dogs will be next on the list!
Steve Simpson Sounds Good!
Gotta admit season one was the best because I kept you on your feet cause you knew that characters could die at any time
And kept you interested and involved
It turned into Pinky and the Brain but without science.
I watched each season with you up until now, like I watched Season One then your video on that same season. Same for Season Two. I couldn't do more then a few episodes of the third season before I gave up on it and just watched this video.
Which is sad for me now because my favorite character was Adder and now I know I missed out on some work with her. I always suspected she and Owl would settle in together, even if just as close friends and not romantically because they found more companion ship with each other then any of the others. When I saw Owl left and Adder hooking up with random french snake it killed it for me. Then all the Weasel parts just kept coming and I gave up.
I never would have watched this show if not for you and I am glad I watched it. I might even go read the books now. I don't think you'll ever see this but thanks for turning me on to this show.
The man actually decided to post a video
One thing about weasels. Weasels are much better rat killers than adders.
1) Adders hunt much less, and avoid using energy. They are ambush predators too rather than one that persues their prey
2) Weasels do go into small holes to get prey, in fact we domesticated their cousins (ferrets) to do that job
3) Mustelids are vicious carnivores that you would never bet against in a fight. The biggest, the Giant Otter, kill caiman and anaconda. Wolverines are there too, and then you have honey badgers who require no more info. Weasels kill chickens and rabbits that are much bigger than them but their favourite is rodents. They even live in the burrows dug up by rats.
So it would actually make less sense if it was Adder who went away.
Oh and rats are scared of weasels.
They might be the smallest carnivore but there's a reason why they do so well.
You know what this story reminds me of? The walking dead and various other serial shows on right now.
Yep all about survival
I personally like all the seasons, but yknow, I'm easily entertained.
0:10 Does anyone find it surreal how the audio perfectly syncs with what Bully is saying?
One of the things I had about this season was the fact that Adder had a perfect chance to kill the leader of the rats. (I think the reason could be that the rats are a good food source for her, but that's kinda stupid.)
Measly is masochistic
4:21. Wilbur's European cousin perhaps? Oh, wait, that'd be Babe in Australia. :P