The Wind in the Willows
Terry Jones, best known for his work in the wacky Monty Python comedy troupe, directed the only live-action film based on The Wind in the Willows. Small, surreal details give this light, classically British adaptation—released in the United States in 1996 as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride—much of its charm. In one segment a crew team of rabbits rows down the stream; in another a tweed-clad Toad chomps down on a fly. Director Jones, covered in green makeup, stars as Toad; Steve Coogan is Mole, and Nicol Williamson is Badger. Two of Jones’s Monty Python mates round out the cast: Eric Idle as Rat and John Cleese as Toad’s lawyer; veteran actor Stephen Fry plays the judge.
Animals in Literature
The tradition of using animals to dramatize truths about humanity dates back at least to the sixth century B.C. with the fables of Aesop. In the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the rise of industrialization and the rapid growth of modern cities seemed to create an appetite for stories about animals and an older way of life grounded in a natural world unspoiled by man.
History’s best-selling children’s book, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1900), preceded The Wind in the Willows by several years. It tells story of Mrs. Rabbit and her four bunny children, one of whom is the impish Peter. When he sneaks into a forbidden garden, Peter faces not only the wrath of his mother and the scorn of his siblings, but the threat of being made into rabbit pie by the angry Mr. McGregor.
The hero of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903) is an animal without human qualities. Buck is a dog reared on an estate in California. Kidnapped and sold to Alaskan gold-hunters, Buck must learn the way of his wolf-ancestors in order to survive the bitter conditions of his harsh new environment. A companion piece, London’s White Fang (1906), tells the story of a half-wolf, half-dog nearly destroyed by human cruelty.