I really love Wind In The Willows. Mind you, I spend more time watching kid’s shows than anything else. If you don’t know it, it’s a series of children’s stories written by an Englishman way back in the early 1900s. Since then it’s been made into radioplays, cartoons and apparently even a live action movie with much of the cast of Monty Python?!? The version I love is the stop motion animated series that was done in the 80s.
When I got my hands on the complete DVD collection (what a day that was!), I watched the entire thing in about 2 weeks. I spent much of that time explaining to my girlfriend just how much of a dick Mr. Toad is. To be honest, I don’t think the story was ever part of my childhood, but it does a scary good job of capturing that feeling of being a kid at grandma’s house. And it’s real nice to look at with your eyeballs…
So, if you are looking for some old stop-motion inspiration with really nice sets, find it & watch an episode or two. There is an episode called “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” that gets pretty weird, but in a good way that makes your brain feel funny. I can’t recommend watching all 5 seasons in a row, after Season 1 I think the writer’s just stopped trying and Mr. Toad’s constant screwing up becomes obnoxious…. But! The general look and feel is amazing and has definitely inspired what we want to achieve with our next stop-motion, People Who Live Under Rocks. Just check out this clip (you can skip to around 1:00 in) of Mole End and look at all the tiny details…
P.S. This clip also has a good moral about how high society is a bunch of tiresome phonies, and drinking beer while playing skittles with your family is what it’s really all about…
