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Once Upon a Forest Review

I watched this with my 4.5 year-old the other day and I'm glad I did because though this is a great kids' movie with important themes, it also contains some scary parts that may cause sensitive younger children to cry or even have nightmares.

The story centers around some young furlings, woodland creatures, i.e. a hedgehog names Russel, a mole named Edgar, a mouse named Abigail, and a badger named Michelle. They all attend classes conducted by a wise older badger named Cornelius. One day, a terrible tragedy befalls the forest when a tanker carrying toxic chemicals has an accident near the forest and the toxic fumes permeate the forest, causing casualties amongst the woodland creatures, including Michelle. This is the part that is quite scary [SPOILERS]- Michelle and her friends accompanied by Cornelius return from a field trip to find the forest strangely quiet and deserted - Michelle runs into her home only to find her parents dead, and falls victim to the toxic fumes, going into a coma.

It is left to Michelle's friends to help find some herbs that will save her, whilst Cornelius remains behind to watch over Michelle. The animation is enchanting, bringing the forest to vivid life with bold colors. The characters are all endearing. There are some important themes explored here - the threat posed by Man to the environment, the loss of animals' habitat, but the most important message that shines through is the enduring power of friendship, teamwork and perseverance. Abigail, Edgar and Russell work together and coax each other on to help get the herbs necessary to save Michelle's life.

My preschooler loved this movie, though she did cry at the part where Michelle gets hurt, but all in all, if an adult sits with a younger child through those scary parts, this does have many positives to recommend it as a wonderful kids' movie.

Once Upon a Forest Overview

In this rousing, magical adventure filled with whimsy, laughter and charm, a host of fun-loving characters takes you on an unforgettable journey in a land called Dapplewood. One day, three Furling friends, Abigail the wood mouse, Edgar the mole and Russell the hedgehog, find their tranquil lives greatly disrupted. A chemical spill has destroyed Dapplewood and their young friend Michelle becomes seriously ill from the toxic fumes. Counting on their own ingenuity and the skills they learned from thier teacher Cornelius, they take off on an exciting, but dangerous journey to find help for their friend. Their wisdom soon pays off and they set about to restore Dapplewood to its original splendor.

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Customer Reviews

A DECENT CHILDREN'S FILM 7 OUT OF 10 - ACEMAN1 - Ripon, California
Continuing my streak of reviewing old animated films I have not seen in years (Some I hadn't seen in more than a decade), I found this film and decided to watch it again along with all the others I had picked out. Sadly, this film didn't hold up quite as well as I hoped it would. Don't get me wrong, it's still good, but it's a bit lacking unfortunately.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: When the meadow of Dapplewood is contaminated by a poisonous gas, three friends: Abigail, Edgar, and Russel are sent to retrieve herbs to help their friend Michelle who has been poisoned by the gas and must be back in two days, or she will die. So the trio is taken on a dangerous, yet fun adventure.
MUSIC: This music is really good and is easily one of the greatest parts of this film. The only problem with this film's music are the singing parts, which are awful (Thank God there's only two singing scenes). I have no complaints toward the composer, though.
ACTING: The voice-actors themselves aren't bad, but the dialogue is at times. This is one of the things that drags this film down is because of the moments of laughable dialogue. For the most part this area works, but it could have been done so much better.
ACTION: Watching these characters wander around is surprisingly interesting because of their many encounters with machinery and humans. There's even a small part of the film in which they build a flying machine which actually looks cool and the brief flying scenes are fun to watch. This area is pretty good and never really gets boring.
OVERALL: This film's quality is dragged down by the forgettable storyline filled with convoluted environmental messages, bad singing scenes, and laughable dialogue. But, the film manages to save itself and remains consistently entertaining because of the action scenes and wonderful music. I recommend you rent this first, however.
THE GOOD: Cool action scenes, great music, and good-looking animation.
THE BAD: Bad musical scenes, laughable dialogue, underwhelming storyline.

Once Upon a Review - Mephisto - Bucksport ME
This is the kind of movie that somebody's grandmother might get for their daughter so that the parent in question can pawn off the responsibility of raising his daughter on some awful movie. Then, when the child comes to him upset and with questions he can say that he "innocuously" put it in the DVD player thereby further removing himself from any blame. Perhaps he can then direct his daughter to another awful video about death and dying.

Great for Environmental Education - A. Jones - Monroe, LA USA
I use this movie in my classroom to show how humans can negatively and positively affect their environment. Also, having students answer questions as the video plays helps them learn to take notes.
The video is about some young forest animals trying to save their friend after some poisonous gas is released in their forest. The best part of the movie is when the flock of birds sing like a southern gospel church, my kids really liked that part and so do I!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 23, 2010 18:08:05

Animation

Monday, August 23, 2010