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Film Title: Wind in the Willows

 Best for ages: 7 and up.

Movie Website:  Click Here

Year Released: 1949

Rated: G (US)

SYNOPSIS

Click Here Mr. Toad has been spending more money than he's been making, buying new cars  and such, and dealing with the wrong crowd. But when his home, Toad Hall is in danger of being taken away from home, his true friends come out to help him change his ways. Ratty, Moley and Angus MacBadger  will make him do the right things and change Mr. Toad to do things the right way. This Disc also includes the Disney shorts The Grasshopper and the Ant, The Ugly Duckling, The Wise Little Hen, The Robber Kitten and The Golden Touch.

VIOLENCE/GRAPHIC CONTENT/language

   Wind in the Willows does have a lot of things that parents need to be concerned about. There is a few things such as Mr. Toad and his horse riding though town and making other animals run for cover, they also destroy a green house and reek havoc on other things and people. Mr. Toad also flips out on his friends who lock him in a room. There is a still of a news paper clip which shows a police officer holding a gun. Mr. Toad is put on trial for theft. Mr. Mole sticks his tongue out at a lawyer. There are weasels in the film that are up to no good, they point guns at Mr. Toad in a bar. One of them smokes cigar and in one scene they are seen drinking with Mr. Winky..  Mr. toad is tricked by them to take a stolen car from them in exchange for Toad Hall. Mr. Toad house sneaks into his prison cell dressed as an old lady and helps Toad escape. While on the run he falls down some stairs and his ball and chain breaks him though a brick wall where he gets on top of a train engine where police men with guns fire at him. Mr. Toad escapes them by throwing himself off a bridge into a pond, only to realize that his ball and chain are weighing him down in the water. Toad makes it back to his house where his ball and chain fall on Ratty's foot. Together they break into Toad Hall to steal the deed back from Mr. Winky and prove that Toad is innocent, but guilty of bad judgment.  A fight and chase scene ensues which includes the weasels chasing them with knives, axes and anything else they can get their hands on. In the end however,  all is fair and well.

   The Ugly Duckling is a cute little cartoon with a few little things that might be of concern, such as the mother and father ducks fighting in what seems to be the father accusing the mother of having an affair. This causes mother duck to hit father duck over the head. The Ulgy Ducking is always being bullied around and yelled at by his mother, siblings and others. He is hit in the head by a fake hunting duck that hurts him.

   The Grasshopper and the Ant is pretty safe for kids to watch, really the only things I noticed is that the grasshopper and the ant spit, and he tells the ant that no one should work but everyone should play. The grass tells the queen ant to soil her pants like the other ants. When winter comes the grasshopper is left out in the cold, starving.

   The  Golden Touch is about a greedy king who only cares about his riches. He sings about worshipping and loving gold. He wishes that everything he touches turns to gold and a little genie named Goldie shows up. Goldie the golden touch and turns the kings cat into gold. The king asks to be cures with the golden touch, but Goldie warns him of the consequences. Now with the touch the king gets greedy with it and turns everything to gold.  But he will soon learn that he can't eat food because it turns to gold, and other luxuries of life begin to turn to gold, he realizes that it is more of curse and become angry. A dead king's golden skeleton appears to him in a mirror telling him that he is going to die because of the curse. While this is a short film that has a few things that might be of concern but in the end its a film with a lesson.

   The Robber Kitten is about a kitten who likes to play with his toys. In the first shot he is playing with toy guns and shooting his toys with them. He also uses a wooden sword and has a bit of an attitude. He runs around his mother's kitchen stealing stuff. Meanwhile there is a mean bulldog whom is a real robber in town, the kitten finds him and befriends him. This of course gives the bulldog a reason to teach the kid to be like him. They sings songs about stealing and not taking baths. together they hold up a stage coach. But the kitten does all the work only to have the mean bulldog take everything away from him and threaten him with knife. This prompts the kitten to run home and take a bath.

   The Wise Little Hen is more about rejection than anything. The hen and her chicks are trying to find help form Donald Duck and peter Pig, but in the end they seem to help themselves by growing corn and cooking their own food. While Donald Duck and Peter Pig have their own Idle Hour Clue that they won't let anyone join. They act sick and try to avoid the hen. But she is willing to share her crop none the less and offers them food, whih turns out to be castor oil to help them with their supposed sickness. Donald and Peter pig takes turns kicking one another in the butt for being such fools to Mrs. Hen.

OVERALL VIEWS

    This was my first time actually seeing Wind in the Willows.  the closest thing I ever remotely know about Mr. Toad and company was when Disney World had Mr. Toads Wild Ride when I was a kid. (I believe they still have the ride in Disneyland). The story is good, but it will bore many young kids. The other shorts are really good, even though the animation is a bit less detailed than kids are used to today. One thing that the cartoons do have though is a moral lesson in each story. No matter how many little violent things are in the films, they at least end on a note that is either happy or teaches a moral.  I for one enjoyed the majority of them, but in all honestly I'm not sure if kids are going to really sit down and watch all of them. On this disc there are some that are good for younger kids to watch, while others have some things that you might not want them to see. We still must remember that these short films were made in the mid to early nineteen hundreds where some of the violence and smoking and drinking were not seen as some thing so terrible. In today's standards we know better, though experience. But they are a piece of Disney history and are worth adding to your collection.

  The DVD includes six classic Disney shorts and the Disney Fast Play feature, English, French, and Spanish Subtitles are also available on the disc. The Disc also come with a collectible Litho Print.

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