There are a lot of good things about this series. In many ways it's a throwback to the old days of British animation, and certainly stands out against the background of most of today's modern American cartoons. This is not always a strength, however.
The backgrounds and animation are disappointing; in particular the backgrounds often appear faded and washed-out, drawing unfavourable comparisons with the highly-detailed landscapes used in other nature cartoons, like Watership Down. The animation frequently produces problems with scale, the sizes of some animals varying even within scenes, and while the character design is mostly excellent there are too many instances of motion looping: the same pieces of animation getting used again and again.
The voice acting is inconsistent, and the series clearly suffers from being unable to hire more than a few voice actors. The problem with having several characters voiced by one actor is that , more often than not, the actor will have to go to extremes of accent or pitch in order to produce voices that sound different, and as a result many of the supporting characters sound so irritating it's hard to sympathise with them. Having said that, the main characters are quite well done, and in particular the second-series' villains Scarface and Lady Blue are invested with suitable malevolence.
So why is Farthing Wood a good cartoon, despite its problems? Perhaps its greatest achievement is to take a very mediocre series of novels, distill the best elements from them and use that as a starting point to develop stories and characters. Often the first thing discarded in the transition from page to TV is violence, but Farthing Wood deserves credit for retaining much of the book' realism; characters are killed off like it's open season in the safari, and the series doesn't shy away from depicting copious amounts of blood.
Sad, thrilling and ultimately uplifting, Farthing Wood is a relic of the days when children felt more connected with nature and the Great Outdoors, and although a small budget limited its excellence, very likely it will be the last great British nature cartoon.
The backgrounds and animation are disappointing; in particular the backgrounds often appear faded and washed-out, drawing unfavourable comparisons with the highly-detailed landscapes used in other nature cartoons, like Watership Down. The animation frequently produces problems with scale, the sizes of some animals varying even within scenes, and while the character design is mostly excellent there are too many instances of motion looping: the same pieces of animation getting used again and again.
The voice acting is inconsistent, and the series clearly suffers from being unable to hire more than a few voice actors. The problem with having several characters voiced by one actor is that , more often than not, the actor will have to go to extremes of accent or pitch in order to produce voices that sound different, and as a result many of the supporting characters sound so irritating it's hard to sympathise with them. Having said that, the main characters are quite well done, and in particular the second-series' villains Scarface and Lady Blue are invested with suitable malevolence.
So why is Farthing Wood a good cartoon, despite its problems? Perhaps its greatest achievement is to take a very mediocre series of novels, distill the best elements from them and use that as a starting point to develop stories and characters. Often the first thing discarded in the transition from page to TV is violence, but Farthing Wood deserves credit for retaining much of the book' realism; characters are killed off like it's open season in the safari, and the series doesn't shy away from depicting copious amounts of blood.
Sad, thrilling and ultimately uplifting, Farthing Wood is a relic of the days when children felt more connected with nature and the Great Outdoors, and although a small budget limited its excellence, very likely it will be the last great British nature cartoon.