Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Movie Review 1996

Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book gets the Monty Python treatment. Set in Edwardian England, but with a definitely modern slant, Jones' adaptation removes much of the gentle whimsy and replaces it with Pythonesque skits. Mole (Coogan) wakes up one day to find his home being bulldozed by the industrialist weasels who have purchased the property from the motorcar-infatuated Mr. Toad (Jones). Toad keeps selling more land to buy more cars as the weasels take over the area and Toad is sent to jail for reckless driving. Mole, along with friends Rat (Idle) and Badger (Williamson) must help him escape and reclaim his land. Grahame's early 20th century fable railing against modern industralism's encroachment on the countryside becomes a satire on '90s consumerism and corporate greed. Mighty heady stuff for a kid's movie.

Distribution

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521-1120, Toll-free: 800-723-4763, URL: http://www.bvhe.com

Available on VHS
Running time 88 minutes.
Originally from British.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Wild Kingdom, Period Piece: 1900s, Motor Vehicle Dept., Great Britain, Technology--Rampant

Screenplay

Terry Jones

Cast

Terry Jones, Steve Coogan, Eric Idle, Anthony Sher, Nicol Williamson, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Bernard Hill, Michael Palin, Nigel Planer, Julia Sawalha, Victoria Wood, Richard James

Cinematography

David Tattersall

Director

Terry Jones

Music

John Du Prez, Terry Jones