Customer Reviews

Once Upon a Forest [VHS]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once Upon A Forest is about a mole, badger and hedgehog who go to Ferling's class taught by Cornelius, played by Michael Crawford. The movie starts off showing the animals getting ready for the days lesson and arriving at school at Cornelius's house in Dapplewood.

Cornelius proceeds to show the class his life's work, the Flapper wind thing. It is a model that flies around the house and breaks. He plans on someday making the real thing and they set out for the days journey.

While walking around in the forest to get to the surprise one of the animals finds a street and runs back into the forest at the same time a vehicle is going by tossing a glass out the window.

The animals want to know what that was, Cornelius tells them to get out of the road, and they go to the water to ride in the canoe. They take turns rowing and getting all wet. Upon getting out of the water Cornelius notices the quietness of the forest and they hurry home.

What happened was another vehicle hit the glass in the road causing it to turn over and emit some gas fumes into the forest. The animals make it to Michelle's house and smell the fumes. Michelle enters to find her mommy and daddy while the others wait on Cornelius to think of what to do next. Abigail goes in to pull out Michelle, whose parents did die.

They go to higher ground, which is at Cornelius's house. There Cornelius, who is Michelle's uncle, places Michelle in bed and tells a story of when he was a child and the same thing happened to his parents and he was the only one who got out.

This is a great family movie that shows the animals getting along for the sole purpose of helping another. It shows their instincts in taking care of themselves while on their journey.

Children will see life through the eyes of animals and how leaving glass on the street can cause a flat tire and damage to the animals in the woods. The three classmates grew up in the two days that they searched for the meadow and made their teacher proud.

What more could you want for a child to see than a life lesson while watching animals, listening to music and the colorful scenery.

I admit that I was a bit turned off by the possibility of a sappy environmental message. But if you are too, give it a moment. Most of the animated stories aimed at your kids involve "evil villains" and probably a decent amount of physical conflict. My daughter's at a stage where she is very sensitive to "evil" characters, so I decided to check the movie out. Yes, Leonard is right - nothing very memorable... for an adult. My 3-yr-old child saw this film a month ago and is still acting out scenes from it and making me play characters. And it's true that there is the sappy environmentalism of animals tut-tutting the way those humans act. But I'll give away a tiny surprise. The humans turn out to be not all bad.

I loved this movie when I was little and I still enjoy it today, even at age 22! I've always loved animal movies, though, like The Lion King and Homeward Bound, so this one definitely was a winner with me!
This movie tells the story of four furlings who attend a nature class taught by a Badger named Cornellius. One day, during their class, a poisonous gas enters their forest home, and their friend Michelle becomes very sick from it. The other three furlings (Abigail, Edger, and Russel) work together to collect the herbs necessary to save Michelle.
Teamwork and loyalty to good friends is one of the big themes in this movie, and I think children (as well as adults) would really enjoy it! I do think it's a bit sad, but has a hopeful ending. It's really good! Edger is my favorite character!

I loved this movie when I was younger (probably about 5 years old).I saw it in the theater, and I must admit a few parts were a little scary. It is a story about furlings who must travel to another meadow and find herbs to save their young friend's (Michelle) life. A truck carrying poisonous gas drove off the road and contaminated their forest. Michelle ran to find her parents and wound up deathly ill from the gas. On their journy to save their friend these three furlings meet many interesting characters (the birds are my favorite). It also has great music!

A sign that this movie is still just as entertaining to the new generation: My friend's four year old sister just watched it and she couldn't take her eyes off the screen until it was over (71 minutes).
Well that's all I have to say, except it is not a Disney movie, while it is very similar to Disney movies, it is actually made by Fox Video.
Another great movie is the Princess and the Goblin. I can't understand why these movies are so unknown, They are great. Some parts still make me laugh.
That's the end of my review, but if you want to know more about the movie you can read on. This is what the back of the box says:
"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 their 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."

Once Upon a Forest is a wonderful movie and it should definately come out on DVD.

Finally,"Once Upon A Forest", one of the top American animated movies ever, is on its way to DVD! An absolute delight for all ages; three unforgettable small Furlings, the clever and charming mouse Abigail, the rambunctious hedgehog Russel, and the bespectacled little mole Edgar, set out to find a cure for their friend Michelle, who's deathly ill after a chemical spill devastates the Furlings's forest home Dapplewood. An exciting, moving adventure that 24 or 84 year-olds can enjoy as much as four year-olds, with cute and wonderful animation. Among the highest rankers of all movies on the 'adorableness' scale.

Also recommended are "The Little Polar Bear", "Scamper the Penguin", and, in a somewhat different style, "Kiki's Delivery Service". All great animated treasures.

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.

Our three year old grandson wants to watch this movie several times a day, which is not so bad, because we enjoy watching it,too. The story, the message, the characters and the music are all excellent.

When my granddaughter was younger she always wanted to watch this movie.Although she watched other movies she would still watch this when she came to visit.I in no way, nor did she find this movie boring.It had imagination and compassion.It showed friends helping friends in a time of need and in a time of danger.It showed how to be brave and caring.It showed how to rise upon tragedy.I have been trying very hard to find this on DVD to give to my granddaughter as a memory.She will be 13 and I know she and I will have this memory of watching this forever in our hearts.It was time shared with her.

One day at work my co-workers (who are all between 18-24) and i were talking about great movies from our childhood... Once upon a forest was one of them, and i thought it was interesting and cute that this movie was loved and remembered by young adults of both sexes. I would definately reccommend this movie, it was adorable and all around great.

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.