Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Steve Coogan
Jones, formerly of the Monty Python troupe, wrote and directed this adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's classic about the adventures of Mssrs. Mole (Coogan), Rat (Idle) and Badger (Nicol Williamson) in the sun-dappled British countryside. Jones, who himself plays Mr. Toad with a lick of pale green paint across his face, starts things off nicely. With its gentle pace and Edwardian costumes (supplemented as necessary with whiskers, furry ears and tails), Willows suggests an animal fable as told by Merchant-Ivory. But then a league of weasels (led by Anthony Sher) start their takeover of the land. By the time they've bulldozed Mole's hole, assumed control of Toad's ancestral hall, built a dog-food factory and started threatening the riverbank animals with extermination, the movie has become a repulsive parable about Nazis. Why not do Winnie-the-Pooh as the story of Winston Churchill? (PG)
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