Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1996)

Mole's (Steve Coogan's) underground home is bought by the Weasels from wealthy landowner Mr. Toad (Terry Jones) and Mole is thrown out. He and Rat (Eric Idle) start to fight to get his home back from evil Weasels.

Director:

Terry Jones

Writers:

Terry Jones (screenplay), Kenneth Grahame (novel)

Stars:

Steve Coogan, Eric Idle, Terry Jones

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steve Coogan	...	Mole
Eric Idle	...	Rat
Terry Jones	...	Toad
Antony Sher	...	Chief Weasel
Nicol Williamson	...	Badger
John Cleese	...	Mr Toad's Lawyer
Stephen Fry	...	The Judge
Bernard Hill	...	The Engine Driver
Michael Palin	...	The Sun
Nigel Planer	...	The Car Salesman
Julia Sawalha	...	The Jailer's Daughter
Victoria Wood	...	The Tea Lady
Robert Bathurst	...	St John Weasel
Don Henderson	...	The Sentry
Richard James	...	Geoffrey Weasel and Mole's Clock

Storyline

Mole's (Steve Coogan's) underground home is bought by the Weasels from wealthy landowner Mr. Toad (Terry Jones) and Mole is thrown out. He and Rat (Eric Idle) start to fight to get his home back from evil Weasels.

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Plot Keywords:

weasel | mole | toad | rat | mating | 

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Taglines:

Go wild in the country!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Musical

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for fanciful villainy and gunplay

Did You Know?

Trivia

The filmmakers filmed this movie completely at sunset, but the nighttime scenes were digitally color corrected.

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Goofs

Although Badger and Rat swapped the labels round on the barrels to make sure that the explosives were delivered to the factory, the plunger would presumably have still been wired up to the ones in Toad Hall, so there shouldn't have been any explosion at all when the Chief Weasel pressed it.

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Quotes

The Jailer's Daughter: I made bubble-and-squeak.
Toad: What do I care for the pleasures of the flesh!
The Jailer's Daughter: I'll take it away, then...
Toad: No! We wouldn't want to waste it.

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Connections

Version of The Wind in the Willows (1984)

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Soundtracks

Messing About On The River
Music by Tony Hatch
Lyrics by Terry Jones
Performed by Eric Idle

User Reviews

Lost Treasure

I am probably one of the six people who saw this on its first theatrical run in the US. Because of a complicated and ultimately stupid legal battle between distributors involving this and other films this film got so lost that the only promotional material available to the theater I saw it in was a picture from a newspaper, which they pasted into a much too big poster holder.

To add insult to injury despite getting raves from the New York papers, all of which wondered why the distributor was dumping a wonderful "children's" film, a new distributor, Disney released it on video after changing its name to tie into their amusement park ride, there by confusing those of us who saw this as the Wind in the Willows.

This film is a great film. Its simply a fantastic film comedy, never mind the stupid label of children's or family film, this is just great movie making.

The only people I know who are disappointed in it are people expecting a Monty Python film. Although it pretty much reunites all of the surviving Pythons only Jones and Eric Idle are in it for any length of time, Cleese has one scene as a lawyer and Palin is fleetingly seen as the sun. The film is light years from Python, despite having just a touch of Python's madness.

The humor is gentle and loving and keeping both with the period and with modern tastes. The songs are wonderful. Granted the story is changed to deal with the dangers of crass commercialism, the weasels want to turn Toad Hall into a factory, but having seen several version of the story told with people in costume, this is only one of two versions that has ever worked, and this one did it in half the time of the other.

This is a film that will make everyone feel good and which despite the PG rating is great for everyone.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 October 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Filming Locations:

Dover Castle, Dover, Kent, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$72,844, 2 November 1997

Gross USA:

$72,844

Company Credits

Production Co:

Allied Filmmakers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1