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'Redwall' adaptations coming to Netflix

Edited by GreenReaper as of 22:44
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Redwall Size Chart 2018, by mongoosefangs

Rights to Brian Jacques' Redwall series of novels have been purchased for adaptation by Netflix; there are plans to create a feature movie from the first, Redwall, as well as an "event series" based on the character of Martin the Warrior. The movie is being written by Patrick McHale.

The series spans 22 books (with a few picture books thrown in for the Dibbuns); if the first movie and/or series works out, Netflix has plenty of material to use. Redwall is popular among furry fans, as its entire world is filled with dressed, talking animals. The stories usually center around the titular Redwall Abbey and the adventures of its (mostly) rodent inhabitants, though the world is not limited to this one setting.

The first Redwall novel was published in 1986, with the final, The Rogue Crew, published posthumously in 2011; Jacques died in February of that year. In its own internal chronology, Redwall is not the first story; however, most of the books are standalone affairs, and though many cover earlier periods of time, every book published after 2000 is set in the "present" of the series, meaning The Rogue Crew is also the last Redwall novel chronologically, with the first being Lord Brocktree.

This is not the first adaptation of the Redwall novels in general or the novel Redwall in particular; from 1999 to 2001, an animated series from Nelvana was produced. The first season adapted Redwall, with the second adapting the third novel in the series, Mattimeo - a rare direct sequel in the series, as it features characters and storylines introduced in Redwall. The third took a different tack and adapted the sixth novel, Martin the Warrior. (The Netflix "series" adaptation has not been directly stated as adapting this novel; Martin the Warrior is an important character in the Redwall series and was the protagonist of two books.)

For an animated series (whether televisual or cinematic), Netflix is not a bad place to end up; though an animation "studio" is still in process of coalescing, Netflix has already managed one nominee for Best Animated Feature with Klaus, though it was technically only the American distributor. This year, Over the Moon, which was partially produced by Netflix Animation, is currently ranked third most likely nominee in the category according to the popular awards prediction site Gold Derby, behind only Pixar's Soul and Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers.

Note: The work accompanying this story is fan-art, and has no connection to any Netflix productions; it was merely chosen because it looks nice. Please click on it to visit the original on mongoosefangs' DeviantArt gallery - or visit his Fur Affinity gallery, Briarwood, depicting individual characters!

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Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (5 votes)

I just want to do this, so maybe a primer for newbies, maybe really old news for others, but species descriptions from left to right:

Squirrel-Almost always good, but there was that one whole tribe, the Flitchaye, that was evil, so they far and a way have the most evil members of a "good" species. (The art above, ironically, does seem to depict one of the Flitchaye, however ...) Basically squirrels and mice are the two closest species to "generic protagonist" with no real quirks.

Fox-Odd case, as on one hand, foxes are the only evil vermin of which a member of the species never "broke good" in a story proper (well, more on that later), but of which there is the most anecdotal evidence of, like, there are good (or at least "educated") foxes somewhere. (Exceptions may include Groddil from Lord Brocktree, an "educated" fox who serves the villain under duress and holds the distinction of the only vermin to actually kill the novel's villain, though he never teamed up with the good guys, and the original Sela the Vixen from Redwall, who was an enemy noncombatant medic at worst, and a spy for Redwall who literally fucking died saving the place at best, but for some reason the Redwallers still say is totally evil.) Interestingly, though in real life, obviously foxes would be one of the larger species, and the art does depict him as larger here, this doesn't seem to be the case in the actual novels, even in Redwall, where Jacques hadn't quite got the rules straight.

Hedgehog-As species go, aren't that quirky, but they often fill the role of the keeper of the Abbey's cellars, and therefore the depiction of them as the most likely to have a beer belly is spot on. Always good.

Shrew-They were one of two wacky tribes outside of Redwall society Matthias meets in the original Redwall. Unlike the other one (more on them later), they stuck around, though rarely live in Redwall. They have their own "union" G.U.O.S.I.M. (Guerilla Union Of Shrews In Mossflower), and the leader holds the title of "Log-a-Log" (though in the original novel, the leader's title was Guosim; Log-a-log was a seperate character that inherited leadership from her). Good, though for some reason, the protagonists almost always forget this and are worried about them when they first show up.

Otter-Another good, kind of generic species, but unlike the foxes actually do seem a bit bigger than everyone but the badgers. So, if they were a DnD class, they'd be what you'd pick if you wanted a basic fighter that pretty much is pure combat, but don't want to go the full barbarian/paladin class with the badgers.

Toad-Since these amphibians are the only scaly pictured, I'll just kind of lump reptiles in here, too. Toads are pretty much always evil, as are lizards. The main difference is that toads usually aren't on anybody's side, and are as dangerous to vermin as they are the good guys, while lizards sometimes join the ranks of vermin. Snakes, usually adders, are basically the dragons of the setting, except they don't breathe fire. There were a few evil newts, plus one newt who was nice, but also unanthropomorphic.

Mouse-Going back to DnD races, mice are the equivalent of picking "human" as your race there. Except always good.

Badger-In Redwall, Constance the badger is described as to scale with the rest of the cast as she would be in real life (except, once again, she even dwarfs the foxes). Unlike most of the wonky scale that is ignored from Redwall, Jacques seems to have decided, what the heck, let's just go with that for badgers. They have two main roles in the series; motherly matrons of Redwall, and the Badger Lords of the volcano fortress Salamandastron, who command armies of warrior hares and are capable of going into unstoppable fits of bloodlust and rage. Clegga Rose-Eyes managed to hold both positions, which is basically the badger equivalent of abdicating the throne of England to become Prime Minister.

Bat-Actually good guys, though never a major part of the cast. If the protagonists go into a cave, sure, they'll meet some bats. They'll be nice, but probably won't leave the cave or appear again after the chapter they're in. Tend to repeat the last word they speak, like an echo, see. Caused coronavirus.

Weasel-Generic bad guy vermin who aren't rats, basically. In this art, they seem to be standing in for all mustelids; stoats and ferrets are also common. Ferrets have a higher chance of turning good then other vermin, with Romsca from The Pearls of Lutra and the titular Outcast of Redwall being example, though they tend to die for their troubles.

Hare-Heroic warriors of Salamandastron, and not to be confused with rabbits (rabbits, by the way, actually only appear, if I remember correctly, in one novel). Usually not actually associated with Redwall. Highly militaristic; they talk like stereotypical turn of the 20th century British officers. Say wot-wot a lot.

Mole-The other good guy species with a stereotypical accent; they "hurr" and "burr" a lot and refer to themselves as "Oi", not "I". Frequently in a sidekick role to the mouse heroes; Redwall frequently has a resident "Foremole".

Rat-Generic bad guy vermin who aren't weasels, basically. Perhaps due to just sheer numbers, also are the most likely vermin to go good, with Blaggut from The Bellmaker the most prominent example. He managed to survive the novel, too.

Sparrow-Matthias meets the Sparra (what the Sparrows call themselves) during the course of Redwall; unlike the shrews, there are actively bad Sparra, and they also didn't stick around much after the third book, Mattimeo, where they almost all died. Kind of talked like Jar Jar Binks, actually. Other birds include good owls, bad ravens/crows and I believe vermin frequently ate (hopefully) non-anthro doves. Swans also made two notable appearances; not as good guys, but instead as giant, non-anthro predators who acted as the non-intelligent dragons to the adders' intelligent dragons.

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Wow, this should have been its own article. Very informative. I only ever read High Rhulain.

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And I think High Rhulain is one that I haven't read!

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I don't remember seeing bats in any of them....

Guess I'm between you and Equivamp. I never finished all of them but I read a lot. Probably in the double digits I guess. They were pretty awesome, even if most had pretty much the same plot copy pasted between them.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Thank you for the guide, but you've pointed out precisely why I soured on the Redwall series rather quickly: Good vs. evil is defined almost entirely and very obstinately by species. I'm simply not fond of that way of writing.

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Oh, sure, that's what you'd like us to think, Mink - or should I say Flinky? We're on to you and your ilk! Vermin are all alike - it was in Redwall! And let's not forget the weasels in The Wind in the Willows. You'd probably paint all our walls pink just to have it rhyme with your name.

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Zounds! I am found out! Curses...

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Well, seeing as how we live in world where even Dungeons and Dragons is like "yeah, that 'Always Chaotic Evil' thing, it's not cool anymore, we're not doing that now" (which, off topic parenthetical rambling, Gnoll as a default player race, please!), they're going to have to address that for any adaptation.

I decided to leave it out of the article, but mostly because I was pretty sure someone would point it out in the comments.

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Important comment I actually came here to make today (got distracted by something):

Cats-No pictured. In case you didn't notice. Come in two colors. Wildcats are bad, gingers are good. This, notably, can occur in the same family of cats. In fact, I believe, as they are semi-rare, only appearing in a few books, every cat met is a member of the same extended family. A bit larger than your average mouse, though in the first book, a mouse falls into a (good ginger) cat's mouth on accident (who promptly spits him out); this wouldn't happen in later books, and is just an example of the wonky scale of the first book.

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I admit to having only read book one, but I loved the tv show and I would absolutely love to be involved in this in some way. Maybe something for music? Or even voicing a character? God that'd be amazing x.x

I'm a different furry with different opinions.

Debut Album out now go stream it plz
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/cassidycivet/double-take

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Better get practising your mouth-full-of-mouse impression, just in case. Hopefully being a furry won't be an issue. I imagine a few on Redwall MUCK might like to participate.

Huh, and that Kickstarter map? Looks like they finished it. Then did an investor pitch for a full game, which got a lighting test in 2016 and came out in 2018. To very mixed reviews, but they updated it this time last year and are working on an Act II, with a bigger team.

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Actually, having read all the books, rabbits come more than just in one book. They might be in more books but the 3 books (I can remember at the moment) that they come in are: Salamandastron (The rabbit mom, and the two foolish twins), Martin the warrior (the rabbit family that tries to scare strangers off) and Mattimeo (the old crazy rabbit that gives basil the small statue)

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I like the badgers best

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Thank you for describing Sela the vixen the way you did; what happened to her always bothered me right from when I first saw it when I was just little, unlike pretty much everyone else she does not try to put herself in harms way or otherwise get involved with or interfere in anything until she is forced and dragged into it: so there is a game called FN a security bridge, and then this game there is a character named Roxy who gets horribly mutilated and murdered after being infected with a computer virus, I know this is a great way affected me; and in addition to it being absolutely horrible; About six months after I first saw it I realized the part of why this has affected me so deeply is because “I’ve been here before”: so I guess the saying is true that “childhood trauma leaves some of the deepest wounds“. So I just hope that they have Sela saved or otherwise decide to keep Sela alive in the new movie\series.

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