THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
All of these adaptations have contained their own sometimes quite substantial variations on the original. But most have shared a nearly singleminded emphasis on only one aspect of Grahame’s story: the saga of Mr. Toad, the reckless rascal whose misadventures land him in jail and test his friends’ loyalty. The tale of Toad is indeed the core of the book, but there is much more to The Wind in the Willows than an anthropomorphic amphibian careening about the English countryside in an automobile. Grahame’s fable probed the pleasant woodland environment to reveal a hidden world of magic and mystery. There’s adventure and comedy in The Wind in the Willows, but there’s awe, too.
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Through this story, Grahame teaches a lesson on the nature of true friendship–demonstrated by Mole, Rat, and Badger in their willingness to chastise Toad for his misbehavior and then fight at his side. Beyond that moral, The Wind in the Willows explores numerous themes–love of home, the lure of travel, the value of courage, the danger inherent in “progress”–with a bemused, compassionate gentleness that an adapter must be tempted to jettison in this age of high-speed kids’ entertainment.
It all adds up to a graceful entertainment, light and literate without being lightweight or literary–a story and a song-dream for audiences of any age.
