History WesternAnimation / TheAnimalsofFarthingWood

* DrivenToSuicide: The [[spoiler: Hedgehogs]] towards the end of Series 1, [[spoiler: the noise of the traffic was too much for them and they could not ride on the larger animal's back because of their quills. The Hedgehogs had no choice but to roll themselves up which led to them getting run over by a lorry.]] In the book, [[spoiler:this only happens to SOME of the hedgehogs. Some survive and make it to the Park.]]

* GoryDiscretionShot: In the Series 3 episode "A Bigger Oink", [[spoiler: Sinuous is strangled to death by a rat mostly offscreen, only showing his neck getting grabbed before cutting to his flailing tail before it falls limp. After that, his lifeless body isn't shown. Only the reactions of Toad, Hurkel, Shadow and Adder upon finding him.]]

** Averted in the books, [[spoiler:the rats]] were less cartoony and much more sinister in ''Battle for the Park''. They killed [[spoiler:Sinuous the adder, the Farthing Wood Toad and Mossy the mole.]] The cartoon writers had to tone down the deaths by sparing [[spoiler:Toad and Mossy]] in Series 3 because they felt that the kids would be traumatised over killing off the [[spoiler:jolly Toad and the cute mole. The decrease in malice is a likely reason Bully was felt to deserve a deathless, more cartoony defeat in the show]].

* HumanityIsSuperior: While the humans aren't always antagonistic, when they are a threat to the animals, they are shown to be immensly more powerful thanks to their technology. Outside of very specific circumstances, the animals don't even stand a chance of defeating them and rarely even try.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Near the end of Series 1, many of the animals long to get back their normal lives and forget about the Oath, but they realise that all of them changed so much in each other's company that they will never be the same again, and decide to keep the Oath amongst themselves and their descendants.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: When Owl [[spoiler:returns to White Deer Park with her new mate, she immediately observes that they'll have to find Adder a mate next. When Vixen reveals that Adder ''did'' find a mate but Sinuous was killed by the rats, Owl apologises for her "foolish beak", but Adder softly assures Owl that she wasn't to know]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The prequel novel reveals that, originally, Farthing Wood was protected land due to being home to a small colony of otters, a protected species. But, when the cold of winter caused the otters to turn to hunting on land rather than in the water, the land-dwelling carnivores resented this, which boiled over into a war that ended with the death of all of the otters. And with no otters left living in Farthing Wood, it was no longer protected land, so developers were free to come in and start leveling it. One of the foxes instrumental in the slaughter is heavily implied to be the father of the fox who will come to lead Farthing Wood's last survivors on the trek to White Deer Park.

* XenophobicHerbivore: The herbivores are often portrayed as untrusting, particularly towards the carnivores. While it is understandable for them to be wary around those who would eat them in normal circumstances, it come off as petty when the carnivores are largely the ones holding the group together.

* HeroesWantRedheads: A peculiar animal kingdom example with Ranger. He opts for Charmer (a red fox) instead of a female blue fox.

* AchillesInHisTent: The fact that both Owl and Weasel left White Deer Park was specifically what gave [[spoiler:the rats the courage to invade White Deer Park]], mainly because they were the swiftest and most effective hunters of small mammals.

** Series 1 as far as movement sees mostly repeated loops like Weasel's laugh, head turns, [[MouthFlaps MouthFlapping]] and walk cycles to the left or right; plenty of exceptions, of course, but definitely enough to notice.

** Series 1 as far as movement sees mostly repeated loops like Weasel's laugh, head turns, [[MouthFlap MouthFlapping]] and walk cycles to the left or right; plenty of exceptions, of course, but definitely enough to notice.

** Series 1 as far as movement sees mostly repeated loops like Weasel's laugh, head turns, MouthFlapping and walk cycles to the left or right; plenty of exceptions, of course, but definitely enough to notice.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Toad, Mossy, Spike and surprisingly Bully.]]

* AquiredPoisonImmunity: In season 3, whilst Bully is mocking the Warden for placing down poisoned baits to kill off city rats who have been dealing with such things all their lives, another rat gobbles up the whole bait pile and boasts that some city rats have even built up an immunity to poison. [[spoiler:Except it turns out he was drastically overestimating his resistance, and he promptly drops dead.]]

* BrotherChuck:
** Kestrel was dropped between Series 2 and 3, without so much as a mention. (In fairness, the same thing happened around this point in the books.)
** Friendly appeared in the second episode of Series 3, only to be completely absent for the remainder of the series.
** By Series 3, most of the entire blue fox clan (except Ranger and occasional other background extras) seemed to have disappeared.
** This was the fate awaiting a lot of the more minor characters who were not "officially" killed off. Fieldmouse simply disappeared midway through the second series, while Hare and Rabbit were both gone by Series 3, to be replaced by their descendants.
** Hare, Rabbit, Kestrel and others are simply supposed to have died of old age as the series (and books) advance. The lifespan of most wild animals is short. In the books, Fieldmouse was killed by Scarface.

-->'''Mrs Rabbit:''' Don't panic! ''[At which point the rabbits usually start panicking.]''
-->'''Mr Hedgehog:''' I'll second that!
-->'''Mr Hare:''' Excuse me!
-->'''Hurkel:''' I'm kind.
-->'''Bully:''' Who am I?
-->'''Rollo:''' I'm useless!
-->'''Crow:''' Thank your lucky stars!

** By the end of last episode of Series Three, just five of the original Farthing Wood animals remain - Fox, Weasel, Toad, Owl and Adder.

** Vixen and Whisper can fight.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Fox. In Series 1, [[spoiler: he lures hunters away from Vixen and he defeats a dog by bluffing.]] In Series 2, [[spoiler: he defeats the deer hunters twice by luring them to the pond with thin ice and on the second time, he lures them to get the warden's attention to apprehend them. Fox also fights Scarface to save the rest of the animals.]] Fox was made the leader of the Farthing Wood animals in the first place because he's the most cunning and one of the most physically capable of them.
* AStormIsComing: A hurricane strikes in Series 3. Among other things, it [[spoiler: injures Trey, who gets trapped under a fallen tree and is unable to fight Laird, causing the latter to take over the park]]. Ironically, one of the books whose plots were mined for season 3 was ''called'' "In the Path of the Storm".

''The Animals of Farthing Wood'' was an AnimatedSeries on [[Creator/TheBBC the BBC]], based on a series of seven books by Colin Dann, who later added a prequel to the list. The series lasted from January, 1992 to December, 1995. A total of 39 episodes aired over three series, each of 13 episodes.

* AdaptationDistillation: Series 3 generally took more liberties with the source material, including sparing a few characters who died in the books, and skipping out one installment (''The Siege of White Deer Park'') altogether. At this point the censors were beginning to get stricter over what they would allow children to see, so the especially violent content in ''The Siege of White Deer Park'' would have no longer been considered acceptable. Also explains the LighterAndSofter nature of the third series.

* AStormIsComing: A hurricane strikes in Series 3. Among other things, it [[spoiler: injures Trey, who gets trapped under a fallen tree and is unable to fight Laird, causing the latter to take over the park]].

* CarnivoreConfusion: Averted by the Oath of Mutual Protection the animals take and, even after the need for it has gone, uphold out of the fact they've known each other far too long as allies. Although once they reach White Deer Park, the carnivorous animals have the full right to eat non-Farthing Wood animals, which Adder in particular was happy to take advantage of (even over Toad's protests when she started eating some of the frogs he had befriended).

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Bold gets shot in the ass, literally. [[spoiler: He needs to survive, but he gets weaker and weaker. Not to blame him: can you hunt mice if one paw does not work properly any more, and never will again? And thus, he has to rely on his friends.]]

* DumbMuscle: [[spoiler:Mid-way through Series 3, we see a larger rat that Bully really likes due to his immense strength and has big plans for him. Unfortunately for Bully, the rat is stupid enough to eat all the poison dropped by the Warden.]]
* TheDyingWalk: [[spoiler:Bold knows he's dying, so he sends Whisper away on an errand to get some food, then walks off so she won't find his dead body.]]

* HumansAreBastards: Zigzagged. On the one hand, humans are recurring antagonists and are responsible for several deaths. On the other hand, there are humans who are good towards the animals, such as the Warden and the Firefighters. The chicken farmer who opted to leave Bold be when he noticed he was crippled was, by the standards of the show, also pretty merciful. Fox notes how humans can be both bastards AND kind-hearted when he tells how fox hunters go home to look after their horses and dogs after a day out trying to murder his kind. In general, humans don't seem to go out of their way to act like cartoonishly evil animal killers, behaving like normal hunters would do.

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Rats, with the [[HeelFaceTurn eventual exception]] of Spike, are the villains of Series 3 (as well as the de facto choice of prey for the Farthing Wood predators in Series 1 and 2). The Shrike (or Butcher Bird) of Series 1 is depicted as a coarse and unpleasant character, in contrast with the nobler likes of similarly predatory birds Owl, Kestrel and Whistler (possibly due to his particular method of storing his prey - by impaling the carcasses on thorn bushes). Also, weasels here are comical and lovable, but to get rid of the slightly bigger stoat would, according to Fox, "be doing the park a favour."

* AbhorentAdmirer: While away looking for a mate, Owl spends some time being bothered by a moth-eaten rook who immediately declares that he loves her. Naturally Owl is uninterested in him as a mate, but she eventually learns to appreciate his attempts to help; the audio adaptation has her explicitly muse that the rook helped her learn how to open herself to her later mate.

* GenerationXerox: A lot of the animals' young often have [[TalkingToYourself the same voices as their parents.]]

** In the books, [[spoiler: Bold mentions that Whisper's lithe movements remind him of his mother, Vixen.]]

** [[spoiler: Bold also dies from his bullet wound in the long-term rather than in the short-term.]]

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: [[AvertedTrope Nope]]. The herbivores are often portrayed as untrusting, particularly towards the carnivores. While it is understandable for them to be wary around those who would eat them in normal circumstances, it come off as petty when the carnivores are largely the ones holding the group together.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Let's be completists here. There was Fox, Badger, Mole, Owl, Kestrel, Toad, Weasel, Adder, the Rabbits, the Hares, the Squirrels, the Fieldmice, the Voles, the Shrews, the Pheasants, the Hedgehogs, the Newts, Vixen, Whistler, Speedy, Measley, Edible Frogs, Paddock, Mateless, White Stag, Trey, Scarface, Lady Blue, Bounder, Ranger, Charmer, Dreamer, Friendly, Bold, Whisper, Plucky, Dash, Shadow, Hurkel, Sinious, Holly/Hollow... and that's just the ''main characters''.

* PeacefulInDeath: [[spoiler:Bold]]

* PyrrhicVictory: Series 2 [[spoiler:had so many casualties that the victory is just that.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: Bold.]]

* WoodlandCreatures: Duh! Just look at the title!