Western Animation / Redwall

I AM THAT IS! My sword shall wield for me!

Redwall is a three-season animated adaptation of Brian Jacques' long-running Civilized Animal medieval saga of the same name, produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana. The series aired from 1999 to 2002 and comprises three seasons, each adapting a different book: Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 13) adapts Redwall , Season 2 (Episodes 14 - 26) adapts Mattimeo, and Season 3 (Episodes 27 - 39) adapts Martin The Warrior.

The series originally aired on Teletoon in Canada and American Public Television in the United States, and is available in its entirety on Treehouse TV's YouTube channel.

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Redwall provides examples of:

• Achey Scars: In Episode 14, Slagar snarls in pain and clutches the disfigured side of his face under his mask when he hears Matthias' name or is even reminded of him.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Asmodeus the adder appears in Matthias' flashback to how he ended up at Redwall.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Each season of the cartoon runs at 13 episodes, so some scenes from the three books don't make it. Interestingly enough, some events tend to take place earlier than the book's plot.
• Adaptation Expansion: The first season shows how Matthias ended up at Redwall. When he was just three years old, his home village was wiped out by Cluny the Scourge, leaving him and his sister Myrtle as the only survivors. Myrtle carried Matthias to Redwall only to die falling down a hill, leading to him being taken in and raised as a monk.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • In the book Martin the Warrior, Martin brings his sword with him when he departs for Mossflower Woods, but in the cartoon he leaves it behind, making it harder to explain how his sword got to Redwall Abbey as Martin in both continuities never told any of his companions where he was headed. Additionally, if the rumored season based on Mossflower came to fruition, major concessions would have to be made in the plot as Martin having the sword was a fairly significant plot point.
  • The story behind Slagar’s disfigured face is that he was attacked by Asmodeus and lived. In the original Redwall novel, all the animals are indicated to be more or less realistically sized (though that would change with the sequels), so a fox getting bitten on the face by an adder and surviving it would seem plausible, but in the animated series, most of the animals are around the same size while Asmodeus is depicted as a gigantic monster, which is emphasized during his run-in with the fox. As a result, Slagar’s backstory becomes the equivalent of a human somehow surviving a bite to the face from a T. rex.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • The series establishes right from the first episode that Matthias is connected to Cluny the Scourge, when — while passing by Martin the Warrior's tapestry — he has an omen-like flashback to when Cluny razed his home village ten years before the events of the series.
  • Luke the Warrior died fighting Badrang in the show. Presumably, there were no plans to adapt The Legend of Luke at any point.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • In addition to walking on two legs, all the rats are depicted with fangs to denote their villainous status.
  • In Season 2, all of the stoats, weasels, and ferrets — and even occasionally Slagar the fox — are shown with rodent-like protruding incisors.
• Befriending the Enemy: Warbeak the sparrow starts out as an antagonist, repeatedly attacking Matthias after she's injured with an arrow and captured. However, he offers to help her return home if she helps him climb to the abbey roof to search for Martin's sword, whereupon he's captured by Warbeak's mother Dunwing. Dunwing initially intends to kill Matthias, but noting he returned her chick to her she instead takes him prisoner, with Warbeak convincing her to help Matthias escape.
• Big Bad:
  • Season 1's main villain is Cluny the Scourge, a rat pirate-turned-warlord who seeks to conquer the abbey and rule Mossflower with an iron fist.
  • Season 2 has two unrelated villains:
    • Slagar the Cruel is a Foul Fox slave trader who abducts the abbey's youngsters to sell to the Kingdom of Malkariss, leading to Matthias, Tess, and Basil setting out to rescue them.
    • General Ironbeak is a raven warlord who leads his corvid army to conquer Redwall from the roof down.
  • Season 3's villain is Badrang the Tyrant, a stoat pirate turned warlord with designs of conquest, ruling from the half-built castle Fort Marshank.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Wild Ivy and Mighty Clodd — performers at a travelling circus — were created by Nelvana for Episode 5.
  • Farlo the dormouse spice-merchant was created by Nelvana for Episode 9.
• The Chosen One: It's implied that Matthias was chosen by Martin's spirit — who communicates with him through ghostly whispers and dreams — to succeed him as the abbey's guardian. Brother Methuselah, the abbey chronicler, even recognizes Matthias' name and comments that they've been expecting him:
  Methuselah: Matthias? Did you say "Matthias"? [turns some pages in the abbey chronicle] Well, well, well... I think we've been expecting you...
• Civilized Animal: Unlike the book it's based on, the animated series is more in-line with later entries in the series — such as the cart that Cluny and his horde ride to Redwall in being proportionated to them instead of human-sized as in the books. However, some aspects of the original Mouse World concept remain, such as Matthias' inconsistent size while exploring the abandoned barn, and his tiny size relative to Squire Gingivere the cat.
• Compressed Adaptation: The animated series compresses some details, such as Matthias' imprisonment by the Sparra tribe.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Redtooth is killed by Constance in the book, but in the series he is killed by Cornflower when she causes him to fall off the abbey wall.
• Elective Mute: Mordalfus' comment in episode 1's flashback implies that in between learning of his sister's death and meeting Cornflower, Matthias hadn't said a word to anyone in years.
• Everyone Has Standards: Sela the Vixen may be a conniving double-crossing con artist and thief, but her son bashing the elderly Methuselah over the head with a heavy metal torchère leaves her aghast. Chickenhound simply sneers at her before telling her to hurry up.
• Fangs Are Evil: Rather than having the pronounced incisors of the heroic mouse characters, Cluny and the other rats also have fangs to emphasize they're evil.
• Fantasy Counterpart Religion: The mice of Redwall practise a religion clearly based on monastic Catholicism, living in an abbey and being mainly comprised of abbots, monks, and friars. The prayer given at Abbot Mortimer's jubilee feast doesn't mention God, but ends with everyone saying "Amen".
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Father Abbot Mortimer disapproves of Matthias' ambition to become a warrior like Martin, saying that Martin lived in a different time very long ago, and that when he came to the abbey he set aside his sword to live the remainder of his life in peace. He even says he sees Matthias — an orphan — as his own son.
• The Farmer and the Viper:
  • Cluny, Redtooth, and Darkclaw play a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, gaining entry to Redwall by claiming to be weary travellers seeking refuge. Despite having been warned of the rat warlord and Redtooth brandishing a sword at Constance when she tells them to leave, Abbot Mortimer lets them in citing an oath of hospitality. Upon gaining entry, Cluny promptly drops the act and demands they surrender the abbey to him, only being chased off by Constance the badger and Matthias.
  • Sela and Chickenhound reward the hospitality of Redwall gave them by attempting to loot the abbey and fatally wounding Methuselah when the elderly mouse tries to stop him, though Sela is aghast at her son doing so.
• Filler: Episodes 5, 9, 10, and 11 are wholly or partially original storylines developed by Nelvana to pad the series runtime and make the series more episodic.
• Foreshadowing: In episode 2, Methuselah says that some accounts say Martin's sword was stolen by the sparrows, and others say they lost it again. As it turns out, this is exactly what happened.
• Furry Confusion:
  • Cluny is introduced atop a cart pulled by a non-sapient horse.
  • Some of the Mouse World aspects carried over from the first book include predators like owls, cats (which in later books are depicted as being of a similar size to badgers), snakes, and hawks being enormous compared to the smaller mice, squirrels, voles, and shrews; all the more egregious since other predators — like rats, badgers, and foxes — are of a relatively similar size to the mice.
  • The first cat in the series — shown in Matthias' flashback — is wholly non-anthropomorphic, but Squire Gingivere — while still massive and primarily walking on all fours — wears a vest.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In theory, this should not have made the deaths seem worse, but it did. Sela's for instance sounded less like she was being speared and more like she was being hacked apart.
• The Great Serpent: Asmodeus Poisonteeth is a massive adder treated with the terror and dread of a dragon, incapacitating anybeast he comes across with his hypnotic gaze before going in for the kill with his venomous fangs.
• Hearing Voices: Matthias can seemingly hear the voice of Martin the Warrior's spirit throughout Season 1, in the form of a ghostly whisper.
• I Have Your Wife:
  • Cluny blackmails Farlo the dormouse into working for him by threatening to kill his wife. When Farlo captures Cornflower — Matthias' love-interest, Cluny reneges on his deal with Farlo and ties Cornflower to a waterwheel, taunting Matthias with a riddle to lure him into an ambush.
  • Ironbeak takes Cornflower, Mrs. Churchmouse, and Rolo hostage, threatening to toss them off the abbey roof unless the Abbot surrenders. In response, Constance takes Ironbeak's three magpies hostage, forcing a Prisoner Exchange.
• I Just Want to Be Special: From the moment he's inducted into the abbey as a novice monk, Matthias feels out-of-place and is drawn to the tapestry of Martin the Warrior, the heroic knight who founded the abbey.
• Man Bites Man: Constance the badger kills Fangburn the rat by crushing his skull in her jaws.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The flashback to Matthias joining the abbey portrays Cornflower in this light, as meeting her is what draws him out of his self-imposed silence following his sister's death.
• Meaningful Name: Redtooth the rat actually has red-tinted teeth, while General Ironbeak has an iron-plated beak.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The rats in Cluny's horde have appropriately vicious-sounding names, like Redtooth, Darkclaw, Scumnose, and Frogblood.
• Plagued by Nightmares: From the moment he arrives at Redwall, Cluny's sleep is plagued by nightmares of Martin the Warrior killing him. Or as it turns out, prophetic visions of Matthias killing him.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The framing device of Martin the Warrior involved characters from Mariel of Redwall which hadn’t been adapted, so the series changed this to feature Matthias and the characters from the previous seasons instead.
• Prisoner Exchange: In Season 2, Ironbeak takes Cornflower, Mrs. Churchmouse, and Rolo hostage in an attempt to force the Abbeydwellers to surrender. When they retaliate by taking his magpies hostage, Ironbeak agrees to a prisoner exchange and promises not to engage in any tricks. Once the exchange is complete, he reveals he lied and had his soldiers seize the infirmary and dormitories while it was taking place.
• The Prophecy: It's implied that the tapestry of Martin the Warrior depicts a prophecy involving Matthias, who is himself visible on it, along with Cluny the Scourge, Chickenhound, and Asmodeus Poisonteeth.
  Matthias: Cornflower, it's him. Look: Cluny. Why is he there on this old tapestry? It was made long, long ago. What does it mean?
• Related in the Adaptation: In the books, Cornflower was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fieldmouse. In the series, she is the eldest daughter of John Churchmouse. As this would make Mattimeo and Tess nephew and aunt, Season 2 quietly retcons this so that they're not related.
• Revenge: In Season 2, Slagar tells Mattimeo that the reason he became a slave trader and targeted Redwall was to avenge the scarring of his face and the death of his "sainted mother", who he says was a harmless fortune teller who'd done nothing wrong. Having heard the true version of events from his father, Mattimeo calls Slagar out on the holes in his self-serving version of events, causing the fox to retort that, regardless of whether or not his version is true, the fact remains that he has Mattimeo at his mercy and is going to make him suffer.
• Roguish Romani: With foxes being the Fantasy Counterpart Culture, in Season 1, the fortune teller, con-artist, and thief Sela is press-ganged into helping Cluny, though she attempts to con him and pays for it. Her son Chickenhound is seemingly killed by Asmodeus but survives to become Slagar the Cruel, a slave trader and one of the main villains of Season 2.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: Most predators — such as cats, owls, and snakes — are just as sapient as the mice, rats, and foxes they eat.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • In Season 2, when Chickenhound/Slagar tells his version of events surrounding Sela's death, he says he was held prisoner in the abbey infirmary. In the book, he was given medical treatment for near-fatal injuries inflicted by Cluny, but this never happened in Season 1.
  • In Season 1, Matthias is said to be 13 years old and to have arrived at Redwall when he was only 3, when he was a young child. In Season 2, it's said that eight Seasons (two years) have passed between the war against Cluny and Slagar abducting the children, but Mattimeo looks to be around the same age his father was when Cluny attacked.
• Shipper on Deck: Abbot Mortimer tasks Matthias with escorting Cornflower and her family back to their home in Saint Ninian's Church, the two of them sitting next to each other as Constance pulls the wagon.
• The Siege:
  • Season 1 has the monks of Redwall and the peaceful Woodlanders of the surrounding Mossflower Forest sheltering in the fortified abbey while Cluny the Scourge and his horde of vermin lay siege to it. And Cluny's tactics are even more effective than in the book, as by Episode 6 he's cut Redwall off so thoroughly that the defenders are running out of food.
  • Season 2 has Ironbeak the raven and his corvid army attempt to conquer Redwall from the roof down, while the monks put their experience fending off Cluny's invasion to good use by engaging in guerrilla tactics.
• The Starscream: Cheesethief develops ambitions of usurping control of Cluny's horde, but Cluny is informed of this by Kilconey and uses the Redwallers' plan to snipe him with a ballista to eliminate the would-be threat to his leadership.
• Wainscot Society: The Sparra Tribe, a flock of highly aggressive sparrows, live in the abbey loft and viciously attack any "worms" who dare intrude into their territory... at least until Warbeak becomes queen and arranges a truce through her friendship with Matthias.
• The Warlord: Three of the series' villains — Cluny the Scourge, General Ironbeak, and Badrang the Tyrant — command armies that they lead to ravage and terrorize the lands they travel across while holding ambitions of conquest. Slagar also desires to graduate from slaver to warlord by overthrowing Malkariss and usurping his kingdom.
• You Dirty Rat!: Rats are a common antagonistic species, with Cluny and most of his bandit horde being comprised of them. In Season 2, Mattimeo attacks Vitch purely on the basis that he's a rat and ergo must be evil. While Matthias scolds him for his prejudice, it turns out that Mattimeo was right about Vitch, who was a spy for Slagar's slavers.
• Your Size May Vary:
  • In episode 1, Cluny and his horde alternate between being human-sized relative to the cart and horse, and closer to dog-sized.
  • In episode 7, Matthias is human-sized relative to the abandoned barn when he enters it, but once inside he's shown as being much smaller relative to its interior, and real-world mouse-sized relative to Squire Gingivere the cat, who is large enough to swallow him whole.

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