Batblog

Fire The Critter Cannon!

I love talking animal stories. Whether it was books, movies, or cartoons, I was basically raised on tales of exceptionally intelligent furry critters, and that love has carried over well into my adult life. I just want to take some blog time to highlight some of the works I've enjoyed over the years:

-Redwall: Duh. I don't think I need to say much more about this, considering the existence of The Krimson Traitor. Curiously, I actually didn't start out reading the books; my first experience with Redwall was with the animated series. That animated series is kind of terrible looking back on it now, but my younger self wasn't so discriminating and absolutely fell in love with it. When I saw the books in my school library later on I decided to check them out, and the rest is history.

-The Secret of NIMH: Out of all the other major Don Bluth films (All Dogs Go To Heaven, An American Tail, The Land Before Time), this was the one that had the biggest impact on my childhood. I remember spending a lot of time daydreaming about magically being turned into a tiny mouse, and imagining how I'd use natural materials and human refuse to make awesome things, and most of that almost certainly came from this movie. Funnily enough, I haven't actually read the book this was based on, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, but I have read the sequel, Racso and the Rats of NIMH.

-Guardians of Ga'Hoole: This is one of the more prominent series that carried me through Middle School. I actually haven't read anything past the eleventh book (I entered High School at the time, and the library there didn't carry many books for that young of an audience), but I thoroughly enjoyed most of what I read. I didn't like how crows were depicted as a bunch of idiot thugs, though. That's partly why I've got that crow detective story in the works. Oh, and I've seen that movie with the incredibly awkward title directed by Zach Snyder. It's actually a pretty solid film.

-Warriors: Kitties! This is another of the series that carried me through Middle School, although I haven't read much beyond the first story arc. I still enjoyed what I read all the same, and wouldn't mind trying to finish the series one day.

-Silverwing: You know, bats are my favourite animals. They're just so awesome and adorable, and they're fuzzy, and they have cute wiggly ears, and they squeak, and some of them eat fruit but others catch bugs, and they come out at night, and they're just so... Umm, sorry. I got a bit carried away. Anyhow, Silverwing. It's a pretty awesome series. Similar to Redwall, this was actually a case where my first contact with the books came through a terrible animated series. I still haven't had the chance to read the prequel book, Darkwing, but I want to.

-The Deptford Mice: I've only gotten the chance to read past the first two books of this series, but I quite enjoyed what I got. I was slightly surprised by how dark the story got at times, but I actually kind of liked it for that, even as a kid. Looking back on it, my experiences with this series might be part of why I took to the low fantasy genre so well as an adult.

-Watership Down: I first read this book (and the sequel, Tales From Watership Down) in High School, and I enjoyed it immensely. I've also seen the fantastic animated films for both this and Richard Adams' other novel, The Plague Dogs (I haven't read The Plague Dogs, but I own a copy of it).

-Animals of Farthing Wood: I have not read the books at all for this series, but I have seen the first two seasons of the animated series. My experience with this series is kind of unusual in that I didn't grow up with it at all (I wasn't even in High School when I first watched it), but it still held up as an enjoyable cartoon when I finally saw it.

-Mouse Guard: This is one of my favourite comic book series for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the utterly gorgeous visuals. There's not a whole lot that could make me happier than if they someday made a video game out of this series, preferably some sort of Skyrim-style open-world RPG, with cel-shaded graphics, and some sort of Shadow of the Colossus/Dragon's Dogma-esque boss climbing mechanic. That would just be so awesome.

-Lackadaisy: My favourite web comic. Beautiful art, smart writing, likable characters; it's just an all-around great series. Maybe even better than Mouse Guard, but comparing a Prohibition-era crime drama about cats to a Medieval fantasy tale about mice is pretty "apples and oranges."

... And all the rest. The Fox & the Hound, Balto, The Lion King, Courage the Cowardly Dog, My Little Pony, The Aristocats, The Great Mouse Detective; I could go on practically forever. These stories are just a huge part of my life, and probably always will be.

Oh, and before I leave off, I should mention that I have heard of the Welkin Weasels series. I haven't gotten the chance to read it, but I want to some day, because it looks pretty good. I would also like to give a shout-out to White Fang, which is disqualified from the list due to being about a perfectly normal, non-talking wolf-dog, but which is still one of my favourite books ever.