Friends of the Forest...What the?

[Ware Yaw Opuku Pilgrim]

While watching YTV, (11:00am MST) I saw an old cartoon that I liked to
watch when I was a kid on my local education station (ACCESS Network, for
those Calgarians out there). Problem is, they screwed around with the
whole thing!
When I used to watch it, it was called "The Tales (Adventures?) of the
Green Forest". It centered around a woodchuck, named Johnny, who wore a
red vest. He had a girlfriend, named Polly, a bunny-buddy named Peter
Rabbit (so original)...and the list of characters goes on and on. It was
based on a series of books, (I forget the author's name) and had a heavy
amount of repeated/stock footage, but the stories were alright. It was
produced in the late 70's.
Then today, I turned on the TV, and to my amazement, I saw this show
again! However, it had been reincarnated as "Friends of the Forest"
(1992) and contained, to my utter disbelief, some other changes in
today's (Oct. 6) episode:
1) Johnny Woodchuck has now become Rocky Fieldrat (what?).
2) The Green Forest has been redubbed "The Green Wood".
3) The narrator, who used to be a female called "the spirit of the
forest" who would speak when necessary (not often) has had a sex change
and talks way too much. He also has no name.
4) The Weasel has now become "Razortooth" the weasel.
5) The old male opossum (I forget his name) has now become Old Harry the
Mouse.
6) The sound of the river lacks the "Blim Blam Blum..." background music
whenever it gushes.
7) Every single voice, with the exception of Sammy the BlueBird, has been
altered.
8) The storylines have been altered (for the worse).
If anybody has other additions to this list, go right ahead. I don't want
to sound like a nag, but I hate it when any cartoon is altered from its
original form (except for dubbing into other languages, which is
unavoidable in this connected world of today).
MCWP-The Master of Cartooning, Ware Pilgrim.

[David Sampson]

I also remember watching "Fables of the Green Forest" many years ago on
TVOntario. I believe that the show was originally dubbed into English
from another language - but I agree that the original English dub was
better. I think "Old Harry the mouse" used to be named Uncle Billy. Also
if you remember the original dub, you might also remember that many of the
voices changed half way through the series. Peter Rabbit Originally had a
rather Dumb sounding voice and suddenly it switched to a highly intellectual
sounding voice(I guess he grew up fast).
The question is-why a second English dub for a series as old as this one?
I also remember a simular thing being done to "Miya the Bee" and "Simon in
the land of Chalk Drawings"-both originally had voices with English
accents but were later dubbed in more North American sounding voices.

I can't believe I'd ever admit to once watching these things. Hell I must
have had too much time on my hands.

David Sampson