The Animals Farthing Wood

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Quite frankly if you haven't heard of this show... you're either too young or have been living under one massive rock.... or have exceedingly poor taste in early 90's cartoons.
Just kidding.

Based upon the books by Colin Dann and produced by Telemagination and La Fabrique spanning three seasons with a total of 39 episodes. The Animals Farthing Wood is the story of a group of displaced animals who make the harrowing journey from their jeopardised home to a wildlife preserve called "White Deer Park" (named so for the albino deer herd residing there). Before leaving they make an Oath swear to protect one another from the dangers of the outside world... not to mention each other - because some of the animals travelling in the group are the natural predators of the others.
In a nutshell: British Animal Road Trip.
Now it is a children's show with the typical cutesy stuff, but when I said harrowing, I don't just mean a few scares and scarpering animals. Oh no. There is bloodshed and a fair few violent deaths (no spoilers). This is what makes Farthing Wood different from many other [loosely] anthropomorphic children's programs at the time it was aired or perhaps thereafter, instead of trying to rose colour animal life the book and show respectively show how cruel life can be for wildlife, including the barbarity of humans. One of the books didn't make it to the show because it was just too scary and violent.
Y'know, for kids!

To summarise:
The story and subplots are superb with a few that fall flat because they concern some characters you may or may not care about, the animation is beautiful and the backgrounds are a work of art (think waterpainting); most of the characters are interesting with developments in their personalities throughout the series. I consider character development a little slow in Season One whereas in Season Two is is far more progressive; Season 3 however... just watch it if you want a solid ending. The voices aren't bad but can be a little irritating at times, the soundtrack is orchestral and has a memorable opening theme with a few occasional interesting pieces but nothing overly spectacular and they repeat or rehash a few tracks more than they should have. Overall it is a good show in my opinion and comes highly recommended. I actually have managed to acquire a copy of the complete series on DVD, you can stream the series from the usual sites and solid copies are available in the UK and Germany.

Oh my goodness! I love that show! That was one of my favorite things to watch as a kid. I just wish I could find a copy now. I don't know how I even got to see at as a kid, since it was kind of obscure in the states. As an adult it took me forever to find it again.

Have you ever read Watership Down? That was another really good one. The author wrote several other similar books as well.

Richard Adams was the author and there was another movie based off of his books called "The Plague Dogs", both are incredible though I've only seen the movie adaptations - not for the faint of heart.

Yes, I have read most of Plague Dogs and all of Watership Down. I haven't seen the movies yet though. He also wrote some sci-if novels.

And as an avid horror movie fan, I do not think I am faint of heart.

Felidae is another really good animal movie for adults. But that one is more grizzly than most. A couple scenes in it are quite gruesome. And I'm sure you've seen Secret of Nimh.

There is a vague memory, but haven't seen it in years it is somewhat mixed with memories of "An American Tail" and I have never seen Felidae. I like to think the secret of success in these movies and shows was because instead of jumping from one shock moment to the next, each moment was played out in a smooth flow and most importantly there was a desire to entertain rather than to just cash an easy paycheck. You can tell the difference between a money grub and something from the heart.