A pleasing, sweet primer in caring for our flora and fauna.

| Jun 6, 2018

For all the feeling the drawing instills in the figures, it might be termed inanimation.

| Dec 7, 2017

It's a good thing this breezy animated adventure lasts only slightly more than 70 minutes. Children will no doubt enjoy its simple tale, but would probably grow restless if it went on for a minute longer.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 17, 2014

Respect for nature and the environment is a message that no one would quarrel with, but this is yet another example of a movie that can't or won't differentiate between technology and the use to which it is put.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 17, 2014

The characters are not memorable; the songs are lame and the drawing style is pedestrian.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 17, 2014

From the first moments of Once Upon a Forest, there is evidence of high artistic standards. The backgrounds are beautifully detailed, right down to the shading and contours of a tree trunk.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 17, 2014

Sadly, in common with so many non-Disney cartoons, the standard of the songs is poor and the animation lacks magic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 17, 2014

While the movie's lip-synchronization leaves much to be desired, the creatures great and small are nicely conceived, the settings a vivid eyeful and the ecology lesson sound.

| Jun 17, 2014

It contains a dire message: Man is destroying nature and progress is evil. It is hard to know what small children, the film's intended audience, are supposed to do with this idea. Nag their parents about recycling? Work it out in nightmares?

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 17, 2014

Sounds good in practice but with a plot where very little happens and songs that really shouldn't have been included, sticking the kids in front of David Attenborough sounds much more appealing.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 17, 2014

Even at its preachiest, the circus-bright colors and bouncy songs keep the sermonizing and the saccharine content under control.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 17, 2014

The film rarely gets past familiar gimmicks of the cartoon-adventure genre, and the animation isn't very inspired.

| Jun 17, 2014

While an agreeable enough effort in most respects, pic is a bit dark and somber to be terrifically appealing to kids, and could have used bigger doses of humor and music.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009

Makes one long for animals whacking each other with sticks of dynamite.

| Jan 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 13, 2005

In this likable fable about growing up, learning teamwork and developing courage, three small creatures who dwell in Dapplewood, an idyllic forest, go on a far-flung quest for healing herbs to save the life of a dying friend.

Full Review | Aug 30, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 27, 2002

Even children can't help but be bored by the movie's shadowless, textureless, weightless style of animation.

| Jan 1, 2000

Once Upon a Forest has a good heart -- I liked the way it treated its themes -- but the movie is kind of dumb.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

The latest subpar G-rated animated feature to prey upon of parents in search of suitable entertainment for their kids.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000