Since the 1990s, the Redwall Online Community has been eager for a major Redwall film adaptation, and we may finally have one on the horizon, courtesy of Netflix.
Over the years, fans have enjoyed sharing their ideal visions for a Redwall movie, and as many are millennials who grew up with animated movies featuring anthropomorphic characters (particularly mice) like The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Rock-a-Doodle, filmmaker Don Bluth was frequently cited as someone people wanted to see involved in such a project.
Of course, animation has dramatically changed since the 1980s and 1990s, so we wouldn't expect a Redwall movie now to be animated in this style. However, we were curious if this was ever a possibility.
The Redwall Wiki recently encountered 86-year-old Don Bluth, and we took the opportunity to ask if he was familiar with Redwall and if he was ever approached about adapting the original book to film.
"Yes, I have [heard of it]," Bluth said. "I wasn't approached, but I read the book, and I said we need to ask if the rights are available."
When further asked about what exactly happened with that inquiry, he replied that the rights were unavailable at that time (exact date or year that this occurred was unclear). This has happened several times before with others, notably screenwriter Andrew Marlowe and Blur Studio.
Bluth was unaware that Netflix currently has the Redwall rights, and thought that was interesting when we mentioned it to him. Of note, Netflix secured the rights to Bluth's 1983 video game The Dragon's Lair back in 2020, and it was reported that Ryan Reynolds, who is currently crushing the box office in Deadpool & Wolverine, was attached to the project. However, there have been no further updates or announcements about it since then.
Whatever animation style and storytelling methods Netflix pursues, the Redwall Wiki remains excited for a Redwall movie!
Want to hear Bluth answer our inquiry? Listen to the quick clip below.
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