Interview with Redwall TV Series Director Raymond Jafelice

Contributed by LordTBT at 5:01 p.m. GMT, 21 January 2026

Happy New Year, Redwallers!

It's 2026, and this year is the 40th anniversary of the publication of Redwall by Brian Jacques in the UK! Here at the Redwall Wiki, we're going to be celebrating all year long!

That celebration begins with a brief interview with Raymond Jafelice, the first director of the Nelvana Redwall TV Series. He directed all of Season 1, and worked with Luc Bihan on Season 2.

He's also known for contributions to Little Bear, Babar, Ewoks, Care Bears, and Strawberry Shortcake.

We're grateful to Ray for his time and for these responses to our questions. This one is quick, but don't worry, we’ve got much more to come this year!

How did you first become involved with Nelvana's adaptation of Redwall? Had you heard of the books before?

I believe I had just finished the Babar: King of the Elephants movie when I was put onto Redwall. I had no previous knowledge of the books but was always a fan of that kind of historical fiction.

I vaguely remember meeting with Brian, he was quite a character. Swore a lot and I understand he hated flying because he couldn't stand to be away from his cigarettes for that long.

It was one of my favourite assignments, dealing with drama rather than just the cutesie stuff.

What was the general timeframe for the completion of a Redwall season? How long did it take to complete a single episode, from beginning to end? Was every episode completed back-to-back?

Now you're getting into the technical/production end of things which I tried to ignore as much as possible to concentrate on the creative end of things. I just tried my best to get things done when I was told they needed to be done. It wasn't always easy, there could be snags at any part of the process...

Scripts, storyboards, voice recording and layouts were usually done in Toronto for most of our productions, I assume Redwall was the same. Animation, colouring and camera was done at Loonland studios in Budapest. Post production taken over again in Toronto.

The shows were the full 22 minutes. These days we get 4 weeks to do an 11 minute storyboard, I doubt we got double that for a full show but I don't remember.

I assume we did the shows back to back for the sake of continuity since it was a serial telling a complete story from show to show.

As you mentioned you were focused on the creative end of things, what would that have generally entailed, as the show's director?

As director I was involved in all creative aspects of the series. Initial meetings with the author, working with character designers, colourists and background artists to come up with the general look of the shows. Input at the script level, casting and working with the actors doing the voices. Approving storyboarding; I usually did the first storyboard myself to set the tone and general approach of the series. Approval of layouts and animation. Input with composers on the music and with editing.

Working with the voice actors was usually my favourite part of the process. Especially if the show went on for a couple of seasons, they became like family.

How were the voice actors selected for various roles? When the voices for the characters were recorded, were the voice actors all in one studio together?

We always cast several actors for each part and hope to find one that works with the character. In some cases we might have someone in mind that we've used before but we get them to read anyhow to make sure. The most memorable casting session for me on Redwall was when we were casting for the role of Cornflower. We tried several actresses and most of them gave us the usual thing but one actress, Alison Pill, gave a performance that brought a tear to my eye. It was different from all the rest and was just bang on for me. I said "look no further she's it". She was great during the season.

When characters are interacting in the show I always like to have all of them in the session at the same time. That way it seems more natural and spontaneous as they interact with each other in reality. We often get some improvisation that enhances the performance and sounds even more natural.

How long would recording sessions last?

Sessions usually go on for a full day. When we get characters like John Stocker and Chris Wiggins in the same session things might drag on a bit when they start acting nuts. We have to rein them in once we stop laughing to get on with the show. After one of their sessions my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.

Jafelice provided a tour of the Nelvana studios to his grandkids, which appears in the features for the Season 3 episode, Captured. Watch below to see it!