Enid Blyton Movies

The works of prolific British children's author Enid Blyton have been adapted to television scores of times, but seldom as vividly as in a brace of multipart Anglo-New Zealand series of the mid-'90s. The first of these began airing over Britain's Disney Channel on July 21, 1996. The Enid Blyton Adventure Series consisted of eight different serials, each comprised of three half-hour episodes. All of these serials followed the standard Blyton formula of pitting a group of intelligent rural kids against a vast array of snarling adult villains in a variety of baffling mysteries which the children invariably solved. Individual titles included "Island of Adventure," "Woods of Adventure," "Sea of Adventure," "Valley of Adventure," "Sea of Adventure," and so on and so forth. The Enid Blyton Adventure Series was followed in 1997 by another group of literary adaptations, The Enid Blyton Secret Series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The children's adventure books of Enid Blyton could be described as the British equivalent to America's Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories. Most of the Blyton works revolve around a group of resourceful kids who spend their time solving mysteries and capturing crooks, often with next to no cooperation from their flustered elders. One of the more popular Blyton properties is The Famous Five, featuring a quintet of youthful crimestoppers (including one dog). These stories have frequently been adapted for British television, notably in the 1978 miniseries The Famous Five. Updated with contemporaneous dialogue and costuming, the series featured Marcus Harris, Gary Russell, Jenny Thanisch, and Michelle Gallegher as preteen mystery-busters Julian, Dick, Anne, and George, with a canine performer billed as "Toddy Woodgate" in the role of Timmy the Dog. Much imitated and parodied at the time of its original Southern Television release, The Famous Five was also remade as another brief British TV series in 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide