Down in Dapplewood forest, things are mighty frolicsome and cuddle-happy as Cornelius, a wise old badger stuck with Michael Crawford's voice, educates three ickle "furlings" in the ways of nature. When a nasty old chemical truck overturns and pollutes the whole place with poison gas, snuffing Michelle the Badger's parents and putting her in a coma, Cornelius sends his three best pupils Abigail the wood mouse, Edgar the myopic mole and Russell the fat hedgehog on a perilous journey to pluck some herbs which can bring the badger back to life.
On the way, the heroic junior vermin encounter a one-eyed, malevolent bird and narrowly escape being turned into owl pellets before bumping into a bunch of African-American grebes who do a New Orleans funeral number that stands out like a turd in a fruit bowl. Some ominous construction equipment suggests a motorway is about to plough through this rustic paradise, but the plot skitters on to happier problems.
Finally, with the help of a rickety flying-machine, mission is accomplished and everyone ends up okay, except for Michelle's parents (who are still dead). With songs flatter than one of Russell's siblings under a two-ton lorry, eco-smarm even more excessive than Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, a dose of the cutes calculated to make even youngsters throw up, and anthropomorphic heroes who have no character traits bar those cribbed from other cartoons, this is, fundamentally, an ordeal.