There's a teaser appeared for The Wind in the Willows, the new version of the story which is set to come from the director Ray Griggs and the New Zealand Weta team. It is short, features little actual footage, but does showcase some of the effects we're going to see.

The sad thing is the final shot for me. While the appearance of Toad looks cool, the last moment doesn't look that good and doesn't feel that great for the character.

Sure, it's a very early teaser trailer for The Wind in the Willows, more like an effects teaser than anything else, and there's nothing from here that we'll remember or perhaps recognise come the actual trailer itself, but there's just something about the way that Toad runs off that doesn't look right.

I'm a bit disappointed with the teaser to be honest. He doesn't fit with the background, the walking seems odd, not what I'd expect from Weta or from the rest of the teaser. It would have been better if we'd just been left with the shot of Toad's face.

What did catch my eye was the intro reminding us of Lord of the Rings, and as we pull out from Toad's eye we see a golden circle and a huge eye.

Anyway, the teaser trailer can be seen on the official film site [Flash] through L.A. Times. Hero Complex who reveal that the grasshopper is a nod to the Weta name, for that is the name of a large grasshopper native to New Zealand. Nice reference.

The effects are going to be a mixture of live-action and CG, and you can be assured that they will work a lot better than they do in the teaser.

One thing is that this version of the story looks like it'll be a bit more real world and darker than the ones we've seen to date with the friends of Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad engaging in their many adventures.