The painted ones

[Vulpin]

I am a reader who loves to picture the animals in the books and stories i read.

What animal is the 'Painted ones'. I know from Mattimeo that they have ears and can tree hop much like squirelles, but i have no idea what the 'Painted ones' look like.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

They're tree rats. Nelvana, whatever their thinking, choose to use an animal that looks like a lemur in Mattimeo.

They're dabbed, similar to the Flitchaye I believe, with dyes and natural colors, and tattoos. Makes them look barbaric, which fits their primitive and vile nature.
What's interesting, is the apparent population and spread of the gangs by Doomwyte. They were remarked to no longer live in certain tree groves and patches, but inhabited various areas of Mossflower all over the place.

Also, moved to Character Discussion.

[Vulpin]

[sorry i didnt know where to post it ^^"]

Makes sense being lemur like. Thanks. I suppose now it would be best to re-imagine the whole scene over again.

Thanks

[Log-a-Log]

They might be the most primitive animals in the books

[Nightfire]

I used to get a little confused as to their identity, because in one book, they were described as 'tribes of little tree rats', while in another book, they were described as 'runty little weasels.' Anyone got any clue as to why they are called two different types of creatures?

[Skalrag of Marshank]

The runty little weasels sound more like the Flitchaye. Are you sure you aren't mixing them up?

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Yes, those are the Flitchaye.

[Lutra]

My thinking with Nelvana is the fact I don't think a tree rat would've been much bigger than the crew.  Cheek could've been bigger.  By using a lemur, you have the sense the animals are large enough to cause such terror in creatures like foxes.

[Skalrag of Marshank]

Good point. The lemurs are a bit more creepy than treerats.

[DanielofRedwall]

I loved the painted ones, and I was so disappointed with how they turned out in the television series.


They look like lemurs!

I prefered them in the earlier books, when they weren't as.... I don't know... civilized, I guess. I mean, they didn't seem to talk English. In Doomwyte they didn't seem as threatening as they seemed weak.

[Lutra]

^ What makes them "more civilized" in that screenshot?  The sash?  I don't remember them speaking in the film, so still no language among them.  I think my thought stands that Nelvana needed something bigger than a tree rat to pull off this scene.

[Skalrag of Marshank]

They creeped out my five-year-old sister.

[Folgrimeo]

Considering how all animals in the show look roughly the same height, I don't see why they couldn't exaggerate tree rats too. Not like anyone would notice more inaccuracies. Another possibility is that the show's full enough of rats already and they needed something else to visually distinguish the Painted Ones from regular vermin. But given the stark color scheme shown in that screenshot, why couldn't they use rats with white body paint? My guess is they needed something weird to try to instill some level of creepiness. But they look rather harmless as lemur-things.


The rat on the right is Jeg, a Painted One from "Doomwyte". He doesn't look fearsome though, and I don't remember the characters being afraid of getting snatched up by them, so I guess by then Brian just dropped the air of mystery and made them normal vermin.

[Skalrag of Marshank]

Reminds me more of a Flitchaye than a Painted One...

[DanielofRedwall]

^ What makes them "more civilized" in that screenshot?  The sash?  I don't remember them speaking in the film, so still no language among them.  I think my thought stands that Nelvana needed something bigger than a tree rat to pull off this scene.

I mustn't of explained myself very clearly in that post, when I said civilized I wasn't referring to that picture, I was referring to books like Doomwyte when they spoke English and acted like normal rats, except that they lived in trees. They seemed to drop the mystery of them. In the earlier books, they communicated with screeches and yells and had a more eerie and scary feel about them. I was saying I preferred them in the earlier books, as I thought making them talk English and act like normal rats made them just as threatening as any other rat, while in the earlier books (like Mattimeo) the way they acted made the scene more suspenseful and gave them a more threatening feel to them.

Hope that made more sense!