In 2002 I was staying in a hotel in Melbourne, and having nothing else to do, took to watching TV at odd times of the day - when this gem popped on. For an instant I thought "Good God, they've made a TV series of The Secret of NIMH!" - the character designs, setting and feel reminded me so strongly of that movie.

As it turns out Eckhart was a (mostly) Canadian series (it sounded American, but in every other way it screamed... no, it pronounced itself Canadian), which may have only run to one or possibly two seasons, though it still has an official website.

There is really nothing unusual about the concept of this show at all. Young talking animals have various adventures in a rural setting, and at the end of these adventures there's sometimes a bit of philosophising about what-this-taught-us.

Sounds like a recipe for urk! doesn't it? Nothing could be further from the truth. Read on.

First of all the characters in this show just look great. If you liked 'Secret of NIMH', just get a hold of Eckhart and watch it with the sound turned off and it'll still be cool! I love the character design. It's not like I haven't seen the same thing done over and over, but half the time I find the characters in such shows repulsive. I think it's because generally they're neotinized - made to look like children by shortening their snouts/skulls, etc. In Eckhart the juvenile mice actually have snouts, which gives them a bit of an edge. Less Thumper and more Tom Sawyer. They have spirit. Am I making sense? Anyway this matters to me. I don't know if anyone else would care. And they actually have enjoyable personalities. You really care about what happens to them. There are no precocious brats. I dare you not to like Eckhart the character. He never grates, never gets boring. I don't know how a character who's so enthusiastic and nice manages not get to get irritating, but he doesn't. The other characters are all good, too.

The characters alone and drawing style wouldn't be enough to give it a rating like this, though. Eckhart's stories unfold in a rural setting which is somehow idyllic and exciting at the same time. Though Eckhart may get up to some sometimes hair-raising adventures, there's still a kind of warm, luxurious feeling to it. To be honest, a Secret of NIMH fan will feel like they're having some sort of pleasant, langourous NIMH -ish daydream.

Now, those philosophical endings. You know what I'm talking about. The sort of thing that 'South Park' lampoons. "Well what have we learned from this?" In 9 out of 10 cases a show that includes this material comes off as preachy and in extreme cases, plain nauseating. 'Eckhart' gets away with it. I'm amazed! There's no overt moralising, nothing heavy-handed - it just fits perfectly with the story. Usually it'll just be a few words exchanged between Eckhart and his grandad (or whoever that character is), and that's it. Beautiful.

Unfortunately I only caught about four episodes of the show, and then about another two back in Tasmania, so I'm holding off four stars just in case some of the other episodes were real clangers, but that seems highly unlikely. I'm going to order that VCD boxed set from India, which seems to be the only way of getting it. Check your TV guides though, it may still be playing where you live.

This series is probably destined to sink into total obscurity, if it hasn't already, and it's only a few years old. I just wanted to at least record my appreciation of it here.