Disney’s ‘Wolves’ Tells a Tale of Overcoming Greed and Treachery and Terro

Wolves have long been embedded in children’s lore as cunning animals to mistrust, if not fear. Consider the classic story of “Little Red Riding Hood.”

In carrying on with this tradition, The Disney Channel Discovery: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase presents a fictional England of 1832, a time when ravenous wolves have overrun the country and surrounded Willoughby Chase, where Bonnie lives safely with her loving parents and loyal servants.

When Lord and Lady Willoughby must travel abroad, Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia are left in the care of Miss Slighcarp, a sinister new governess (Stephanie Beacham). Driven by greed and envy, Slighcarp pillages Lady Willoughby’s wardrobe and appoints herself lady of the manor, conspiring with the corruptible Grimshaw to make Willoughby Chase her own.

Slighcarp’s reign of terror includes imprisoning the girls in the Blastburn orphanage, an industrial dungeon of child labor. With ingenuity and some cunning of their own--and a bit of help from Simon, a boy who lives in the woods--Bonnie and Slyvia are able to thwart Slighcarp.

“The Disney Channel Discovery: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase,” Saturday 4-5:30 p.m., Disney Channel. For ages 11 and up. (The show incorporates some rather grim depictions that may be too intense for younger children.)

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