The animated series adapts Brian Jacques's Redwall novels, beginning with the 1986 first book and taking one per season. It keeps what the books are known for: an abbey of peaceable mice defended by a novice who turns out to be the hero, an outsider army of rats and stoats, and the food. Jacques wrote the books for pupils at a school for blind children he read to, which is why the meals are described at such length, and the series keeps them.