'Watership Down' is quite simply my favourite animated film of all time.
The vocal talent, animation style (both in the main story and in the mythical opening), soundtrack and script all work wonderfully, shortening the material of the book but not losing all of its themes. Efrafa was exactly as I imagined it would be from reading the book, Woundwort being suitably scary and unhinged.
Obviously the violence and horrific imagery has been toned down to make the film more accesible to a young audience (at 8 I wore out TWO copies of the film on VHS!!!) but not so much that the film becomes cutesy. Far from it. These are not fluffy bunnies in the vein of Thumper, they are real. They get hurt (Bigwig nearly is killed in a snare, Hazel is shot, Captain Holly arrives nearly dead), they fight, they flee from domestic dogs, cat, from humans with guns. There is blood and violence, the film does not shy away from that...Blackavar's torn ears are as wince-inducing to me now as they were to me when I first saw the film 10 years ago.
What does surprise me now though is that the film is rated U (universal, suitable for all) here in the UK. Not only is there some mild swearing, the level of violence and the visual horror (Fivel seeing the field covered in blood, Holly's description of the warren blocked with dead bodies) is surely at least PG? Hmmm....
To conclude it can be said that watching films from your childhood is often a bad move....they are usually best left in the memory. The same can not be said of Watership Down. Simply brilliant!
The vocal talent, animation style (both in the main story and in the mythical opening), soundtrack and script all work wonderfully, shortening the material of the book but not losing all of its themes. Efrafa was exactly as I imagined it would be from reading the book, Woundwort being suitably scary and unhinged.
Obviously the violence and horrific imagery has been toned down to make the film more accesible to a young audience (at 8 I wore out TWO copies of the film on VHS!!!) but not so much that the film becomes cutesy. Far from it. These are not fluffy bunnies in the vein of Thumper, they are real. They get hurt (Bigwig nearly is killed in a snare, Hazel is shot, Captain Holly arrives nearly dead), they fight, they flee from domestic dogs, cat, from humans with guns. There is blood and violence, the film does not shy away from that...Blackavar's torn ears are as wince-inducing to me now as they were to me when I first saw the film 10 years ago.
What does surprise me now though is that the film is rated U (universal, suitable for all) here in the UK. Not only is there some mild swearing, the level of violence and the visual horror (Fivel seeing the field covered in blood, Holly's description of the warren blocked with dead bodies) is surely at least PG? Hmmm....
To conclude it can be said that watching films from your childhood is often a bad move....they are usually best left in the memory. The same can not be said of Watership Down. Simply brilliant!