Watership Down

Rating:
Summary: Consummate children's film
Review: Anyone who claims that Watership Down-- the competent and thoughtful but uncertain adaptation of Richard Adam's geeky classic-- is not for small children has clearly forgotten his own childhood. In fact, childhood is probably the best time to see this movie-- its flaws will not be so apparent and its poetry and brutality will be at their most effective. It's exactly the sort of movie you love when you're seven, hope for years you'll get to see again, and rediscover in your late twenties with a mix of disappointment and elation. The film, eccentrically animated and rather well voiced, suffers from a lack of exposition and the nagging sense that something important has been left out of nearly every scene-- and I can't be alone in finding Zero Mostel's Kehaar obnoxious and overdone (kids will probably find him funny, and do imitations of him while jumping off the living-room couch)-- but the story is exciting and full of shadow, the violence is neither whitewashed nor excessive, and where Disney, for example, would have yielded to the temptation to tack on a happy ending, Watership Down takes its heroes seriously enough to allow them the consequences of mortality. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but it deserves to be seen, and your children probably deserve to see it.

Rating:
Summary: The Grand Adventure(condensed).
Review: The best thing about this movie is that the main plotting from the novel is still there. The worst thing is that the details in the novel, the mythology, the strange word-usage, the epic scope, are all under-defined or just plain confusing to any who have not read the novel. The best advice I can give here is to read the book first. Get all the minute details and definitions down, then watch this movie as a rehash of what took place. This was one of my favorite movies as a child, but looking at it as an adult it looks too intense and violent for children. There are bloody sequences that still give me chills. There is too much information that is not explained. However, I loved the novel, and this film reminds me, albeit only slightly, why I did.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent rabbit story
Review: Sometimes rabbits go horribly wrong, and this documentary shows this problem in a very nice manner. I think all children should be educated on the dangers of owning a rabbit, as well as the joy that comes with it.

Rating:
Summary: The search for a new home and a new beginning
Review: Richard Adams' classic on a band of rabbits leaving their secure warren after a prophecy of doom foretold by one of their number was quite a task to bring to the screen. After Fiver sees a vision of their warren in danger and tells everyone to flee, his older brother Hazel and (in the movie version). But I saw the movie on TV and read the book so many times and enjoyed it everytime.

The rabbits encounter many perils away from the warren, and the scene in the woods in the dark is a perfect example of the perils they face. They may be escaping to hopes of a better place, but they have to be on their guard, where their ears perk at any sound.

A big crisis occurs later on and they enlist the aid of Kehaar, a wounded but wacky seagull ("I come from the peeg vater") they nurse back to health, to help them make their new society a more solid founding. That leads them to Efrafa, a militaristic warren under the ferocious claws of the gigantic General Woundwort. He is drawn pretty scary and the little tykes might find him a wee bit frightening.

Some of the rabbits have distinct personalities. There's Hazel the strategist and nominal leader of the group, Fiver the visionary, Bigwig, a tough rabbit and fighter who's their muscle, Pipkin, the small and chubby fearful one, Dandelion the storyteller (who unfortunately doesn't get a chance to tell a story here), Blackberry the clever one, whose ideas save them more than once, and Silver, who's a larger rabbit whose presence seems to give them security. One character that was never in the book is Violet, a doe, who unfortunately meets a tragic end, and her death has great consequences later on.

It's virtually impossible to replicate Richard Adams' masterpiece on an animated level, but producer Martin Rosen and his team try. The rabbit societies and their different outlook is made apparent. There's the authoritarianism of the wanderer's home, the deceiving, untraditional Cowslip's warren, and the cruel militaristic totalitarianism of General Woundwort's warren, Efrafa. Hazel's group is more democratic and the best way to live, as is the vision Fiver has of where they should be: "A high lonely place with dry soil where we can see and hear all around, and men hardly ever come."

The animation is splendid, the rabbits made believable, such as the heroes. The types of eyes play a difference here. The heroes eyes seem normal, while the narrow eyes of Cowslip's rabbits give them a sense that they're a bit weird, and the dark circles around those in Woundwort's sociey give the officers a cruel look, and the others an oppressed look.

A more lyrical set of sequences is given when we get an insight into how Fiver gets his visions. But the image where a warren is destroyed by men is pretty disturbing. From the latter, this movie is not for the younger kids, as there are some frightening and violent scenes. Maybe junior high onward.

And some of the Lapine language terms are used here without explanation, so I'll include them here:

flayrah - very good food, e.g. the carrots at Cowslip's warren

Hlessi - a solitary rabbit not part of a warren

Hraka- rabbit word for excrement, also used as a swear word

hrududu- a motor vehicle

inle - death. Frith and inle is kind of like "Oh my god." in rabbit language

Lendri- a badger

Owsla- the officer class in a warren, in charge of defense and security.

-rah - a suffix meaning prince or a token of respect. e.g. Hazel-rah

silflay - feeding time

Tharn - going tharn means rabbits are going stupefied from fear

The voice actors do well in bringing personalities into the rabbits, especially John Hurt (Hazel), Richard "Good Neighbours" Briers (Fiver), Roy Kinnear (Pipkin), Michael Gruber-Fox (Bigwig), and Harry Andrews (Woundwort), but it's Zero Mostel's over-the-top Yiddish schitck as Kehaar that surpasses them all.
Rabbits. Prolific, hunted by humans, an invasive species, to use the ecological term, but they are animals. The glory and triumph of the rabbit can be summed up in Frith's (the sun and God to the rabbits) message to El-ahrairah, the prince of rabbits: "All the world will be your enemy, prince witha thousand enemies, and when they catch you they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed."

One of my favourite movies of all-time.

Rating:
Summary: could have been much better
Review: The movie itself is one of my all time favorite animated movies. Yes it is very violent, showing relistic animated blood and violence. but if you have read the book you would know that its just holding true to the story. Not good for young children, this is ment for a slightly older youth-adult range. the reason I give it 3 stars insted of 5 is due to the poor quality of the DVD. there are absloulty no extras, the digital remastering could have been MUCH better, and they have warped the color of several rabbits (as compared to the video orginal). the only reasion it got those 3 stars is for the movie itself.

Rating:
Summary: depressing
Review: this is not a film for young children. it is violent and depressing. while the animation suggest that it is good for all ages, be forewarned that they belie the content; with violence and a plot line that is better for slightly older children.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I first watched "Watership Down" when I was about seven or eight years old. I have not seen it since then, but the message must not have been lost on me, because I can still remember the odd, unfamiliar coldness of the man-made rabbit burrow and the sadness I felt when Hazel died or when Violet was killed. Though I may have not analyzed the movie at that age, the emotions that it evoked are ones that are suitable for any age group. The violence did not affect me at the time, and I doubt I would have a problem showing it to my kids.

What it comes down to is that the film of "Watership Down" is a wonderful tale of freedom, survival, and friendship, just as the book is. I would recommend it to anyone.

"How can the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale? Bright eyes..." -'Bright Eyes', by Art Garfunkel (sung in Watership Down)

Rating:
Summary: Very Good, but it has flaws
Review: This making of the classic tale "Watership Down" is quite excellent. It stays faithful to the book, and follows it well. It's wonderful to see the situations come to visual life, and I cried anew ... at the end.

As for children, the movie can be shown for any age group, but some children may not the some of the undertones, such as the fascist rabbit warren. You may also be explaining several things, such as death and war, to your children. Incidentally, though, this IS an excellent film to introduce your children to the concept of death.

As for the flaws, the main ones are that it doesn't in-depth some issues. Obviously, it is animated, and the book is over 500 pages, so it can't be too detailed, but there are some things that should have been covered better. Cowslip's warren, for example, which has made a very sick pact with man, is barely touched on, but it is one of the most disturbing and best parts of the book. Also, the animation is rather odd. The film tends to be in dark lighting in general, and some of the scenes appear to have been drawn by amateurs.

Bottom line: It's quite good, but it isn't as good as the novel. I was slightly disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: If kids like it, it must be a good kid's film
Review: When eyes are closed, the monsters stay real. Death and violence are not harsh concepts, they are an unavoidable part of living. While seemingly violent and dark to some adults, this film shows that the world is so much larger and complex than most would think about. Many would find rabbits hopping about to be beneath notice, but get into the story behind it, and it becomes a window to the desperate edge that life in the wild can be. This is one of the best films to build compassionate children; helping them to realize that every being has fears and joy in their heart, and a strong desire to live happily. If you feed your mind sappy garbage, you will be sorely at a loss in the world. This movie, and the book, are still able to make me see others in a better light.

Rating:
Summary: Violent, Grim, & Shallow = Bad Movie
Review: This is obviously not a children's movie, so I'm judging it by adult standards. It is quite violent, relentlessly grim, and not terribly creative. The story is basically that of the struggle for freedom, but the characters and the plot are so shallow that the movie would be boring if it wasn't so depressing and bloody. I did, however, like the background mythology and the way the rabbit behavior was animated.

I'm unsure why this movie has received such rave reviews. I can only assume that it is from people who have read the book and are projecting its quality onto the screen adaptation. The book may be a classic, but this movie certainly is not.