Watership Down

Rating:
Summary: a great film for intelligent children and adults
Review: Watership Down is political allegory, but it can be enjoyed on a much "simpler" level as well. A group of rabbits, spearheaded by the visionary, Fiver, decide to leave their endangered warren to search for the ideal home. Along the way they encounter other ways of living (including a really fascinating look at fascism), and learn the dangers and rewards of striking out on one's own.

To say the Watership Down is inappropriate for children is ridiculous. I first saw this movie when I was 8 or 9, and it instantly became one of my favorites. I was intelligent and mature enough to handle complex emotions and ideas (and understand that the movie was allegory, something many of the adults around me never "got"); don't sell your kids short by assuming that they'll be too "afraid" or too "young" to do likewise.

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Summary: A FRIGHTENING EXPERIENCE FOR ME AS A CHILD
Review: OK I SAW THIS MOVIE WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG. I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS SO INTENSE. THE FIRST THING IN THE MOVIE THAT SCARED ME WAS WHEN ONE OF THE RABBITS SAW BLOOD COMING TO THEM ALL OVER THE SKY (OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.) I KEPT ON WATCHING STILL THINKING IT WAS GOING TO BE A NICE MOVIE. NEAR THE END THE MOVIE HAD SOME HORRIBLE SCENES WITH BUNNIES AND DOGS TEARING BUNNIES APART. AFTER A FEW YEARS HAD PASSED I HAD COME TO UNDERSTAND THE MOVIE AND ACCEPT IT'S CONTENTS. OVERALL IT IS PROBABLY A GOOD MOVIE BUT I THINK I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED IT A COUPLE YEARS LATER.

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Summary: You Will Believe a Bunny can Kill
Review: Based upon the bestselling classic by Richard Adams, Watership Down is a heartbreaking, yet insipring, tale that follows a group of rabbits who's home is threatend by human development. As they search for a new haven, they encounter danger at every turn, including potential enslavement by a vicious rabbit dictatorship. Released in 1978, this film works at every level. It is, first and formost, an adult film: brutal violence and graphic death are a staple of Watership Down. And the appearances of the Black Rabbit of Death evokes immense sorrow. The old-school animation is beautiful: the characters are effective in their simplicity and the watercolor English countryside does wonders in establishing a heartfelt mood. The voice talents are superb and bring the rabbits to life. And perhaps best of all, the film is shrouded in an epic myth the rabbits have created to make sense of their world........just like humans. Indeed, Watership Down has been praised as an allegory for human nature. And because of its willingness to deal with emotions that are rarely seen in any animated film, Watership Down remains a contender for the best animated film of all time. The widescreen DVD is clean and clear. Unfortunately, the extras are all text based (there is a trailer, however.)

Rating:
Summary: Watership Down is a very good animated movie!
Review: I remember watching this movie for the first time when it was shown on CBS.They broke it into two nights showings and kept running warning messages about graphic and realistic depictions of violence.That and the fact that its an animated movie about talking rabbits probably limited the audience considerably.But for those who stuck with it a wonderful and very moving story unfolded and rewarded their patience and attention.This is a story that you must pay attention to and listen carefully to what is being said and which rabbit is which.Also has a great soundtrack. Highly recommended for adults and kids 8 and up!

Rating:
Summary: beautifully done
Review: I have never seen animation this lovely. The animators, necessarily I suppose, culled some of the journey from the cartoon but kept all the good stuff -- Efrafa, the snared warren and Kehaar. My only quibble is the cartoon is actually more violent than the book -- who is Violet and why did she have to die in front of my kids? Hmmm. Other than that, the music is beautiful, the rabbit myths are visualized nicely and Hazel and friends achieve civilization before our eyes. Rabbits rule.

Rating:
Summary: Not for little kids!
Review: Watership Down is an animated movie, but not for children under eight. The movie gets violent at times, but not graphic.
Watership Down is about a bunch of rabbits who seek a new home, because their old home was destroyed by humans. Along the way, they have adventures.
Once they have reached thier new home, they realize they don't have does (female rabbits), and no does means no kittens!
A great movie!

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie....
Review: I really like the movie, it portrayed the book pretty good for the most part...emphasizing on the word "most".

I do have to question the sanity of some of the people who directed the movie though. I can understand that they had to cram it into a 92 minute video, but some parts had absolutely nothing to do with the book. But I won't go into detail.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, just...nevermind.

To tell the truth, I'm just getting the DVD because I am a collector of everything that has to do with Watership Down.

Rating:
Summary: One of my alltime favorite movies - DVD quality is lacking
Review: I'm not writing to encourage anyone to see this film if they haven't already -- other folks have already done that.

However, I will say that I was 15 or 16 when this film was released in the theaters in the U.S., and I saw it four times in the one week that it ran. Afterwards, I bought the novel, the picture book from the film, and the soundtrack. I love this movie.

So I was excited to see that it was finally being released on DVD.

It arrived today and I promptly popped it into my DVD player.

While it certainly doesn't harm the film, there obviously were no extra expenses put into transferring this film to DVD. The DVD extras are minimal, and even a little frustrating. For example, there's a brief glossary of rabbit language (lapine), but they don't explain several of the words that are used in the film, while they do explain a few that are not. This is not a problem, as the words in question can be intuitively translated; but it seems to me that whoever compiled the glossary hadn't watched the film, just picked out a few words from the back of the novel.

Much more importantly, the video quality is no better than that on the VHS copy (IMHO), and the audio quality is worse. Don't get me wrong; I didn't expect 5.1 audio, and the audio quality isn't horrible. My only real complaint about is that I had to raise the volume on my digital processor/receiver significantly more than usual, in order to get the soundtrack to a comfortable level.

So my recommendation is: if you already have Watership Down on VHS, you'll probably be perfectly satisfied with that, unless you're a diehard "letterbox" fanatic like myself. If you don't have it in either format, you can't go wrong either way. To further summarize, if the DVD wasn't letterboxed, I'd probably be pretty mad right now.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but a bit scary
Review: I read this book when I was eleven ears old at school and fell in love with it right away. When I found out there was a movie of it, I immediatley took it out of the library. I plopped the video in my VCR and found that the movie was excellent. It followed the plot line of the story pretty well, but some of the story was jostled out of place, but not by much. The scenes near the end show graphic detail of blood and gore and I was pretty scared and trembled, but I am quite a squeemish child. Even still, this movie offers a wholesome message. Little kids shouldn't watch this movie but children ten and up shouldn't be very disturbed during the turbulent scenes near the end of the movie. The music was pretty good and Zero's potrayal of Keelar's voice was great and offered much comfort during the movie. I don't suggest watching the movie before reading the tale but, its just as well either way.

Overall, this movie was great but easily deserves its PG rating. Since there are no swear words or other worse themes, this movie doesn't need a PG-13 rating, though the scenes at the end, as I said, were a bit graphic. All in all, this movie is a must to watch. And even though it may be a bit gory and terrifying for younger kids, they could still watch it, with careful aault supervision. Of course, that is my opinion. This movie is a must watch, and read! Watership Down rules!

Rating:
Summary: For fans only
Review: For fans of _Watership Down_, the opportunity to see this film on DVD will be too good to pass up. If you are one of those who must buy this DVD, by all means don't let me stop you. But may I offer a few caveats for the rest of us?

The main problem with this film (as with the book) is that it doesn't know whether it's a beast fable or an attempt at realistic depictions of nature. With such a profound identity crisis on the story level, it's no surprise that the animation veers unevenly between caricature and photorealism. Parents take note: This film is too grisly for children _and_ too cutesy for adults.

The divided focus basically splits the film in two. The first half is basically a road movie, and on those terms is quite entertaining. But in the second half, when the story turns to simplistic political allegory, everything simply falls apart. Director Martin Rosen doesn't quite have a handle on the material; apparently, Rosen replaced animation great John Hubley early in the production, and is responsible for everything but the prologue. A few years later Rosen would fare better with the little-seen but far superior _Plague Dogs_ (sadly, not yet on DVD or even a decent VHS edition).

Despite the film's many shortcomings, animation buffs like me will find _Watership Down_ worth a rental, if only for John Hubley's remarkable prologue. In an avant-garde departure from traditional animation, Hubley uses Haida-influenced artwork to tell a myth on the origin of rabbits. Although this particular set piece has no relevance to the rest of the film, it's a classic bit of animation in its own right. (It also leaves you to wonder what might have happened if Hubley had supervised the entire film, instead of just the prologue.)