Watership Down is rather flawed in its adaptation of a wonderful book. That being said, it is still a remarkable film that deserves a place on any fan's DVD shelf. But despite being a film about talking rabbits, young children will probably find this too frightening.

The animation is typical 1970s sketchy style, but the watercolour backgrounds are very stunning and convincing, especially because watercolour is much more difficult (but cheaper) to use than oil paints.
The character designs of the rabbits are very realistic - they are endearing, but not overly cute or fluffy. However, anyone not familiar with the book will probably have a hard time distinguishing each rabbit from another.

Watership Down also boosts some surrreal and often disturbing imagery. I'm sure the twisted destruction of Sandleford Warren has probably haunted many people's nightmares since the film was released (although personally I found the description in the book more disturning).
There is also a rather out-of-place, trippy sequence where Fiver follows the Black Rabbit of Inlè. It is accompanied by the song 'Bright Eyes.' It is beautiful and does help the plot move along, even if it really wasn't necessary.

As I have mentioned before, Watership Down is not a perfect film. It does have some rather deep flaws.
The story is too slow at some points, and at others it feels rushed. Sometimes it leaves the viewer feeling puzzled at what's going, especially if they haven't read the book.
Also, the film is sometimes too bleak for its own good. The book was dark, but it had moments of hope and humour, most often in an El-Araihrah story told by Dandelion. Aside from at the start, this is nowhere to be found. Of course, if we did include all those stories, the film would be too long, but I still feel they could have added a few.

Watership Down is a well done, if not perfect companion piece to the novel. Its grittiness and beauty is satisfying for anyone who wants something that isn't 'sit down and relax entertainment,' since it is thought-provoking and powerful. This probably one of my favourite British films that isn't Monty Python.

Watership Down, has huge potential to be a masterpiece but never quite made it.

To start off with the positive, Watership Down, is a well-animated movie. The backgrounds are gorgeous and the rabbits are very realistic looking. Their movements resemble a real rabbit’s closely.

The voice actors are talented, and really make their characters come alive. I was especially impressed with Bigwig. Yes, Bigwig is my favorite character in the book, but the movie captured him so well. Bigwig is a standout. Michael Cox, Bigwig’s voice-actor, is great at portraying Bigwig's emotions, especially during the snare scene. Jonathan Hurt, as Hazel was also very good. Hurt, who was Snitter in the Plague Dogs, is certainly a veteran voice-actor. I noticed no resemblance between Snitter’s voice and Hazel’s.

The thing I liked most about this film was its dark realistic tone. The world of a rabbits is a harsh one, and the film gets that across perfectly. You’re not going to find Thumper here.

There are a few major problems that keep Watership Down from being a three star movie. Watership Down has tremendous pacing problems. The movie at whole had a rushed feeling, and needed about a half hour more to give the proper amount of detail and explanation shown in the book. Many important scenes went by quickly, like the scene where Holly returns. Other scenes, such as, Fiver's encounter with the Black Rabbit, made no sense and lasts a very long time. That scene also left me with the feeling that the animators and the director might have had their fair share of a certain type of mushroom.

Watership Down is not as good as the book. That would have been acceptable, except for the fact that Martin Rosen, the director of Watership Down also directed a second animated film, The Plague Dogs. The Plague Dogs was just as good, if not better then book it was based off. Rosen obviously had the potential to make a great movie with Watership Down, but with all the editing problems, it is at best average, and at worst a muddled mess.

As a last note, Martin Rosen's only two animated films were Watership Down and The Plague Dogs. The jump in quality from Watership Down to The Plague Dogs is astounding. Watership Down, being a somewhat decent film, and The Plague Dogs, being a masterpiece. It just makes me wonder what Rosen’s next movie would have been. Shame, he went into children’s television.

The film opens with a stylized creation myth sequence explaining the the Prince of rabbits multiplied to fast. Since he couldn't control his followers, he was given enemies (the fox, dog, cat, eagle, and in this film other rabbits). But he was also blessed with great speed. He was told of his enemies, "when they catch you, they will kill you... but first they must catch you."

The style of the film then becomes more realistic and introduces Fiver and Hazel. Fiver is a bit of a rabbit prophet and sees a vision of blood in the fields (man is coming to develop the land). He gets a group of bunnies to follow him away from their warren in search of a new home. The rest of the film follows their adventures and perils. The culture of the rabbits, complete with a rabbit-speak vernacular, is surprisingly rich, and peppered throughout the tale.

So what is "Watership Down" anyways? Turns out a down is a hill in British English. So the film is about a hill, or more accurately the happenings there.

Like The Plague Dogs, this is a pretty downbeat film. Not all of the cottontails escape their predators. So, there is a real sense of danger. Even some of the survivors are maimed or embloodied, so kids, beware. Though the characters all have sort of a flat look,there is a great deal of attention given to the rabbits little movements bringing them to life. One complaint, not to sound like a rabbit racist, rabbits can probably all tell each other apart, but to me they all look more or less the same. Bigwig has a distinct tuft of hair, but some of the others are tough to tell apart.

The film also features the Art Garfunkel hit, Bright Eyes. This song is bizarrely out of place in this film. It accompanies some psychedelic (surely drug inspired) animation But don't worry, it maintains the somber mood of the movie.

21 years after the film, there was an animated Watership Down TV series. This series was targeted to a younger audience and was thus poorly received.

Watership down is a classic animated film that has stood the test of time. Its hard to believe that its nearly 30 years old. Its so weird that a film about rabbits can be so intense and graphic. Though the film does slow down a bit at times, overall it is an interesting ride where anyone could be the next to meet the rabbit maker. There aren't a lot of films out there like this, so these bunnies get an A-.

I caught this on YouTube. I thought it was quite good. It's not "The Incredibles" in terms of animation but it certainly wasn't as bad as people here are saying. Saying the dogs are "as ugly as sin" is a bit harsh. I thought they were drawn okay.
Be warned... this ain't a Disney movie. There's quite a bit of graphic violence. More graphic and bloody toward the end but there's quite a bit throughout too.
All in all, I enjoyed it immensely and am looking forward to watching "The Plague Dogs" which has also been posted (in it's uncut form!) to YouTube.

THANK YOU YOUTUBE!

I read the book a while back and soon after found out that there was a movie about it. Naturally I was curious to see how well or poorly the book had been adapted to film. I wasn't expecting much from the begining since most non-Disney animated films that came out in the 70's had poor animation and bad storylines, at least in my opinion. This movie was better than I expected though.

I think the major problem with this film is the animation. I tried to like it, but just couldn't. The cat, and even the dog, look terrible. Their movements aren't smooth at all. However the rabbits, for the most part, are pleasing to the eye, but there again the animation is not that great. Sometimes it seemed the mouth would be out of sync with the voice, or the characters wouldn't have any expressions on their faces. The animation reminded me a lot of a Saturday morning cartoon.

The music is ok. Nothing astounding though. The one song that is in there seemed a tad out of place to me. It took away some of the emotion from the scene that it was placed.

The storyline did follow the book somewhat. The major plot points were there, but sometimes I think the film moved a tad too fast. Some scenes that should have taken up more screen time didn't and the movie would jump to the next scene, giving the film a choppy feeling to it at times.

Overall it's an ok movie. If you haven't seen it maybe rent it sometime.

It's a shame. This is a film I would have liked to be able to like. It's based on a book which marked a turning point in the continuum of British animal literature, and virtually opened a new genre of animal quest novels. It was a rarity , too - a British animated feature. And it was a stab at realism which perhaps hadn't been seen in talking animal films since 'Bambi', or maybe 'Animal Farm'.

However the film's faults are just too numerous to ignore. It's quite poorly animated, poorly drawn (it has possibly the mostly badly drawn cat I've ever seen), the backgrounds are ordinary, and the pace is dull.

There are moments when I think a scene is going to turn into something really special, but always it just falls short. About the only thing that really was ok was the voice cast and the music. I don't think you'll have trouble with the accents, which are actually pretty mild, except for a couple of human characers - but perhaps Australians just get exposed to more British TV. The only one I had trouble with was the bird, who sounded like 'Boris' from Balto when I could understand him.

Like I said, a shame. Could have been so much better. Anyone who liked it in the least bit should try and find the British TV series 'The Animals of Farthing Wood' which is very similar in many respects but a lot more watchable. Sadly only available on hard to find PAL VHS tapes as far as I know (except for a severely abbreviated version with an American voice cast)

These rabbits aren't related to Thumper. They aren't the cute and cuddly type. They show that their world is full of dangers, fighting, and death. The animation isn't as fluid as Disney's classic, however it takes advantage of the gritty atmosphere of the movie, with a mix of of realistic but sometimes beautiful scenery and terrifying surrealistic imagery. The movie also infuses the realism of these rabbits' world with elements of mysticism and religion. The rabbits have their own cities, cultures, and languages. They also have their own views about life and death. These elements are a nice touch and all in all make this a wonderful movie. Fans of the book won't be disappointed.

The huge, thick novel, Watership Down, is far too detailed and lengthy to fit comfortably into an hour-and-a-half cartoon movie. But darned if they haven't done a pretty good job of it!

Fans of the cult classic shouldn't be disappointed--though it's condensed, every truly important scene and character is here. The rabbits are drawn realistically, but with just enough distinction to tell them apart readily. They are true to their characters in the book, though Dandelion the storyteller doesn't get any chances to tell his tales of El-ahrairah. (However, the film is introduced with the story of how Frith made the world and made each animal different, animated in a style based on primitive art.) Fiver is vulnerable and lovable, Hazel is clearly a brave and clever leader, and Bigwig is frankly a bit of a show-stealer. Kehaar is played for comdy relief, and he is very well done. Some of the less-important rabbits like Silver and Hawkbit are completely marginalized. (In fact, I'm not even sure whether Acorn and Hawkbit are in the film...)

Notably missing charatcers from the novel are Bluebell (Holly escaped alone) Silverweed and Strawberry (the only rabbit who speaks in the warren of snares is Cowslip, the others just huddle silently in the shadows) Nethilta, and the mice of the downs. Clover and the other hutch rabbits fail to escape. Small scenes and background information are also cut or condensed...Hazel's rescue from the cat is cut down to a few scolding words from the girl off-camera...if you didn't know what happened, it might be very confusing when he turns up back at the warren.

There are very few changes and additions. A rabbit named Violet is added for the purpose of being a red shirt. (Think Star Trek.) Woundwort and his Owsla are rather demonized in appearance, voice and behavior. Campion is purely one of the villains. One rabbit who survived in the novel dies in the final battle, I won't say who. And there seems to be an implied fusing of the Black Rabbit and El-ahrairah, as if they are merely two sides of the same character, rather than the trickster and the incarnation of death.

The rabbits and Kehaar are well and realistically animated. It's clear the animators made an effort to study rabbits and gulls. It's a pity that they didn't make the same effort with all the animals...the dogs are ugly as sin, and the cat appears to be animated by someone who never saw a cat before. The badger seen briefly in the woods is not quite animated, but rather a fully-drawn picture being moved, and its detailed fur clashes badly with the cartoon-outline rabbits. It's a jarring moment, visually.

There's a lot of beautiful scenery, some of it drawn from the real-life locations of the story. (There's a website called The Real Watership Down which has photos, in some cases with comparisons of actual locations to the movie scenes.)

The pace of the story is a bit slow and rambling. It may not be suitable for children--if the gentle pace and intellectually and emotionally complex story doesn't bore them away from the screen, the violence and gore is likely to freak them out. The violent scenes aren't soft-pedalled at all. The scene of the gassed warren and construction site is done somewhat abstractly, but is still eerie and horrific, and the bloody battle between Woundwort and Bigwig is enough to cure anyone of the false impression that rabbits are cuddly, marshmallow-stuffed fluffballs. We actually see Blackavar's ears being shredded. There are also quite a few disturbing scenes in the battle with the Efrafans.

Still, for more mature audiences, Watership Down is gripping and thoughtful interpretation of a well-loved book. A film well worth seeing.

This is a dark story and it deserves its PG rating and perhaps more than that--definately not for children. It is also a movie that is not for everyone. Some will be fascinated by the depth and detail of this "rabbit civilization"... and/or they'll just be really confused--the thick British accents many of the characters have make some of the dialogue a bit unclear. Despite that, the individual rabbits have great personalities and, when you can understand the strange, cryptic bird, he's pretty funny.

The realism of the film is one of its best features. The movements of the rabbits are very realistic although the violence is equally realistic. "Graphic" is probably the most delicate way of putting it. Some of the rabbits in the movie meet very grisly deaths at the hand of hawks, dogs and even other rabbits. On the other hand, the story is about the extremely dangerous lives that rabbits lead and the adventures that follow. If it were animated with warm and fuzzy bunnies, one would probably turn away disgusted five minutes into the film.

Overall it's a very unconventional film but if that's what you're looking for, try it.