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Watership Down
Poster for Watership Down
Directed by	Martin Rosen
Written by	Original novel: Richard Adams Screenplay: Martin Rosen
Produced by	Martin Rosen
Starring	John Hurt (voice) Richard Briers (voice) Michael Graham Cox (voice) Simon Cadell (voice) Harry Andrews (voice)
Edited by	Terry Rawlings
Music by	Mike Batt (song "Bright Eyes") (sung by) Art Garfunkel Angela Morley Malcolm Williamson (incidental music)
Distributed by	AVCO Embassy Pictures
Release dates	October 19, 1978 (UK) November 1, 1978 (US)
Running time	93 min
Country	UK
Language	English

Watership Down is an animated film directed by Martin Rosen and based on the book Watership Down by Richard Adams. It was released in October 1978 and was largely financed by Jake Eberts' company, Goldcrest Films. After a slow start upon release, it became the sixth most popular film of 1979 at the British box office.

The film featured the voices of John Hurt, Richard Briers, Harry Andrews, Simon Cadell, Nigel Hawthorne and Roy Kinnear, among others, and was the last film appearance of Zero Mostel as the voice of Kehaar, the gull.

Art Garfunkel's British No.1 hit, "Bright Eyes", was also featured, although in a different arrangement from the version released as a record. The musical score was by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson.

Synopsis

The movie is fairly faithful to the book of the same title. It begins with an animated prologue (by John Canemaker), which establishes the Lapine culture and folklore history used by both the book and film for their context. It describes the rabbit version of Creation, in which the sun god "Lord Frith" creates the world, and in a mixed blessing, deems the mischievous rabbit prince El-ahrairah and his descendants to be forever hunted but forever agile survivors.

The story is set in the English countryside. A peaceful rabbit warren is disrupted by the concerns of the mystic runt Fiver, who foresees the end of the warren and persuades others to leave with him. Despite the disparaging view and wishes of the Chief Rabbit, several rabbits set off only to be largely prevented by the warren's Owsla, or police. The eight remaining—including Fiver's older brother Hazel and the burly ex-Owsla officer Bigwig—are then confronted by Captain Holly, but he is forcefully prevented from deterring them and returns to the warren unsuccessful.

After various adventures, the band (less Violet, who is snatched by a hawk) reaches a warren which appears to be inhabited by friendly rabbits. Fiver is suspicious and senses something wrong; the rest are grateful and ridicule him as being paranoid. Disillusioned, he leaves; Bigwig goes to seek him, and is caught in a snare. The price for the warren's existence is the taboo subject that in exchange for the local farmers put ting food out, they will occasionally trap rabbits. Shocked, the band move on rather than stay.

They discover Nuthanger farm, which contains a hutch of domesticated female rabbits as well as other animals, including a cat and dog, and unexpectedly are found by Captain Holly of their old warren. He is in extremis, injured, exhausted and in shock. He tells of the destruction of the warren and the horror he miraculously survived. He then mentions a warren he found called Efrafa but he collapses before he can say any more. Shortly after, Fiver finds the home he had always felt was waiting for them—Watership Down. The rabbits eagerly ascend the steep climb to miraculously discover an empty space suitable to live in.

The rabbits settle in, developing their own warren. Hazel is informally recognized as their Chief Rabbit: Hazel-rah. They befriend an ascerbic injured seagull, Kehaar, who observes they have no females, and offers to survey the local area for them when healed. He is absent a long time; the rabbits fearing he has abandoned them return to Nuthanger farm to free the does. Although some escape, Hazel is shot and injured, but manages to conceal himself before collapsing; back at the warren, Fiver is not convinced that Hazel is dead. In an abstract scene covered by the iconic song "Bright Eyes," the Black Rabbit of Inle, the Lapine personification of death, is portrayed as leading Fiver to find Hazel, who finally returns to the warren and slowly heals.

Kehaar returns having identified Efrafa as the main warren which may have females. Holly, who knows of Efrafa, begs them not to go there, describing it as highly militarized and almost fascist in its paranoid protection of the state and in its crushing, rigid control of its citizens. Hazel, however, feels they have no choice but to seek does from Efrafa for their own long term survival as a warren.

A number of the warren visit Efrafa, and Bigwig stays to infiltrate the colony. He meets the Chief Rabbit, the powerful General Woundwort, who is impressed at his size and strength, and makes him an officer of the warren, responsible for compliance and behavior of the rabbits there. Meanwhile Hazel, Blackberry, and Kehaar are exploring possible escape routes for future use. Bigwig finds that beneath the surface, there is much discontent, and easily recruits several would-be escapees to his cause. Having arranged a meeting point with Kehaar, at sunset, Bigwig tackles the guard, whilst the rest of the escapees flee, the Efrafans close behind. Kehaar attacks the Efrafans at a key moment, after which the Watership rabbits use a boat to cross a stream, evading pursuit and leaving the Efrafan guards confounded.

Some days later, however, it transpires that Efrafa's trackers have found their trail, and the General himself is coming with a hand-picked group to avenge himself and recapture the escapees. Despite fear, the rabbits decide to fight rather than capitulate. Hazel attempts to reason and offers an alliance of warrens rather than conflict, but is dismissed and told to tell the warren to surrender or be killed. The Watership rabbits dig themselves in and are beseiged; Fiver then slips into a trance in which he envisions "a dog loose in the woods." His moans scare the Efrafans, but also inspires Hazel to free the dog from the farm and lead him to the warren to attack the Efrafans. Dedicated to killing Bigwig, the General is unconcerned and allows Hazel and three others to bolt; en route to the farm, Hazel offers his life for his warren's in a silent prayer. They free the dog and taunt him to follow them uphill, but Hazel is caught by the farm cat—only to be saved by the farmer's daughter.

The Efrafans finally breaks into the warren, Woundwort diving in first, and is ambushed by Bigwig. They fight to near exhaustion. Woundwort tries to persuade Bigwig to surrender, asking why he chooses to fight an unwinnable battle; Bigwig shocks the General by replying, "My Chief told me to defend this run." Woundwort stammers "Your ... Chief?"—having assumed that was Bigwig, and now imagining a rabbit yet bigger and stronger. Suddenly, the dog arrives, and rapidly kills most of the General's soldiers. The General emerges and leaps to attack the dog.… No trace of him is found, and his memory becomes a ghost story used by rabbit parents to frighten their children into obedience.

The epilogue shows the warren some years later. Hazel is old and tired, but his warren is thriving. As stories of the warren's early exploits—distorted and mythologized—are retold in the background, he is visited by a shadowy shape he cannot make out. The rabbit reveals himself to be the Black Rabbit of Inlé (or "Death") and, it is implied, El-ahrairah, inviting Hazel to join his Owsla. In a reprise of other mystical scenes in the film, Hazel discards his body and follows the Black Rabbit towards the sun—which metamorphoses into Frith—and into the lapine afterlife.

Comparison to the novel

Similarities

Unlike many animated features, the film faithfully emulated the dark and violent sophistication of the book. As a result, many reviewers took to warning parents that children might find the content highly disturbing. This attitude extended to when the animated TV series was marketed with the producers making an effort to reassure parents that the violence was softened and that the main characters would not be permanently harmed in their adventures.

Despite the aforementioned violence, the film currently retains a British "U" certificate for all home video releases. The film is also possibly the only U-rated film to include the phrase "piss off" (spoken by Kehaar to Hazel, as in the book). In the United States, the film is rated "PG" by the MPAA.

Some marketers in the US were also worried that the main promotional poster (see above) appeared too dark and may scare some children. The poster is actually showing Bigwig in a snare (his distinctive hair is clearly visible), and the image on the poster did not appear in the film, which has a far bloodier depiction of Bigwig in the snare.

Differences

Although the film was fairly faithful to the novel, several changes were made to the storyline:

• The Watership Down warren is significantly smaller in the movie at the time of their expedition to Efrafa. By that point in the book it had grown to seventeen rabbits: the original eleven plus Strawberry (who joined them from Cowslip's warren), two other Sandleford survivors (Holly and Bluebell), and three hutch rabbits liberated from the farm (Clover, Boxwood, and Haystack). In the movie they are still only a band of eight—the original seven plus Holly.

• In the novel, Hazel and his companions dig Watership Down Warren themselves, under the direction of Strawberry. In the film, Blackberry finds an empty warren already dug that they move into.

• In the film, Blackavar is killed; in the novel this does not happen.

• In the novel, when Holly finds the group he says he was attacked by Cowslip. However, in the film, it was the Efrafans who attacked Holly.

• In the movie, all the hutch rabbits are re-captured by their human owners and never make it to the Down; in the novel three of four rabbits escape successfully.

• In the book, it is El-ahriarah who visits the dying Hazel to offer him a place in his owsla.

These changes were most likely made to make the film easier to understand. Several characters were also taken away from the film (probably so there would be fewer characters to keep track of). Eleven rabbits go on their trek to Watership Down. In the film, eight leave (but seven survive).

Also, the order in which some events occur is re-arranged, and the length of time spent in different places is changed. For example: in the movie, Pipkin and Hazel make their first visit to Nuthanger farm during the journey to Watership Down. In the book, they make their first visit much later, after the journey is over and they've been settled on Watership Down for a while. Additionally, in the movie the rabbits find Holly before finding the down, whereas in the novel they find him later.

And some characterizations are changed. For instance, the character of Silver takes on some of the attributes and actions of the absent Hawkbit, and Dandelion's primary roles in the book as the group's best scout and storyteller are almost entirely absent; his storytelling ability is alluded to a couple of times, but he never actually tells a story or does any scouting in the movie.

Critical acclaim

The movie was nominated for Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1979.

In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Watership Down the 47th greatest British film of all time.

In 2006 Channel 4 UK's "The 100 Greatest Cartoons" named "Watership Down" the 85th greatest Cartoon.

DVD releases

• Watership Down Deluxe Edition (Region 2, UK) (2005)
• Watership Down 25th Anniversary Edition (Region 4, Australia) (2003)
• Watership Down (Region 1, USA) (2002)

Major cast

Miscellanea

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• In a scene that was cut from the theatrical version of Donnie Darko but included on the DVD, Donnie's class watches the Watership Down movie.
• Gerry Beckley of the 1970s supergroup America penned a theme song for the Watership Down animated film. The song was not used for the film, but the group included it on their 1976 album Hideaway.
  • According to Beckley, singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson, who loved the book, helped Beckley with the song, offering critiques and suggestions.
  • The song was also featured in an episode of The Goodies in which they dressed as rabbits and parodied the film.
• Quite a few of the actors who provided voices for Watership Down also starred in the BBC adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Michael Hordern (Gandalf/Frith); Simon Cadell (Celeborn/Blackberry); Richard O'Callaghan (Merry/Dandelion); and Michael Graham Cox (Boromir/Bigwig).
• John Hurt, who voiced Hazel in the film, returned to voice General Woundwort in the later Watership Down animated TV series.
• John Hurt and Nigel Hawthorne also starred in the animated film of another novel by Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs, as Snitter and Dr. Robert Boycott respectively.
• Mike Batt, who wrote "Bright Eyes", also wrote another song for the film which was not used. The song, "Losing Your Way in the Rain", has a very similar feeling and arrangement, and was recorded by ex-Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone in 1979. It was later re-recorded by Art Garfunkel and used in the animated TV series.
• The Musical group "Bright Eyes" has a song named "Watership Down", alluding to Art Garfunkel's song from the film.
• In a scene from Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Gromit turns on a radio which then starts playing "Bright Eyes".
• The musical group Gravenhurst have a song called 'Flowers In Her Hair' on their mini album "Black Holes In The Sand". The song contains the line "there's a dog loose in the wood", a line spoken by Bigwig in the film and fiver said this later in his vision near the end.
• In an Easter episode of the comedy "Vicar of Dibley", most of the main characters in the village dress up as Easter bunnies (unbeknownst to each other) and plan to place eggs in each garden. Soon when one or two "Easter bunnies" meet, they walk to the centre of the village and find a good dozen people dressed as rabbits, and Owen Newitt says "Any more and we'll be able to stage a production of bloody Watership Down!".

Notes

1. "Watership Down". Toonhound. Retrieved 2006-12-18.

External links

• Watership Down at IMDb
• Watership Down at the BFI's Screenonline
• Watership Down at Rotten Tomatoes

• Articles with trivia sections from June 2007
• 1978 films
• British animated films
• Films based on fiction books
• Watership Down
• Drama films
• English-language films
• Independent films
• Films featuring anthropomorphic characters