Watership Down

[JJB70]

I just watched the BBC/Netflix remake of Watership down, I am a huge fan of the original movie and the book, I saw the movie at the cinema as a child and still watch it on DVD so was curious to watch this new version. The contrast between the rather whimsical animation style and the darkness of the story was one of those things which sounds a bit odd but which worked very well in the old movie and it was a very powerful story. And in Woundwort the story had one of the great villains, a character dripping in evil. My daughter also loves the story (she's obsessed with rabbits in general) and we watched the remake together. The animation has taken a bit of flak (it's meant to be a story about rabbits, not hares) and I wasn't that impressed by the voices but at least they didn't try and overly sanitise it. If viewed in isolation it probably wasn't too bad, but I found it lacked the emotional involvement and power of the original and the ending was nothing like as well done as the old movie IMO. I found it a bit uninvolving and think it might have benefitted from being edited down to be a regular movie rather than a mini-series. My daughter (age 10) was not impressed and decided to watch the original on DVD again. Overall we were both disappointed and thought it could've been a lot better.

 

[garbulky]

I just watched the BBC/Netflix remake of Watership down, I am a huge fan of the original movie and the book, I saw the movie at the cinema as a child and still watch it on DVD so was curious to watch this new version. The contrast between the rather whimsical animation style and the darkness of the story was one of those things which sounds a bit odd but which worked very well in the old movie and it was a very powerful story. And in Woundwort the story had one of the great villains, a character dripping in evil. My daughter also loves the story (she's obsessed with rabbits in general) and we watched the remake together. The animation has taken a bit of flak (it's meant to be a story about rabbits, not hares) and I wasn't that impressed by the voices but at least they didn't try and overly sanitise it. If viewed in isolation it probably wasn't too bad, but I found it lacked the emotional involvement and power of the original and the ending was nothing like as well done as the old movie IMO. I found it a bit uninvolving and think it might have benefitted from being edited down to be a regular movie rather than a mini-series. My daughter (age 10) was not impressed and decided to watch the original on DVD again. Overall we were both disappointed and thought it could've been a lot better.

Where did you see it?

 

[JJB70]

It was shown on BBC TV over two nights on Saturday and Sunday, it is also on Netflix.

 

[Pluto]

Watership Down –

you've read the book

you've seen the film

Now try the pie