Every child should see that movie because it creates emotions that children should have and ask questions about I saw watership down when I was five and had a great lasting impact on me . ❤❤😊
I’ve always thought of Hazel as a King Arthur figure - he isn’t the best knight (Lancelot) or the bravest (Gawain) or the most blessed (Galahad) etc but he exemplifies the humility and wisdom and self-sacrifice that the chivalric ideal values. Woundwort’s reaction to Bigwig saying “my chief rabbit told me to guard this run” always moves me so powerfully…”*Your* chief rabbit?”
I watched this as a child. Like... 5yo. It terrified me. Gave me nightmares. Because of the visuals. The field running with blood and the gassed ghost rabbits were so horrific I couldn't deal with it.
those two scenes are terribly powerful, I actually think the rabbits clogging up their warren and suffocating contributed quite strongly to my claustrophobia!
If you liked Watership Down, The Animals of Farthing Wood is a very similar TV show in that despite having a seemingly child friendly exterior, has an equally graphic amount of violence and complex character development (though the difference between the 2 being that Farthing Wood is more explicitly aimed at children than Watership Down is)
The Animals of Farthing Wood was excellent. Wonderful books and TV series. First books I read by myself and with The Animals of Farthing Wood magazine I learnt about nature too!
Thankyou so much. I watched this as a kid and only remember snipits. Have never been able to remember what it was called but you have solved my long lost search. Thanks mate
My dad always loved the book and read it to me and my sister when we were kids but wouldn’t let us watch the film because he found it scary and traumatising when it came out even though he was already 12 when it was released😂
I loved this movie and watched it on a regular basis growing up. Even though Woundwort gave me nightmares for YEARS... well into my teens... I couldn't stay away from it. It was one of my favourite movies as a kid and remains one of my all-time favourites now I'm well into my 30s. The soundtrack by Angela Morley is also one of my favourite all-time film scores, and IMO incredibly underrated.
Fun fact, John Hurt wasn't only the voice of Hazel. He also returned to voice Woundwort in the TV series. Unfortunately, they couldn't get him back for the final season but Hurt was clearly a fan of Watership Down. He's the only actor who was not only in two different versions of the story but voiced both the main hero and the main villain.
Woundwort's one of the best villains I've ever seen. And no version of Watership Down, not even the 2018 remake, ever did him dirty. In every variation of the story, he manages to cement himself as a legend among his species. I think the most notable thing about Woundwort is that he completely contradicts what many people consider the fundamental foundation of a bully. That assumed foundation is that all bullies are secretly cowards. However, at the end of the story, Woundwort proved that his powerful demeanour wasn't an act like it is with 99% of bullies. He lunged towards that dog without hesitation or any hint of fear, even though it was a fight he couldn't possibly win. And we know that, for all his flaws, Woundwort isn't stupid. He knew his chances of defeating that dog were slim to none, especially since a fellow rabbit, Bigwig, had just managed to fight him to a draw. It was sheer courage and a willingness to die on his feet rather than live as a coward that motivated Woundwort to continue fighting to the bitter end.
I love Watership Down. I read the book when I was 9 years-old and it was the first book that made me cry (when Hazel died). I even got Tales from Watership Down, an anthology that Adams wrote years later. Of course I loved the movie too and the song, Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel is beautiful.
Its NOT children's media. You are assuming that animation is for kids. Only in America and the UK, think this. Most of the world rightly know it as another form of telling a story. Watership Down needs to be viewed as a tale and rightly assessed as such and not as "I pop that on for the kids, while I make dinner."
Only the seagull made it feel like a Disney animated movie - he was decent comic relief. Otherwise I totally agree and would consider this an adventure / coming of age film that is best enjoyed by adolescents and above.
@@Thunderpuddle I watched this last night on HBO Max and keehar had me legit laughing out loud. His weird broken English and the fact that he can't keep quiet when talking to bigwig. And he is pretty heroic in the end too! good character. But yeah this film.... one of the most moving effecting animated films I've ever seen. I want to wait a while and watch it again, just to keep it fresh.
Watership Down really did traumatize me a bit when I saw it as a child. I think it was one of the first times I understood what mortality really was. To this day "bright eyes" is burned into my mind. It unsettles me to think about, but not necessarily in a bad way. Revisiting it does feel like coming home, and this video re-framed the terror I felt at the image of that black rabbit. Looking at it as an adult, there's a lot more peace to this story than meets the eye.
I had so many nightmares from this movie as a child (I'm not sure how old I was), but even so, it has been an enduring favorite of mine over the years. I appreciate it more and more as a masterpiece of storytelling and of art, the older I get.
Wonderful review of a wonderful movie. It holds a special place in my heart as a film I used to watch repeatedly at my grandparents when I was young. My grandad passed away earlier this year, now I find this is a movie that legitimately helps me grieve. Thanks for the great review and the trip down memory lane!
I love this movie... and the book as well. The book dives much deeper into certain aspects (obviously) and gives a few more of the stories of El-ahrairah. I would also recommend Tales from Watership Down as a good read. It is set after Woundwort's defeat but before Hazel gives up the ghost.
I watched this as a child, it was my favourite movie. My Rabbit was called hyzenthlay. I tried watching the remake, god its horrific, adults are so sensitive.
I loved this movie as a child. I suppose if you were sheltered as a kid and your parents pulled the “old fluffy went off to the farm to live happily ever after” stunt when your pet died, this movie might be traumatic. But I grew up with pets all through my childhood. They got old, they got sick, they died. Truthfully this movie help me sort out the feelings I had. At 6 years old I found my cat flopped over dead from a stroke on my way to school. He looked just like Hazel at the end of the movie. I also was politically aware and enjoyed learning about history and war at a young age. I watched the first gulf war on the nightly news each night. Battling against an evil and defending others against all odds was just normal to me. My family’s favorite line is when Bigwig tells the General that “my chief told me to defend this run…” and that scares the General because he thinks there is a bigger tougher rabbit than Bigwig… not even considering that the chief might be smaller and smarter not bigger and tougher. That really informed my worldview.
@@DanniBby oh no I meant adults being sensitive, as a kid I took this movie in my stride but as an adult it hit so much harder. And I absolutely understood it, I remembered all of it because of how often I watched it.
I think it is so important to look back at these kind of movies and keep talking about them. Animated movies like "Watership Down", "Felidae" or "Animal Farm", which depict not only our world but also the world of creatures we take for granted/and or belittle, through different eyes. And on top of that, they do that in such an interesting way: through their style in animation. Of course movies like "Frozen" or "Zootopia" will always get the wider audience, because they look more pleasing, more extravagant. but for me, that´s exactly what makes them look more boring, because you know exactly what you´ll get. I just love that Watership Down makes use of the way it´s created: animation. One moment it´s very down to earth in it´s visualisation (watercolour backgrounds, etc.) and the next it uses sporadic, more abstract kinds of animation to underline each scene in a different way, giving it a different tone. I can´t say how many times I´ve already watched this film (it was also part of my masters thesis on animation, so i´ve watched it MANY times) but to this day, I can say, that i have not grown tired of watching it and each time i am still in awe of each little detail which makes up this masterpiece.
The more of this 3D computer generated animation that comes out the more I appreciate the old animated features like this one. The rabbits from that 2018 Watership Down look like they are robots compared to the animation in this film.
I'm very happy with these the original reviews honestly it's the best content you put through and I mean that in the best possible way We burrowed underground soon we will be blasting off into the stars
The original film with Sir John hurt broke me. I’ve seen many J horror extreme movies since and deeply heartbreaking movies but nothing has come close to making me hurt as much as this film did. 😢
I feel this. I was raised very religious and seeing this movie when I was like 9 or 10 was the first time I was faced with another concept of life, death, and fate from the one I'd been shown in church, and it was gutting. Heartbreaking was exactly the right word.
This version of Watership Down is a beautiful piece of work, as is the book that it's based on. I watched it as a child and yes, it was scary and upsetting. It was also wonderful. I watched it over and over, and when I was still quite young and my father died, it helped me process and understand death. I still love it as an adult, and wouldn't hesitate to share the experience with a child if they wanted to watch it, and talk about what they had seen and what it meant. I straight up do not trust the judgment of people who clutch their pearls and insist that Watership Down is too scary or inappropriate for children. I'm not saying that kids need to watch Watership Down specifically (or read the book!), but I am saying that shielding children from this kind of content can contribute toward leaving them dangerously unprepared when they have to experience loss in their own life. It's a beautiful, moving story, and an invaluable tool
Alive, when this premiered, and taken to the cinema to see. Then watched a great many times on HBO as a child. I watched because it was animated. My child mind did actually conjure images of WWII Europe, when the, let’s call them Factions, revealed themselves within the story. Intrigued by the story, while understanding that I did not understand everything being said, I took to the language created in this story. Believe me Frith, has been called to curse a great many things around me.
Also, the bulk of the music including the main theme was scored by Angela Morley, who also orchestrated a good deal of John Williams’ original Star Wars short score. She took over after Malcolm Williamson left the project. Malcolm came up with the brilliant music at the intro and opening credits.
I really wished people would stop focussing on the violence so much. You've one of the few videos that actually cares about the narrative and philosophical undercurrent.😊
The take that Cowslip's warren "represents communism" is such a strange interpretation of the film or the book - unless you've pre-emptively decided that it's the correct interpretation, the source material just doesn't support it. As far as I know Adams himself never suggested the "communism" interpretation, it just seems to have been repeated confidently until people just started assuming it's right. Watership Down is not a fascile analogy for the events of human history; it is a parable about how all animals, rabbits and humans alike, must confront the reality of death and must choose how to live with the knowledge of mortality. What Cowslip's warren represents is more complex and chilling than the simple "communist" take; it is a society that knows but cannot face that its prosperity comes at a terrible price, and distracts itself from the weight of its evil by listening to poems, by looking at shapes on the wall, by flattering its own dignity, etc.
I was in 1st grade when I watched Watership Down on TV back in the 80s. It was a game changer for me. I loved it, as a little kid I was able to understand the emotional context of the relationships. I felt the loss, bonds, anxiety of those rabbits. I loved the movie so much, I got a pet rabbit and named it Hyzenthlay. I wasn't even 10! I do not want to hear from anyone About this movie being too traumatic for kids, sorry your children are emotionally stunted. When I was older and read the books, I was amazed at Richard Adams genius at creating an entire society including a language and mythology for these little rabbits.
I was just a little bit older than you when I saw it but my reaction was similar. I read the book and loved it and a few years later I got two stuffed rabbits and named them Hazel and Fiver!.
I saw this movie as a child back in the 80's, too. While it did make me feel some emotions I normally didn't associate with watching cartoons, I wouldn't say I was "traumatized". It made me feel like I was watching a cartoon that was for adults, too.
I watched this as a child and this didn’t traumatize me. Yes, it scared me a little, very frightened of General Woundwart but I think this was such a good film for life lessons as you stated. These newer generations are too soft, we live in a world where we can’t even say “kill” or “dead” anymore and instead say “unalive”. It’s a little ridiculous, we’ve gone too far in the opposite direction and we need some harsh lessons in life for children again.
People saying traumatised weren't actually traumatised, they're being a bit dramatic, which is obvious to anyone. Seems you're getting a bit overly sensitive there. Also people at the time it was released and since they complained about it, wrote to certification boards, TV companies etc to restrict it. People were giant cry babies in the past, but didn't have twitter and crap, so don't try pretend as nyrhinf has actually changed
I’ve seen this when I was very little, maybe 7-8? I dunno if that’s a bad thing at the time or not at all? Why? Because I was not traumatised by this film at all thx to my autism, I just see gore as normal.
Seen this as a child and loved it so much but also saddened me with the loss of the characters. It was a good eye view from a rabbits perspective and their experience.
So strange to hear about it being traumatising. I saw it when I was 10 in the cinema. The animals had their own mythology, their own history. I was entranced. And it didn’t insult my mind. One of the characters was even clairvoyant, a seer. There was danger, humour, poetry and action. It shaped my view of death in a wholesome way and helped me to confront the loss of our family cat, my first experience of loss that was fresh in my life when I saw this. It had grit and I LOVED that. The visuals, the music, the dialogue I thought were so cool. I must’ve seen it a dozen times on HBO. The book was even better.
it should be mentioned that then, as it is now, the violence etc wasn't jarring because of the gore or the violence itself, but because for a bunch of kids it was our first - and very unexpected - exposure to willful malice and malevolence, which registers on a different scale or different kind of impact than just violence
It’s the most epic British novel ever written. Every grave theme - the import of courage, vision, sacrifice, freedom, sovereignty - is covered on the rabbits’ Journey of Heroes as they escape genocide, battle predation and resist totalitarianism on an odyssey to realize freedom. This reviewer accepts Adams’ sometimes blithe comments about the story and may be unaware that Adams admitted that he based the characters of Hazel and Bigwig on two airborne officers he had known who jumped at Arnhem. I’d go further on the depth of this tale and suggest that if Homer and Orwell had somehow sat down and written a novel set in the British countryside, it would be ‘Watership Down.’
That's not a hedgehog. It's an opossum. PS After reading through a lot of the comments, it seems that a lot of people claim that they were traumatized by this movie. Odd. I watched this when I was very young, and it never traumatized me. I instead saw this movie as a valuable lesson. That even in the face of adversity and fear, if you're willing to persevere, you can overcome just about anything. That doesn't mean that there won't be pitfalls along the way, but rather that if one keeps their wits about them and doesn't engage in foolish activities they should be able to navigate the trickey Road of life without too many hiccups. It's a simple concept. Sit around and wait for the end, or get up and do something about it to change your circumstances.
One aspect I don't think this video has a chance to go into is that Richard Adams was adjutant to the CO of the 1st Parachute Regiment around the time of Operation Market-Garden and the Battle Of Arnhem. Immortalised in the film "A Bridge Too Far", the plan was for the paratroopers to capture and hold several bridges in Holland such that the Armoured divisions could roll into the Rhineland and enter Germany, if not win the war, by Christmas 1944. For various reasons, including that the intelligence received was unusually incorrect - woefully underestimating the strength and quality of the German forces along the way - it was 1Para who were assigned the furthest bridge in, with the end result being that the regiment was practically wiped out. Throughout his life, Adams refused to be drawn on this, stating that "Watership Down" began as a series of stories he told his daughters on long car journeys - though he did concede that some of the characters were based on his comrades. That said, once one looks at certain aspects of the story; particularly the escapes from Efrafa, where Holly's salvation was the rail line, and where the Watership Down bucks are hiding in hedgerows, waiting for Kehaar (their "air support") while being tracked and hunted by well-trained bucks from a much larger warren run in a much more ruthless manner - it becomes very hard not to see this as Adams' way of explaining his war experiences in a way his daughters (and later many more predominantly younger people) could grasp and understand. There's also the fact that the destruction of the Sandleford warren by sealing it off and filling it with poison gas is horrifyingly similar to the operation of the Nazi death camps.
Not what I ever expected from your channel but it is still a very fantastic video even though you missed out on the opportunity to do what Dominic Noble did when he talked about "Watership Down" dressing up in a rabbit costume and and covered himself in false blood. Something I know everbody secretly wants to do
Among many others i adore this movie. I watched it when i was fairly young and i remember feeling weirdly empowered(?), my take away has always been that the world doesn't need to be good or even merciful for you to seek happiness. Watching stuff like that as a little kid might have been one of many questionable choices but it has left me with a sense of hope i have failed to kill
Saw this movie when was kid and really liked it. Just saw it last night for the first time in awhile and I absolutely love this film. Especially Zero Mostel as Kehaar.
I'm really enjoying the variety in content :) Subscribed for the who reviews, and all these various bits of content are genuinely just making you one of my favourite channels on UA-cam
Thank you so much! That honestly warms my heart to hear. Obviously I love Doctor Who, but it makes me so happy when people stick around to watch the other content I make. I'd do it more often if more people watched it 😂
The first time I saw this was when I was much, much younger at a birthday party of a relatives. It was on in the sitting room and I couldn’t hear it and didn’t end up being able to watch much if any of it. Fast forward years later, I spot it on the shelf in WHSmiths. I’m like ‘Oh there’s that rabbit movie from years ago!’ And buy it for me and my two younger sisters to watch, because cute rabbits, right? Oops.
Holy F***! This movie/cartoon is DARK!! I was born in '78 and I think I first tried to watch it when I was maybe between 4-5 years old. I remember not being able to watch the whole thing at first. To me, back then it was just as scary as say, Poltergeist.
A lovely film - I have it on my Plex and must have seen it 30 times but the book is leaps and bounds better. Fun fact: Ricard Adams really did not take to Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" song.
The reason Woundwort is so authoritarian is because he’s actually scared of people and his warren being found and destroyed like sandleford or snared like cowslips warren, so it’s in a way justified that he doesn’t want another warren close by attracting attention. His fear of myxomatosis getting into his warren is also why he controls movement of the rabbits (side note, even the Watership down rabbits consider females as beneath them and expect them to do all the digging so misogyny isn’t unique among the warrens of Hampshire)
It's easy for you to say it's not that extreme for kids, having not seen it as a kid yourself. LOL Trust me, as a kid who saw it back in the day, it burned itself into my brain, a nightmare I could never forget. I once posted a still from the film - Fiver and the bloody field vision - on r/GenX, and I received dozens of replies along the lines of "f&*k you for making me relive that childhood trauma!"
I saw it numerous times as a kid and loved it. I was obsessed with both the book and film and didn't have any nightmares as a result though I did find the opening sequence somewhat disturbing but I still loved it.
In the documentary on my DVD, the animators said it was a way to make them a bit eerie, when red eyes would have been unnatural. Meanwhile, the opposite is true for the heroic rabbits, whose eyeballs are coloured the same as their fur - ergo, the contrast is much lower.
In the time this was released I feel like us children were more innocent. Violence wasn't as underlined as it is today so this and shockingly (lol) plague dogs was really upsetting and the soundtrack has such a tearjerking song so I'm nostalgically traumatised lol.
well done. i read the book in paperback. i love you’ve focused on the original movie I’ve read that some have said thai this tale and the lord of the rings! are really allegories of the british in ww2.
I watched this movie as a child and was horrified, terrified. It builds you up with attachment to these cute little characters then they all get horrifically killed, with lots of blood. Blood dripping from their dying mouths. Blood running into their giant terrified eyes. All these visions of terror, bloody fields, alien creatures (the humans) coming to murder them, rabbits suffocating together in panicked groups, clawing at the walls while they die... That shit was super fucked up. There is no way this should be shown to children. Anybody who would say "this film contains a valuable life lesson for children" has never had any children of their own and doesn't understand child psychology.
I first watched this sitting in on a college course do they actually show this to kids? I can't imagine anything they would be intrested in less so grim and depressing
This is definitely not for children the bird swears he tells the bunny to piss off & the violence to this should be rated 15 Disney took out pumba saying farted in the lion King animated version wtf they've ruined it & in the new version they add it in OMG the animated version should of had farted in the first time, I think piss off in this film is a lot worse than farted for children to see this world is getting worse.
thankfully this is one of my childhood movies and wasn't censored ... plague dogs is so sweet too... and the last unicorn will probably get censored too, the black rabbit is just death man,not good or bad....and yes the new generation are snowflakes,they even want to rewrite bambi losing his mother because it might be traumatic?like kids don't lose their parent's in real life? that's not even showed on screen in both instances...it's a good reflection on us being terrible creatures....I think this would have been a movie on us (as people)if they could have gotten away with it...
hazel doesn't need to be strong to be in charge,as is the same with people,you think bigwig should be in charge?hazel and fiver rely on each other and clearly he isn't wrong based on the movie(I feel it in my toe)hazel is smart but not strong,this is why people have military and why bigwig is basically a military type, he defected from on person in charge to another because that is his role and because he had a larger chance of survival...are you actually coming at this from a rabbit standpoint?amazing,I never thought people thought this was based on rabbit hierarchy and if you are you think rabbits have consent ?lol I was alive when it came out and yes woundwort for sure earned a place in the end... but it isn't about rabbits at all
In the book it's El-ahairah who offers Hazel a position in his Owsla but the movie it's specifically the Black Rabbit of Inle. Which I think is a nice change because the figure of death is kind, comforting, polite & rather friendly
I have watched few times when I was a kid(sometimes I didnt wanted to, but my siblings liked it so) and dont dare watching it now as It always used to give me nightmares, its still does.
You can commission your very own videos on my Patreon!
www.patreon.com/harbowholmes
Every child should see that movie because it creates emotions that children should have and ask questions about
I saw watership down when I was five and had a great lasting impact on me . ❤❤😊
Watership down is a gem of a cartoon film. Cartoons today don't have that kind of impact anymore.
I’ve always thought of Hazel as a King Arthur figure - he isn’t the best knight (Lancelot) or the bravest (Gawain) or the most blessed (Galahad) etc but he exemplifies the humility and wisdom and self-sacrifice that the chivalric ideal values. Woundwort’s reaction to Bigwig saying “my chief rabbit told me to guard this run” always moves me so powerfully…”*Your* chief rabbit?”
I get Moses-vibes
@@morcellemorcelle618 Adams was a Christian so maybe that was an influence
I watched this as a child. Like... 5yo.
It terrified me. Gave me nightmares. Because of the visuals.
The field running with blood and the gassed ghost rabbits were so horrific I couldn't deal with it.
those two scenes are terribly powerful, I actually think the rabbits clogging up their warren and suffocating contributed quite strongly to my claustrophobia!
Same here. We should start a support group. The funny thing is that I still loved it dearly.
same i think i was about 5 or 6 and when they started suffocating underground i cried so much it had to be turned off.
The Black Rabbit reminds me of Terry Pratchett's take on the grim reaper. Fearsome in appearance but surprisingly kind to the living.
If you liked Watership Down, The Animals of Farthing Wood is a very similar TV show in that despite having a seemingly child friendly exterior, has an equally graphic amount of violence and complex character development (though the difference between the 2 being that Farthing Wood is more explicitly aimed at children than Watership Down is)
Juiujuiiiiiu
The Animals of Farthing Wood was excellent. Wonderful books and TV series. First books I read by myself and with The Animals of Farthing Wood magazine I learnt about nature too!
Thankyou so much. I watched this as a kid and only remember snipits. Have never been able to remember what it was called but you have solved my long lost search. Thanks mate
My dad always loved the book and read it to me and my sister when we were kids but wouldn’t let us watch the film because he found it scary and traumatising when it came out even though he was already 12 when it was released😂
I loved this movie and watched it on a regular basis growing up. Even though Woundwort gave me nightmares for YEARS... well into my teens... I couldn't stay away from it. It was one of my favourite movies as a kid and remains one of my all-time favourites now I'm well into my 30s. The soundtrack by Angela Morley is also one of my favourite all-time film scores, and IMO incredibly underrated.
This movie is one to show your children before they censor it forever like what was done to Black Calderon and lose the original forever.
Fun fact, John Hurt wasn't only the voice of Hazel. He also returned to voice Woundwort in the TV series. Unfortunately, they couldn't get him back for the final season but Hurt was clearly a fan of Watership Down. He's the only actor who was not only in two different versions of the story but voiced both the main hero and the main villain.
Hw was an Elephant ye know! 🐘
Harbo's finale summary - spoken like a person who never watched Watership down as a 7 year old and had nightmares for weeks afterwards.
Woundwort's one of the best villains I've ever seen. And no version of Watership Down, not even the 2018 remake, ever did him dirty. In every variation of the story, he manages to cement himself as a legend among his species.
I think the most notable thing about Woundwort is that he completely contradicts what many people consider the fundamental foundation of a bully. That assumed foundation is that all bullies are secretly cowards. However, at the end of the story, Woundwort proved that his powerful demeanour wasn't an act like it is with 99% of bullies. He lunged towards that dog without hesitation or any hint of fear, even though it was a fight he couldn't possibly win. And we know that, for all his flaws, Woundwort isn't stupid. He knew his chances of defeating that dog were slim to none, especially since a fellow rabbit, Bigwig, had just managed to fight him to a draw. It was sheer courage and a willingness to die on his feet rather than live as a coward that motivated Woundwort to continue fighting to the bitter end.
That, and also, he was absolutely batshit crazy.
That, and also, he was absolutely batsh!t crazy.
He reminds me of a Mafia boss. A real psychopathic, General in war streak. He’s right out of Vietnam or Iwo Jima
By taking on the dog Woundwort enabled the others rabbits to escape.
I love Watership Down. I read the book when I was 9 years-old and it was the first book that made me cry (when Hazel died). I even got Tales from Watership Down, an anthology that Adams wrote years later. Of course I loved the movie too and the song, Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel is beautiful.
Its NOT children's media. You are assuming that animation is for kids. Only in America and the UK, think this. Most of the world rightly know it as another form of telling a story. Watership Down needs to be viewed as a tale and rightly assessed as such and not as "I pop that on for the kids, while I make dinner."
Only the seagull made it feel like a Disney animated movie - he was decent comic relief. Otherwise I totally agree and would consider this an adventure / coming of age film that is best enjoyed by adolescents and above.
@@patrick4662 The seagull swearing surprised me as a child
@@Thunderpuddle I watched this last night on HBO Max and keehar had me legit laughing out loud. His weird broken English and the fact that he can't keep quiet when talking to bigwig. And he is pretty heroic in the end too! good character.
But yeah this film.... one of the most moving effecting animated films I've ever seen. I want to wait a while and watch it again, just to keep it fresh.
@@patrick4662 This film evokes human emotions many modern "real" films are incapable of, much less animated films.
My father popped it on when I was four, been in love with the film for 13 years
Watership Down really did traumatize me a bit when I saw it as a child. I think it was one of the first times I understood what mortality really was. To this day "bright eyes" is burned into my mind. It unsettles me to think about, but not necessarily in a bad way. Revisiting it does feel like coming home, and this video re-framed the terror I felt at the image of that black rabbit. Looking at it as an adult, there's a lot more peace to this story than meets the eye.
I had so many nightmares from this movie as a child (I'm not sure how old I was), but even so, it has been an enduring favorite of mine over the years. I appreciate it more and more as a masterpiece of storytelling and of art, the older I get.
Wonderful review of a wonderful movie. It holds a special place in my heart as a film I used to watch repeatedly at my grandparents when I was young. My grandad passed away earlier this year, now I find this is a movie that legitimately helps me grieve. Thanks for the great review and the trip down memory lane!
I love this movie... and the book as well. The book dives much deeper into certain aspects (obviously) and gives a few more of the stories of El-ahrairah. I would also recommend Tales from Watership Down as a good read. It is set after Woundwort's defeat but before Hazel gives up the ghost.
I watched this as a child, it was my favourite movie. My Rabbit was called hyzenthlay.
I tried watching the remake, god its horrific, adults are so sensitive.
You mean adults are insensitive?
I loved this movie as a child.
I suppose if you were sheltered as a kid and your parents pulled the “old fluffy went off to the farm to live happily ever after” stunt when your pet died, this movie might be traumatic.
But I grew up with pets all through my childhood. They got old, they got sick, they died. Truthfully this movie help me sort out the feelings I had. At 6 years old I found my cat flopped over dead from a stroke on my way to school. He looked just like Hazel at the end of the movie.
I also was politically aware and enjoyed learning about history and war at a young age. I watched the first gulf war on the nightly news each night. Battling against an evil and defending others against all odds was just normal to me.
My family’s favorite line is when Bigwig tells the General that “my chief told me to defend this run…” and that scares the General because he thinks there is a bigger tougher rabbit than Bigwig… not even considering that the chief might be smaller and smarter not bigger and tougher. That really informed my worldview.
@@DanniBby oh no I meant adults being sensitive, as a kid I took this movie in my stride but as an adult it hit so much harder.
And I absolutely understood it, I remembered all of it because of how often I watched it.
I think it is so important to look back at these kind of movies and keep talking about them. Animated movies like "Watership Down", "Felidae" or "Animal Farm", which depict not only our world but also the world of creatures we take for granted/and or belittle, through different eyes. And on top of that, they do that in such an interesting way: through their style in animation. Of course movies like "Frozen" or "Zootopia" will always get the wider audience, because they look more pleasing, more extravagant. but for me, that´s exactly what makes them look more boring, because you know exactly what you´ll get. I just love that Watership Down makes use of the way it´s created: animation. One moment it´s very down to earth in it´s visualisation (watercolour backgrounds, etc.) and the next it uses sporadic, more abstract kinds of animation to underline each scene in a different way, giving it a different tone. I can´t say how many times I´ve already watched this film (it was also part of my masters thesis on animation, so i´ve watched it MANY times) but to this day, I can say, that i have not grown tired of watching it and each time i am still in awe of each little detail which makes up this masterpiece.
The more of this 3D computer generated animation that comes out the more I appreciate the old animated features like this one. The rabbits from that 2018 Watership Down look like they are robots compared to the animation in this film.
"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you,"🐰🐇
watched this as a kid an now got back to it and i must say, that it was wery traumatizing but it is such a great movie
I loved this movie and still do
I'm very happy with these the original reviews honestly it's the best content you put through and I mean that in the best possible way
We burrowed underground soon we will be blasting off into the stars
The original film with Sir John hurt broke me. I’ve seen many J horror extreme movies since and deeply heartbreaking movies but nothing has come close to making me hurt as much as this film did. 😢
I feel this. I was raised very religious and seeing this movie when I was like 9 or 10 was the first time I was faced with another concept of life, death, and fate from the one I'd been shown in church, and it was gutting. Heartbreaking was exactly the right word.
Check out the Berserk Manga / Anime
Watership Down is one of the best books I’ve ever read. The old BBC show is also very good
This version of Watership Down is a beautiful piece of work, as is the book that it's based on. I watched it as a child and yes, it was scary and upsetting. It was also wonderful. I watched it over and over, and when I was still quite young and my father died, it helped me process and understand death. I still love it as an adult, and wouldn't hesitate to share the experience with a child if they wanted to watch it, and talk about what they had seen and what it meant.
I straight up do not trust the judgment of people who clutch their pearls and insist that Watership Down is too scary or inappropriate for children. I'm not saying that kids need to watch Watership Down specifically (or read the book!), but I am saying that shielding children from this kind of content can contribute toward leaving them dangerously unprepared when they have to experience loss in their own life. It's a beautiful, moving story, and an invaluable tool
Alive, when this premiered, and taken to the cinema to see. Then watched a great many times on HBO as a child.
I watched because it was animated. My child mind did actually conjure images of WWII Europe, when the, let’s call them Factions, revealed themselves within the story. Intrigued by the story, while understanding that I did not understand everything being said, I took to the language created in this story. Believe me Frith, has been called to curse a great many things around me.
Watership Down is a great book. The old movie, compared to kids' shows these days, is pretty harmless. The newer CGI movie is pretty nightmarish.
Also, the bulk of the music including the main theme was scored by Angela Morley, who also orchestrated a good deal of John Williams’ original Star Wars short score. She took over after Malcolm Williamson left the project. Malcolm came up with the brilliant music at the intro and opening credits.
I really wished people would stop focussing on the violence so much.
You've one of the few videos that actually cares about the narrative and philosophical undercurrent.😊
The take that Cowslip's warren "represents communism" is such a strange interpretation of the film or the book - unless you've pre-emptively decided that it's the correct interpretation, the source material just doesn't support it. As far as I know Adams himself never suggested the "communism" interpretation, it just seems to have been repeated confidently until people just started assuming it's right. Watership Down is not a fascile analogy for the events of human history; it is a parable about how all animals, rabbits and humans alike, must confront the reality of death and must choose how to live with the knowledge of mortality. What Cowslip's warren represents is more complex and chilling than the simple "communist" take; it is a society that knows but cannot face that its prosperity comes at a terrible price, and distracts itself from the weight of its evil by listening to poems, by looking at shapes on the wall, by flattering its own dignity, etc.
I was in 1st grade when I watched Watership Down on TV back in the 80s. It was a game changer for me. I loved it, as a little kid I was able to understand the emotional context of the relationships. I felt the loss, bonds, anxiety of those rabbits. I loved the movie so much, I got a pet rabbit and named it Hyzenthlay. I wasn't even 10! I do not want to hear from anyone About this movie being too traumatic for kids, sorry your children are emotionally stunted. When I was older and read the books, I was amazed at Richard Adams genius at creating an entire society including a language and mythology for these little rabbits.
I was just a little bit older than you when I saw it but my reaction was similar. I read the book and loved it and a few years later I got two stuffed rabbits and named them Hazel and Fiver!.
I saw this movie as a child back in the 80's, too. While it did make me feel some emotions I normally didn't associate with watching cartoons, I wouldn't say I was "traumatized". It made me feel like I was watching a cartoon that was for adults, too.
I watched this as a child and this didn’t traumatize me. Yes, it scared me a little, very frightened of General Woundwart but I think this was such a good film for life lessons as you stated. These newer generations are too soft, we live in a world where we can’t even say “kill” or “dead” anymore and instead say “unalive”. It’s a little ridiculous, we’ve gone too far in the opposite direction and we need some harsh lessons in life for children again.
I watched as child and it gave me emotional feelings that were healthy to have . Parent's these days are censoring too much.
People saying traumatised weren't actually traumatised, they're being a bit dramatic, which is obvious to anyone. Seems you're getting a bit overly sensitive there. Also people at the time it was released and since they complained about it, wrote to certification boards, TV companies etc to restrict it. People were giant cry babies in the past, but didn't have twitter and crap, so don't try pretend as nyrhinf has actually changed
I’ve seen this when I was very little, maybe 7-8? I dunno if that’s a bad thing at the time or not at all? Why? Because I was not traumatised by this film at all thx to my autism, I just see gore as normal.
Seen this as a child and loved it so much but also saddened me with the loss of the characters. It was a good eye view from a rabbits perspective and their experience.
So strange to hear about it being traumatising. I saw it when I was 10 in the cinema. The animals had their own mythology, their own history. I was entranced. And it didn’t insult my mind. One of the characters was even clairvoyant, a seer. There was danger, humour, poetry and action. It shaped my view of death in a wholesome way and helped me to confront the loss of our family cat, my first experience of loss that was fresh in my life when I saw this. It had grit and I LOVED that. The visuals, the music, the dialogue I thought were so cool. I must’ve seen it a dozen times on HBO. The book was even better.
it should be mentioned that then, as it is now, the violence etc wasn't jarring because of the gore or the violence itself, but because for a bunch of kids it was our first - and very unexpected - exposure to willful malice and malevolence, which registers on a different scale or different kind of impact than just violence
It’s the most epic British novel ever written. Every grave theme - the import of courage, vision, sacrifice, freedom, sovereignty - is covered on the rabbits’ Journey of Heroes as they escape genocide, battle predation and resist totalitarianism on an odyssey to realize freedom. This reviewer accepts Adams’ sometimes blithe comments about the story and may be unaware that Adams admitted that he based the characters of Hazel and Bigwig on two airborne officers he had known who jumped at Arnhem. I’d go further on the depth of this tale and suggest that if Homer and Orwell had somehow sat down and written a novel set in the British countryside, it would be ‘Watership Down.’
That's not a hedgehog. It's an opossum.
PS
After reading through a lot of the comments, it seems that a lot of people claim that they were traumatized by this movie.
Odd.
I watched this when I was very young, and it never traumatized me.
I instead saw this movie as a valuable lesson.
That even in the face of adversity and fear, if you're willing to persevere, you can overcome just about anything.
That doesn't mean that there won't be pitfalls along the way, but rather that if one keeps their wits about them and doesn't engage in foolish activities they should be able to navigate the trickey Road of life without too many hiccups.
It's a simple concept.
Sit around and wait for the end, or get up and do something about it to change your circumstances.
Can't wait for the 4K Blu-ray release......GODDAMMIT!!!!
My friend and I in the 70's went to see this movie. Quick tip,watch it stoned.
One aspect I don't think this video has a chance to go into is that Richard Adams was adjutant to the CO of the 1st Parachute Regiment around the time of Operation Market-Garden and the Battle Of Arnhem. Immortalised in the film "A Bridge Too Far", the plan was for the paratroopers to capture and hold several bridges in Holland such that the Armoured divisions could roll into the Rhineland and enter Germany, if not win the war, by Christmas 1944. For various reasons, including that the intelligence received was unusually incorrect - woefully underestimating the strength and quality of the German forces along the way - it was 1Para who were assigned the furthest bridge in, with the end result being that the regiment was practically wiped out.
Throughout his life, Adams refused to be drawn on this, stating that "Watership Down" began as a series of stories he told his daughters on long car journeys - though he did concede that some of the characters were based on his comrades. That said, once one looks at certain aspects of the story; particularly the escapes from Efrafa, where Holly's salvation was the rail line, and where the Watership Down bucks are hiding in hedgerows, waiting for Kehaar (their "air support") while being tracked and hunted by well-trained bucks from a much larger warren run in a much more ruthless manner - it becomes very hard not to see this as Adams' way of explaining his war experiences in a way his daughters (and later many more predominantly younger people) could grasp and understand.
There's also the fact that the destruction of the Sandleford warren by sealing it off and filling it with poison gas is horrifyingly similar to the operation of the Nazi death camps.
Not what I ever expected from your channel but it is still a very fantastic video even though you missed out on the opportunity to do what Dominic Noble did when he talked about "Watership Down" dressing up in a rabbit costume and and covered himself in false blood. Something I know everbody secretly wants to do
Among many others i adore this movie. I watched it when i was fairly young and i remember feeling weirdly empowered(?), my take away has always been that the world doesn't need to be good or even merciful for you to seek happiness. Watching stuff like that as a little kid might have been one of many questionable choices but it has left me with a sense of hope i have failed to kill
Bravo! 👏 👏 👏 I remember watching this movie as a kid and I turned out juuust fiiine 👍😉
Rewatch it its horrific 😢, how did we turn out fine? It was my favourite movie, I wore the tape out.
Me too . 😊
@@Larisa-zt2pr St was a great book too
Saw this movie when was kid and really liked it. Just saw it last night for the first time in awhile and I absolutely love this film. Especially Zero Mostel as Kehaar.
I'm really enjoying the variety in content :)
Subscribed for the who reviews, and all these various bits of content are genuinely just making you one of my favourite channels on UA-cam
Thank you so much! That honestly warms my heart to hear. Obviously I love Doctor Who, but it makes me so happy when people stick around to watch the other content I make. I'd do it more often if more people watched it 😂
I'll second that!
The next Balance Patch 🤣🤣 Brilliant!!!
One probably shouldn't be watching this while eating rabbit meat.
I love the detailed nature illustrations.
My first ever book I read, when I was 10. ❤It.
Legit one of my all time favourite movies as a kid. Really fucked me up
The first time I saw this was when I was much, much younger at a birthday party of a relatives. It was on in the sitting room and I couldn’t hear it and didn’t end up being able to watch much if any of it.
Fast forward years later, I spot it on the shelf in WHSmiths.
I’m like ‘Oh there’s that rabbit movie from years ago!’ And buy it for me and my two younger sisters to watch, because cute rabbits, right?
Oops.
Saw this when I was around 9 and was very disturbed. On a subconscious level though it may have contributed to my current love for political stories.
i have literally never heard of this movie til now, so thanks?
Everything about this movie is fantastic (book too, but the movie is a near perfect adaptation to film)!!
Holy F***! This movie/cartoon is DARK!! I was born in '78 and I think I first tried to watch it when I was maybe between 4-5 years old. I remember not being able to watch the whole thing at first. To me, back then it was just as scary as say, Poltergeist.
Born the same time and felt the same
This was a family favorite when we little kids. I see the dark side of it but it is full positive life lessons
Imagine getting a nervous breakdown because from an edgy movie about animals. Snowflake.
The black rabbit traumatised me as a kid and I saw it in my nightmares all the time trying to kill me.
A lovely film - I have it on my Plex and must have seen it 30 times but the book is leaps and bounds better. Fun fact: Ricard Adams really did not take to Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" song.
The reason Woundwort is so authoritarian is because he’s actually scared of people and his warren being found and destroyed like sandleford or snared like cowslips warren, so it’s in a way justified that he doesn’t want another warren close by attracting attention. His fear of myxomatosis getting into his warren is also why he controls movement of the rabbits (side note, even the Watership down rabbits consider females as beneath them and expect them to do all the digging so misogyny isn’t unique among the warrens of Hampshire)
I love watership down. Kids of my generation weren't as soft as kids are these days.
that G and U rating was an insult since its assuming that "if its animated it must be for kids"
I love childhood trauma
He didn't make it to scare children he actually made it's Mecca wear once of animals
It's easy for you to say it's not that extreme for kids, having not seen it as a kid yourself. LOL Trust me, as a kid who saw it back in the day, it burned itself into my brain, a nightmare I could never forget. I once posted a still from the film - Fiver and the bloody field vision - on r/GenX, and I received dozens of replies along the lines of "f&*k you for making me relive that childhood trauma!"
I saw it numerous times as a kid and loved it. I was obsessed with both the book and film and didn't have any nightmares as a result though I did find the opening sequence somewhat disturbing but I still loved it.
What always gets me about the Efrafan rabbits is their unique eye colour - is that a result of inbreeding?
I honestly think it was just so we can tell the difference between them.
In the documentary on my DVD, the animators said it was a way to make them a bit eerie, when red eyes would have been unnatural.
Meanwhile, the opposite is true for the heroic rabbits, whose eyeballs are coloured the same as their fur - ergo, the contrast is much lower.
In the time this was released I feel like us children were more innocent. Violence wasn't as underlined as it is today so this and shockingly (lol) plague dogs was really upsetting and the soundtrack has such a tearjerking song so I'm nostalgically traumatised lol.
well done. i read the book in paperback. i love you’ve focused on the original movie I’ve read that some have said thai this tale and the lord of the rings! are really allegories of the british in ww2.
Rabbits actually represent death in ancient symbolism
"Return of the Jedi" had lovable Ewoks being killed. Not everything is for children.
watched the whole video waiting for the "misunderstood" part?
Ask an Australian how rabbits are "stereotyped as allegedly overpopulating".
I watched this movie as a child and was horrified, terrified. It builds you up with attachment to these cute little characters then they all get horrifically killed, with lots of blood. Blood dripping from their dying mouths. Blood running into their giant terrified eyes. All these visions of terror, bloody fields, alien creatures (the humans) coming to murder them, rabbits suffocating together in panicked groups, clawing at the walls while they die...
That shit was super fucked up. There is no way this should be shown to children. Anybody who would say "this film contains a valuable life lesson for children" has never had any children of their own and doesn't understand child psychology.
Saw this movie as a child (on video, Betamax) it has shaped me ... for better or worse.
Ah yes… memories I buried. Insane it was a kids show though
I like Watership Down
My favourite film!
I first watched this sitting in on a college course do they actually show this to kids? I can't imagine anything they would be intrested in less so grim and depressing
Paused @00:01 Hopefully I don't get to hear any of the "song" or my emotional state of mind won't be too good tonight.
I enjoyed Watership down, it got me thinking 🤔
This is definitely not for children the bird swears he tells the bunny to piss off & the violence to this should be rated 15 Disney took out pumba saying farted in the lion King animated version wtf they've ruined it & in the new version they add it in OMG the animated version should of had farted in the first time, I think piss off in this film is a lot worse than farted for children to see this world is getting worse.
Im not even British but somehow i watched this movie
Yeah I’ll never forgive my mother for letting me and my sister watch a movie about evil rabbits getting their ears torn apart etc.
I caught that Andor reference, are we getting a video on the greatest piece of Star Wars media of all time?
As a twelve year old im not a crybaby bro
thankfully this is one of my childhood movies and wasn't censored ... plague dogs is so sweet too... and the last unicorn will probably get censored too, the black rabbit is just death man,not good or bad....and yes the new generation are snowflakes,they even want to rewrite bambi losing his mother because it might be traumatic?like kids don't lose their parent's in real life? that's not even showed on screen in both instances...it's a good reflection on us being terrible creatures....I think this would have been a movie on us (as people)if they could have gotten away with it...
hazel doesn't need to be strong to be in charge,as is the same with people,you think bigwig should be in charge?hazel and fiver rely on each other and clearly he isn't wrong based on the movie(I feel it in my toe)hazel is smart but not strong,this is why people have military and why bigwig is basically a military type, he defected from on person in charge to another because that is his role and because he had a larger chance of survival...are you actually coming at this from a rabbit standpoint?amazing,I never thought people thought this was based on rabbit hierarchy and if you are you think rabbits have consent ?lol I was alive when it came out and yes woundwort for sure earned a place in the end... but it isn't about rabbits at all
All i gotta say is the book is better.
In the book it's El-ahairah who offers Hazel a position in his Owsla but the movie it's specifically the Black Rabbit of Inle. Which I think is a nice change because the figure of death is kind, comforting, polite & rather friendly
Glad I never saw or read this
I have watched few times when I was a kid(sometimes I didnt wanted to, but my siblings liked it so) and dont dare watching it now as It always used to give me nightmares, its still does.
I never watched the movie, but we read the book. I don’t remember much about it but I remember I loved the bird
Core memory nightmare unlocked. Dang it, this movie scarred me as a kid. Lol.
Mate please just make the deep breath review 🙏
No
Deep Breath was carried by Clara, Vastra, Jenny, Strax and the cameos from Matt Smith and Missy. Peter Capaldi needed all the help he could get.
I've only watched this once. I was a child. I've never watched it since because it terrified the crap out of me.
Wait a special thanks NOT for Faolan?
This movie was the stuff of my childhood nightmares
Ahh yes childhood trauma my favourite.
I feel like I am one of the only people I know who likes the book.
The movie is good too, but granted it is not the most comfortable to watch.
Not a fan of the communist slander, but another good overanalysis vid.
I interpreted this as specific criticism of the Soviet Union.