Review: Watership Down

A rabbit named Fiver (voiced by Richard Briers) is convinced of impending doom, but the Chief Rabbit (voiced by Sir Ralph Richardson) ignores his premonition-based fears. Fiver will not let the matter rest, and he and his brother Hazel (voiced by John Hurt) lead a group of rabbits in leaving to find a new warren. Eventually they come across an horrific warren run by a totalitarian general rabbit named Woundwort (voiced by Harry Andrews). Roy Kinnear voices the rather nervous Pipkin, whilst Denholm Elliott voices the peculiar and suspicious Cowslip, whose warren the protagonists happen upon along the way.

 

Many people of my generation were terrified by “Return to Oz” (The first film I ever saw theatrically, I still have trouble with it even now as a perfectly well-adjusted adult). For a generation or so before me, it appears to have been this 1978 animated adaptation of the Richard Adams novel by filmmaker Martin Rosen (“The Plague Dogs”) which left children screaming from the cinema. In recent years, the film has amassed a favourable critical and cult following, who understand that like Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, this story of anthropomorphised animals was never intended for children. I’m familiar with “Animal Farm” (both in literary and cinematic form), and can safely say that this ain’t no “Animal Farm”. This is a ghastly nightmare of a film that repulsed my at age 40 and probably would’ve given me nightmares had I seen it as a kid. Even if one were to put aside the horrific nature of this story, it’s also a completely drab, dull, and wholly uninteresting story being told. Many disagree and that’s fine, I’m not here to convert anyone. For me, I felt this one was a monotonous, dreary slog. Very little of it went plenty far enough for me thank you very much. The animation is nice, the rest is a hard pass.

A great cast of mostly British character actors have seemingly all the personality from the voices removed to the point where not only do the bunnies all look the damn same, they sound the damn same, too. How in the hell does the inimitable Roy Kinnear get lost in the shuffle of any film? John Hurt isn’t bad, and Denholm Elliott and Harry Andrews score quite alright with rather sinister parts (though they’re part of the problem because Andrews’ character in particular contributes much of the more horrific moments. Still, a good vocal performance is a good vocal performance). The rest are all a bit samey, save for an idiot calypso seagull, in whose company we spend way, way too much time. What’s the point in hiring a great voice cast if they’re not going to be given distinct characters to work with?

 

With a wholly inappropriate PG rating, this is an ugly, depressing story that some might get interest out of. I’m not among you, and couldn’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want to watch an animated film on this sort of subject with this sort of tone. It’s not that it’s aimed at adults – I like the very naughty “Fritz the Cat” just fine – this is just that it’s boring, ghastly, and depressing in the extreme. I get the feeling that this would be a little easier to take in novel form, but I would still likely take a hard pass on it. A total horror show as a film, at any rate. I understood what the film was about thematically, I simply question whether it was really worth it to do it this way, and how large a target market it has as an animated film. It does have a large cult following though, so perhaps it’s a moot point. Lovely water-colour animation style going to waste.

 

Rating: D