Watership Down

1978

1h 32m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

661

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

3 Videos

74 Images

Adventure

Animation

Drama

When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven.

Directors

Martin Rosen

Writers

Richard Adams(novel by)

Martin Rosen(screenplay by)

John Hubley(writer by)

Stars

John Hurt

Richard Briers

Michael Graham Cox

See production, box office & company info

Top cast

Hazel (voice)

Fiver (voice)

Bigwig (voice)

Captain Holly (voice)

Chief Rabbit (voice)

Blackberry (voice)

Silver (voice)

Pipkin (voice)

Dandelion (voice)

Cowslip (voice)

Cat (voice)

Clover (voice)

Kehaar (voice)

General Woundwort (voice)

Hannah Gordon

Hyzenthlay (voice)

Nigel Hawthorne

Captain Campion (voice)

Clifton Jones

Blackavar (voice)

Derek Griffiths

Vervain (voice)

Directors

Martin Rosen

Writers

Richard Adams(novel by)

Martin Rosen(screenplay by)

John Hubley(writer by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The instantly recognisable tones of Sir Michael Hordern set the scene as he tells us a tale of yore about the rabbit. How it got it's white fluffy tail, it's strong hind legs and it's speed, sure, but also of it's vulnerabilities. It is the animal that most others just want to eat! Many generations later and a colony is struggling with overcrowding. Mankind is encroaching on it's territory and there simply isn't room in the warren anymore. "Hazel" suggests to the boss that they start a new one, but he flares up and refuses. Together with "Fiver" they go anyway but it's not long before they encounter the rather more militaristic one run by the menacing "Woundwort" who rules with claws and blood. I aways though their something Orwellian about Richard Adams's novel, and the selection of the sweet and docile bunny rabbit as the subject for this rather ferocious analysis of societal dysfunction adds even better to the anachronisms as even they prove to have a class system, an hierarchy and even their own furry version of a secret police! The animation is gorgeous to watch. The innocence and frivolity; the violence and the brutality - they are all captured quite graphically at times as the story unfolds. Art Garfunkel's song "Bright Eyes" doesn't actually feature so prominently as I'd remembered, but it does add quite potently for the few moments it's used to illustrate that which is tantalisingly close for "Hazel" and co. There's something truly fitting about a conclusion that seems righteous, even if it does rather reinforce the survival of the fittest mentality that these critters are trying to escape - with four legs or two.

Geronimo196722 Dec, 2024