Watership Down (‘78)

Jesus, I remember watching this as a child and bawling my eyes out. I think most of us who grew up on this have certain feelings whenever "Bright Eyes" is played.

^Oh and I did read the novel too. I remember there were a few differences from the movie, but my memory isn't that good otherwise.

I read it in middle school (something like 14 years ago now) I was scared by it, but also loved it.

General Woundwort absolutely terrified me.The stuff of nightmares.I can't hear 'Bright Eyes' without feeling fearful and really sad.

I saw it as a kid. What a wonderful movie.

Of course I remember it. Haunting.

Ka-reepy. I could never watch this film in it's entirety and they showed it at least once a year while I was growing up. As a kid, the only parts I really watched and liked was the beginning: when the rabbit was conversing with the Maker, the middle: when General Woundwort and the dog have the battle to the death and the sad ending: when the rabbit dies of old age and meets the rabbit of legend and hops away to the afterlife. Sad little film but I was entranced by these scenes.

Everybody likes bunnies.

I think I was 6 when I saw Watership Down? I felt scarred by it, but I also loved it. The movie definitely left its mark on my childhood.

I watched the remake - way too self-indulgent, cerebral, and sanitized.

Is it going to become more popular? It's an Odyssey, they're climate refugees.

[quote] Strange film. We used to call it “Bunnies, Bloody Bunnies”.

"We"??

Do you have multiple personalities?

Loved the book, never saw the film.

I read the book many times and loved it. Never saw the movie though.

The book is wonderful; one of my all-time favorites. It'll put you through an emotional wringer for sure, but the film is straight-up traumatizing.

The novel was fantastic. But it is definably a book for adults. I cannot imagine a film of it that anyone would market for children--however much they dilute the material.

The same animators made a film of another of the same author’s books, “Plague Dogs” (1982). About 2 dogs that escape from a lab where they were used for graphic experiments. One of them was repeatedly drowned and resuscitated, while the other’s brain was experimented with.

More realistic than “Watership,” and sadly just as downbeat, though it’s actually quite good. No surprise that it flopped.

Wonderful movie. The period of animated films from the late 1960s to late 80s was just underrated. The Yellow Submarine, The Thief and the Cobbler, Fritz the Cat, Wizards, The Lord of the Rings, Secret of Nimh, The Last Unicorn, Great Mouse Detective, Land Before Time, Raggedy Ann, Watership Down and Plague Dogs. They didn't care about scaring children and wrote for a mature audience.

When Little Mermaid came out, it just led to a formulaic style that everyone copied. Even Don Bluth was forced to mimic the formula.

The Rats of Nimh!!! Mystical to a young me.

[quote] When Little Mermaid came out, it just led to a formulaic style

Ive always held this view and i have turned off animation films since.

An American Tail was really dark. As a kid I didn't pay too much attention to the fact they were Jewish nice fleeing a pogram in Russia and were seeking The American Dream. The young protagonist Fievel got separated from his family and repeatedly put in dangerous situations and traumatized.

During the production of The Land Before Time, Don Bluth was actually forced to cut 10 minutes of footage that was deemed too scary for kids. By the insistence of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg who wanted an Oscar bait animated movie. The end product was still pretty grim and Littlefoot's mother's death was more graphic than Bambi. That conspiracy theory they were all dead in purgatory and searching for heaven still fits. They all go extinct anyway.

[quote] Do you have multiple personalities?

No r11, I have friends

I saw the TV miniseries that came out a few years ago. It made some changes from the book that made it less like an Alistair Maclean war story and introduced more female characters (Adams envisioned female rabbits as living under a sort of lagomorph sharia law where they only appeared when being herded around between burrows.)

Weren't there kangaroos in this, too, or was that something else? R17, you forgot Heavy Metal.

R20, I just had a conversation about how depressing I found the Land Before Time as a child, because I knew they would all end up extinct. But maybe I was picking up those intentionally fatalistic undertones- thanks for resolving that childhood pain!

R24 Any children's movie set in a historical era can be fucked up if you think too deeply. Like in Hunchback, we know the Romanis ("gypsies") are still going to be persecuted and victims of violence for centuries. In Pocahontas, we know a genocide is going to inevitably occur. Princess and the Frog glossed over the realities of 1920s Louisiana and it's violent racism. Anastasia, anyone can learn the real history of the Romanovs (though in the film's defense, Anastasia's death wasn't confirmed at the time). Hercules, if you know Greek mythology, you'd know Heracles kills Megara in a fit of madness.

Obviously being for kids, they aren't going to address it especially Disney. But Japan has movies like Grave of The Fireflies about WW2, the Hiroshima bombing and is a moral against blind nationalism and machismo. It still targeted to children and families.

I loved this movie, though I never saw it until about five or so years ago. I remember it playing on cable when we first got it, but somehow understanding it was for adults and not really going near it.

I agree that it is sadly underrated. The Plague Dogs adaptation was also good, but not as good.

Another 70s animation film that is woefully forgotten is the adaptation of The Mouse and His Child. Gorgeous animation, just stunning, and very downbeat. It's truly a lost should-be classic that has never made it to DVD and is long OOP.

I vaguely remember seeing this as a child with my parents at a drive-in movie theatre, of all places. I also recall reading the book but it was a long time ago.

You should also watch Plague Dogs. Written by the same author. Not as gore and shocking as Watership Down, but way more depressing. Probably the most depressing movie ever.