Review of Watership Down (1978) by Logan R — 01 Mar 2010

Beautifully animated tale about a colony of rabbits who are forced from there warren by a building development and their trials and tribulations in trying to set up a new warren.

It's a dark story, often violent, with plenty of political undertones that works for the most part but is painfully slow for the opening hour. The animation is mostly watercolours and is beautiful to look at, it's clear that serious time and effort went into making the film look as realistic as possible. The voice actors are mostly decent but the real plus point of the film is the last half hour which is wonderfully done. It's faced paced action that's far too bloody for children but works very well in the context of the story. It's a nice ending too if a little strange.

There are plenty of down points though, there are far too many surreal moments that make little sense and do nothing to drive the narrative along. The first hour is very slow moving and some of the voice acting is poor.

Still it's all beautifully hand-drawn and with such an excellent last half hour it's definitely worth a watch. I enjoyed it much more as kid though.