Review of Watership Down (1978) by Robert T — 15 Sep 2010

I have heard a lot about this film for a while now. Never got the chance to watch it until recently. Some of the things I have heard for a while is that film is dark and violent for a kids movie, and it was based off a book.

Well, I never read the book so I was went and watched the film with fresh eyes not knowing any of the characters or plot. The film's animation was interesting. I actually enjoyed some of the water color background.

I thought that was quite interesting. The film's introduction was neat, too. I like how it used symbols and simple character designs and movements to tell the story. One thing I didn't like was the editing.

Yes, I know that it was released back in 70s, but the editing was awful. Some scenes it suddenly fades out while a character was talking. I guess that was the OK thing to do back then. Another thing I didn't enjoy was that some of the rabbits all looked the same.

To me, it was hard to differentiate one character from another. In addition, it would be nice if some of the supporting characters' name be mentioned once in a while. I didn't even remember most of their names by the end of the film.

I noticed that the film was split into three different sections: the introduction, the quest to find a new home, and how to capture female rabbits. Other than that, the film was pretty simple and straightforward.

But, one character annoyed me the most was the damn bird! He was so annoying. Anything that came out of his mouth annoyed me so much. His accent was hard to figure out, though I think he might be Russian.

So a Russian ocean bird? Weird. But anyway, the film was entertaining to an extent. I wanted to watch it because I have heard so much about it. Now that I did, I probably do not want to watch it again.

Plus, after doing some research, I think there was a sequel to this film, right?