Watership Down

Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes

I don’t think this is the case with family movies being made today, but in recent history there has definitely been a string of kids’ movies that are celebrated for being surprisingly violent, terrifying, and altogether not really that appropriate for kiddies. Arguably, ‘inappropriate for kiddies’ is a loose term, but what I’m referring to are those gems in family cinema that manage to freak out adults as well as their ‘intended’ audience; Coraline, the boat ride from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the like.

Last night, I watched what is probably the most celebrated in this niche genre: Watership Down.

This mid ‘70s animated adaptation of Richard Adams’ novel tells the story of a community of rabbits that leave their warren just before disaster strikes and embark on a dangerous trek across the English countryside to find a new home. Overcoming all obstacles, the rabbits find the perfect place to start life anew, and they will fight to keep it.

While the film nowadays is definitely a bit dated, it nevertheless succeeds in leaving an impression on its audiences. Cutesy, family-friendly comic relief is left by the wayside to tell a dramatic story of animal hardship in a cruel and dangerous world. The watercolour animation says ‘kids’ film’, but the themes of animal hierarchy, the food chain, human threat, and environmental destruction make it anything but.

Image credit: Socialist Review

There are many disturbing scenes depicting deaths and demises that are unfathomable to humans, making them all the more unsettling, and the simple, but dramatic and soft-spoken dialogue gives the film an overall tone of melancholy, though it has to be said that the sense of relief at some happy endings is very satisfying thanks to it.

While I have no real inclinations to watch it again, Watership Down is a film that nevertheless worth watching for its reputation alone. It’s a refreshing trip back to a different time in movie animation.

Director: Martin Rosen, 1978

Cast: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Michael Graham Cox, John Bennett, Ralph Richardson, Simon Cadell, Terence Rigby, Roy Kinnear, Richard O’Callaghan, Denholm Elliott, Mary Maddox, Hannah Gordon, and Zero Mostel