Search - Watership Down on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Violence, Not For Children Movie Release: 1978 DVD Release: 03/26/2002 Format: DVD - Soft-Matted WSE for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 32 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 37 Genres: Drama, Adventure Drama See Also: Journey to Watership Down/Escape to Watership Down, Watership Down [Deluxe Edition]

Unique in the annals of animated films, Watership Down is a serious, even grim tale that many will find relentless and depressing and others will find poetic and moving. It doesn't pull any punches. Death -- violent, disturbing death -- is ever present, portrayed in a manner that is astonishingly honest for a cartoon. As a result, it is that rare animated film that really aims for a mature audience, despite its superficial funny animal trappings. It has a brilliant opening, most likely created by UPA veteran John Hubley, which in a primitive and simplistic style relates a creation myth as told by rabbits. The style changes thereafter, with beautiful watercolor backgrounds and a more natural approach to character animation. Unfortunately, the animation suffers somewhat from this point, becoming a bit sloppy, although it continues to portray the characters' movements as realistically as possible. The character designs themselves are rather too similar, with the result that it is sometimes difficult to tell the various rabbits apart. The story is also sometimes told in too-broad strokes, leaving those unfamiliar with the novel confused as to exactly what has happened and, more importantly, why. However, these flaws are redeemed by some unforgettable sequences, including a chilling segment detailing the destruction of the rabbits' warren and a devastatingly sad end sequence in which the Black Rabbit of Death gently takes one of the heroes away with it. Voiced by a fine cast, with stellar work from John Hurt and Richard Briers, Watership Down is an imperfect film with some of the most powerful moments ever created for the genre. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

John Hurt - Hazel
Richard Briers - Fiver
Michael Graham Cox - Bigwig
John Bennett - Capt. Holly
Simon Cadell - Blackberry

One of the few animated theatrical films to feature talking animals and not aimed at children, the cult favorite Watership Down receives a good DVD release from Warner Home Video. This budget-priced disc returns the beautifully animated film to its original widescreen aspect ratio and comes with a pristine Dolby Digital Stereo audio track. The DVD offers a number of welcome extras, but mainly they are text files instead of documentaries or featurettes. These text files feature the career of novelist Richard Adams, a glossary of rabbit terms, and a listing of the real British locales that inspired Adams and the filmmakers. It is a bit of a shame not to have a featurette on the making of the movie, because Watership Down was such a unique project and the vocal talent behind the animal characters is unbelievably fine. John Hurt, Denholm Elliot, and Ralph Richardson as rabbits, anyone? And the priceless Zero Mostel is perfectly cast as the much-needed comic relief in what would be his last big screen role. While Watership Down has scenes of violence and bloodletting and exposes children to the cruelties of humanity in the name of progress, it can be enjoyed by older children and teenagers, as well as adults. Director Martin Rosen also adapted another Richard Adams book into an animated feature and that one, The Plague Dogs, is actually much darker and even less forgiving of people's unethical disregard for the natural world than Watership Down. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide