Okay, that might be me just getting a little bit ahead of myself. Watership Down is a 1978 offering from Nepenthe Productions and given to us by those wonderful folks across the pond in merry old England - and it shows with the use of John Hurt in a prominent voice role, as well as several of the other seven actors that the United Kingdom has to offer also voicing the animals in question.
...yes, I was too lazy to go through everyone's IMDB pages for any other connections that you might know. John Hurt is good enough for me, he's good enough for you.
The film begins with an explanation of the lore of rabbits from the novel - yes, there was a novel and, no, I haven't read it - that they (and all animals) were created by the sun god Firth. Rabbits, in the beginning, multiplied quickly and made food scarce, so Firth spoke to the Rabbit Prince and told him to keep his species in line. When he refused, Firth gave a bunch of wondrous gifts to all the other animals and made many of them predators against the rabbits. When he thought that the rabbits had learned their lesson, Firth blessed them with quickness and wit, so that they might be able to outrun and outsmart their predators.
As the tagline on the poster says, "But first they much catch you."
The actual plot picks up when the rabbit Fiver (Richard Briers) has a vision about the end of his warren. He goes with his brother Hazel (John Hurt) to talk to their chief, but are dismissed and decide to take on a journey to escape the fate of their home themselves. Eight manage to escape, finding a world fraught with dangers unimagined by the brace including snare traps, rats, a cat, and even...evil rabbits. The film makes you really feel for the plight of the rabbits quickly, pulls you in and makes you want to see them overcome their adversity.
There are eight to start, but the film only really focuses on three of them. Hazel (Hurt) is the leader and is the one who comes up with plans that will inevitably always go to pot because they always do. So much to the point that he becomes one of the dangers. There's Fiver, who is - like Cordelia in the early few seasons of Angel - known only for precognitive visions and wobbly bosoms (maybe not that last part). Unlike Miss Chase, he spends most of his time either getting caught up in Hazel's plans or having trances that could either be mystical or epilepsy. And then...there's Bigwig (Michael Graham Cox).
Oh, how does one describe Bigwig? Imagine if Miles Teg were suddenly polymorphed into a rabbit and was no less completely badass. That is Bigwig. (If you don't know Miles Teg, then go read Dune, you Neanderthal).
Their overarching adversity here being survival, and it's the theme that resonates strongly throughout the whole film almost from start to finish. The rabbits journey to Watership Down (which is apparently the name of the hill, but is still rather confusing as all get out that that's the name) is the point of the entire film and, even when they have avoided a great deal of the troubles of their world, they are forced to fight for their small slice of paradise in order to keep it.
Also, to the film's credit, man does exist in this world but the film doesn't feel the need to beat us over the head with an environmental message about how they're destroying the environments of the rabbits or some such rot. There's only a few short scenes where the humans appear at all, and even then one of the humans actually helps one of the rabbits in the climax of the film. I can really say it's refreshing.
Another way this is refreshing is in the level of violence. No, that's not actually a joke - this is insanely brutal for a kid's film. And, yes, this was marketed to children being from that era where animated things were for children, as well as being an ironic twist on American's being considered the uber-violent nationality. It actually reminds me of that one Eddie Izzard skit talking about the differences in British cinema and American cinema (Watch it here) being turned on its head.
Really, there's very little held back here. There's blood, maiming, the whole lot of violent acts that one rabbit can visit upon another. Really, for an American child having concepts like death and the afterlife even acknowledged is extremely hardcore. The animation showcases it well, though, and helps add to the film's overall feeling.
The animation itself is really good (for the era) over all. The rabbits are reasonably expressive and few of scenes are animated with anything less than top quality (again, for the era).. Mind you, there is one really trippy sequence set to Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" that I'm almost entirely certain was inspired by long session that involved the use of expensive methamphetamines.
The villain is also entertaining, if a little cliched. The "General" Woundwort is the leader of the evil group of rabbits and is made of pure, unadulterated badass from start to finish. The rank is well earned, as Woundwort is one hell of a fighter and is able to take on Bigwig in a knock down, drag out, and then go on to fight a big, black dog - the latter fight of which he might have actually survived in the end.
...spoiler alert.
But yes, very glad I was coaxed into watching the film in question. It's enjoyable, even if the ending left me more than a little confused. But, I suppose, an ambiguous fate is better than no fate at all. If you get a chance to see this movie, I suggest you do it, if only because it's a really rather enjoyable one.
Watership Down is brought to us by Nepenthe Productions, and was distributed originally by CIC (in the UK) and Avco Embassy Pictures (in the US).
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