Fiction to Flick: Watership Down
A long while ago, I once made a review about a childhood movie of mine that I’ve held rather close ever since. Based on Richard’s Adams’ famous novel on the world of rabbits and the journey of one warren travelling to another, “Watership Down” became adapted into a British animated film in the 70’s. You may know it to also have a Netflix series which I have yet to watch, but it’s the film that I remember most fondly.
Now that I have had the pleasure of reading the book completely, I figure it’s time for a little retrospective and see how close the film does to upholding the charm and epic feel that the book gave to me also.
As far as faithfulness to the book goes, the film does a fantastic job adhering humbly to the source material without much deviation, and really it doesn’t need to. The book is quite a large read indeed, divided into four individual acts. As you may be familiar, the story revolves around the journey of Hazel, his clairvoyant brother Fiver and a select bands of friends that flee their warren after Fiver has a premonition that something terrible may soon happen to their home, and must away to a new home. The four acts pass with the 1st Act involving the group departing their home and braving the wilderness of the English countryside. Their journey ends as the discover the perfect and tranquil Watership Down, a place positioned perfectly as a sanctuary for a warren.
The 2nd Act has the rabbits addressing that they are without females (or does) and must find some or the warren will fade away by next generation. Their success in this matter I will leave a mystery.
The 3rd Act presents the primary antagonist, General Woundwort, who leads the massive rival warren of Efrafa some distance away from Watership down. The hulking, weathered Woundwort rules the warren and its rabbits under a totalitarian regime that threatens to encroach upon Hazel and his found family in Watership Down.
Finally, the 4th Act brings the saga to a climax as Hazel and company bring together a legendary trick to trounce General Woundwort and Efrafa once and for all.
This is a long and sweeping story with a lot of arcs totalling 600 odd pages. The fact that the movie managed to squeeze all of those acts into its runtime with not a lot cut out is very impressive, resulting in a film that still holds true to the original novel.
The faithfulness to each of the named characters was also met with great praise, even by Richard Adams himself, who loved their depiction of Hazel as it was tightly close to how he imagined the natural leader rabbit.
There is also a small deal of lore and worldbuilding regarding the life and nature of these rabbits and their world that Adams constructed, including fragments of a fictional language used by the rabbits called “Lapine”.
There are many words and terms of this language used throughout the story, largely regarding the lives and workings of rabbit society. To “silflay” is to venture out a short ways from the home warren in order to feed and graze. “Owlsa” is a term referring to a select group of rabbits in a warren that protect, fight and guard the warren, its inhabitants and the Chief Rabbit that leads the warren. A rabbit police if you will. “Elil” refers to any and all predators or enemies that may or will harm and attack rabbits, a useful word indeed as the story always emphasizes how many natural enemies rabbits truly have, also refereed to as “The Thousand”, a term I’ll explain later. “Hraka” can simply mean rabbit droppings.
This use of language and lore is used quite effectively and subtly in the film, much so to where it’s so subtle and slipped in with no exposition that you may not quite get it until you know the context of the books and the lore of them both. That’s something that I appreciate, because not only does it encourage you to read the book, but it also helps you appreciate the film all the more.
Now comes the carrying of tone between both mediums. Neither present the story, characters, setting or context in a fluffy, bright light.
Adam’s story, you can tell quickly, does not aim to anthropomorphise, cartoonify, or exaggerate these rabbits to a high degree. These are most certainly real rabbits a very real world, as close to ours as it can be. In terms of intelligence, instincts, reactions, thought processes, communication and the realistic depictions of the world they inhabit and must survive in, the lives of these rabbits is as close to real as it can be without compromising the quality of story, with just enough fictional aspects to achieve the right kind of disbelief that can be suspended.
Scenes of violence, death and great peril are fraught in the story of Watership Down, and one could argue that the film takes this a step further in a near grim direction.
Across the pantheon of childhood films that are notorious for “traumatising” the children unfortunate enough to watch them, Watership Down has a grand reputation of being the near undisputed king in that regard.
Ironically, as someone who grew up watching the film, “traumatise” might be a strong word!
Compared to the soft, sensitive, toned down, cartoons and animation such as Disney and Dreamworks etc. it seemed a refreshing change of pace that I be presented with something that did not feel the need to dumb itself down or downplay itself in a lesser fashion just to cater to a child like me.
Children are often smarter than we give them credit for. Tolkien was somewhat of an advocator for teaching serious stories of great sincerity and hard realities to children, which explains his dislike for companies such as Disney for such practises.
I respected the film’s harder, grittier storytelling and sincere realism down to its more dark and violent ends. Though perhaps going a touch further than what the book reaches, it still retained that tone of the book that made it what it was. I believe.
An interesting side-note regarding the book, is that the chapters are interspersed with rabbit tales of folk-lore revolving around the great mythical prince of rabbits, El-ahrairah.
Since storytelling is presented as being a key part of rabbit culture in the story (and storytelling is no doubt a big part of human culture too), the group of rabbits take a pause within their journey and adventures to relay one of these stories. If one has a keen eye, the stories are even connected to the over-arching narrative of Hazel and his friends/enemies altogether.
These obviously could not be placed in the film, as it would no doubt hinder story flow and extend to too long a runtime, but these short-stories in the book unlock a deeper understanding of how these rabbits view their world through oral tradition.
In conclusion, as far as adaptations go, “Watership Down” did a great service not only to itself as a film, but also did great service to the book.
The themes, stories, characters, tone and magnitude of epicness I think were all carried over fantastically into animated form. I have already sung great praises about Angela Morley’s soundtrack that captures the essence of this battle of hardship that this cast of lagomorphs are going through.
I highly recommend that you consume book, film and series altogether, as they do great and faithful justice to a classic story that deserves to be remembered.
Thank you for reading and have a beautiful day!
- Daniel
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