I HIGHLY recommend the book. It goes into more detail on rabbit culture and language. The scene with Cowslip's warren is longer and much more disturbing, and Efrafa gets more development as well. While seeing Hazel die at the end is bittersweet, it's honestly the best ending he could have had. So few wild animals survive long enough to die of old age, especially prey animals like rabbits, so the fact that Hazel got to that point is honestly a miracle. Just to be clear, he didn't die right after the battle. The book states that he was Chief of the warren for a long time before he died.
Also the book does a much better job of depicture the conflict between Bigwig and Hazel. You don't really feel it really in the movie. As well as the friendship between Kehaar and Bigwig. It is so great in the book :D Not to forget the book has my favourite character! Bluebell
Kehaar is a black headed gull which is common in Britain as well as other seagulls like the herring gull but like any other animal he speaks in broken English to the rabbits ❤
@soloragoldsun2163 Grew up seeing the film every year on Boxing day on tv throughout the eighties and the opening still gives me goosebumps. Love the book as well (when i finally read it, 20 years later)... And of course, as Richard Adams has always said, there is absolutely, definitely, inconceivably no allegorical or metaphorical meaning at all, not even subconsciously. Non what so ever. Zero. Nada. It's just a story of rabbits looking for a new, peaceful place to live.🤔😁
I remember watching this as a 4 year old child and being scared shitless by Fiver's premonitions and the scene where the rabbits were all trapped in the caves suffocating. Its a BIG piece of my childhood, this movie. The book is equally good, I remember stealing it from the school library when I found it
It was exactly the same scene for me. I could take the blood and violence but not the rabbits suffocating in this artstyle. It was 100% a movie for children, but somebody just went a little bit to far. the remake or the nikelodeon series was much more tame.
I saw this movie as a kid,and the scene you described was actually more horrifying than mere suffocation. Fiver’s premonition was of home development coming to the area. The warren was closed in deliberately and they were gassed,likely going crazy and attacking each other,as well as being subjected to the terror of having machines dig up their warren with them still inside,those still alive unable to really move because of all the dead bodies. It’s basically thoughtless development from the point of view of the wildlife affected.
Omg I came here to comment exactly that!! It was fivers premonitions that scared me the most- they were so haunting as a small child around 5!! The scary rabbits were scary but definitely the scary premonitions making you feel the world is surrounded in danger and impending doom. Yes I'm not sure it's really suitable for young children. It does have a lot of good life lessons in it but maybe for older children around 8. I love the spitituality in it and the themes about the vulnerability of nature and wildlife, the human impact on the environment. I'm sure this movie had a big effect on my life as environmental concerns, animals and nature have always been very important to me from a young age. Also I'm have a very spiritual perspective on life. I love the team work of the good rabbits too and how they all bravely work together. I definitely relate to the comment above about flashbacks to fivers doom laden premonitions - at least growing up. Seeing it again always brings it back!! Also Thor seemed to think it was a good ending when Hazel went with the Black rabbit, but for a 5 year old not fully comprehending death I was heart broken for Hazel having worked so hard to save his people and then having to leave them behind- it was traumatic!!😭Of all the rabbits I think I relate most to Fiver but he was very heroic in his own way and did save then all with his insight. I was born the year of this movie and it was regularly shown on TV in the UK growing up.
@@leogem177 I would have been disturbed by Hazel’s passing too if not for the understanding that he lived a full life with his people and undoubtedly became a father,grandfather,great-grandfather,etc.,and only had to pass from old age. If he’d passed from grievous injuries,I would have been traumatized too.
The main reason people remember this as very violent and shocking, is because many people saw it for the first time as a child of under 10. Sometimes because their parents saw the cover or poster and thought it would be about cute bunnies, in my case because my parents were okay with me watching it. It stuck in people's minds, either as the cute movie that turned out to be way more violent than they thought, or the first really bloody movie they saw. Like, compare this with the average cartoons children see...
Being traumatized by this movie is a universal and much cherished childhood experience across the UK, at least to a certain age idk if it's still the case.
This was my favourite comfort watch as a child. They were different times. All my friends were watching Dawn of the Dead and An American Werewolf in London. If I’d told them I’d been traumatised by Watership Down they’d have laughed at me.
@@Person01234I think it stopped showing at christmas in 2018 or just after. Either way I will never forgett this movie and what it did to the kids I saw it with for the first time. Neither one of us could look at rabbits the same way after that.
In the US, this was standard movie watching for kids age 8-13. Before the movie came out, you could find the book in every school library! Great story about good vs evil, I remember being around 11 or 12 sitting around with my friends discussing this movie and trying to figure out what characters we wanted to be.
The novel wasn't written FOR children, more like a great novel for anybody to read! It was considered to be a children's book by people who hadn't read it, because they're just fluffy little Bunnies, right?
Yes, I agree. Plus, in Great Britain it was given a "U" rating, like our "G" so hey, family friendly! Bring the three year olds! And then there was much grousing about the violence and blood. But I never viewed it as a childrens novel or movie. In a way Disney made people feel that any movie with cute talking animals in it was kid friendly. This movie is one of my all time favorites.
The author told this story to his young children to keep them occupied in the car while driving to holiday, well before writing the book. This 100% was conceived of and created to be a children's story. It's just that in the 70s kids weren't coddled as much as they are nowadays.
I've always known it as a children's story. Not for 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 children, of course; I wouldn't show this to preschoolers! It seems like it's regarded as a good story to bridge the transition between "feel-good" fairy tales, where the prince wins the heart of the princess and they live happily ever after, and the more "adult" themed novels with moral dilemmas, where the reader has to come up with their own answers. If a kid is too old for 𝘊𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢, I would definitely recommend having them read this before handing them 𝙎𝙡𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚.
I LOVE this movie and book. I remember getting in trouble in grade 6 for reading it in class instead of paying attention to whatever the lesson was. Just brilliant and emotional.
Lendri. Owsla. Hrududu. In Richard Adams' excellent novel the rabbits had their own terminology for things, a Lapine vocabulary (included in a glossary at the end of the book). This made the Lapine society much more believable.
So for example from this, since Thor asked: Flay is green food, like plants. Rah, added to something, means 'king' or 'lord' or 'great.' So Flayrah is special great food. It's even in names. Elil Hrair Rah means 'Princes with a Thousand Enemies' from elil (predator) hrair (uncountable, which for rabbits means 'more than four') rah (prince). And they say what the character's names actually are in lapine. Fiver, for example, is Hrairoo - literally 'little thousand' but it's a cute name that means he was one of more-than-four in the litter.
@@ianburns1167 Very good explanation. Whenever I see a bunny I refer to it as "Hrairroo". And technically speaking, "flay" means eating or to eat. Silflay is the act of eating outdoors. Flayrah would translate as "princely eating" but the term is used to describe particularly yummy foods. The actual word for "food" in Lapine is unknown.
The Lapine language has been expanded, to a small degree, outside of Mr. Adams' book. "Mari" is the act of breeding, or to breed. A verb. "Emari" is a possessive adverb; "You breed" "Marli" is Lapine for mother. "Marli mi" is possessive. Your mother. 😀 ...sorry for the language.
One thing you have to understand: this movie is a drastically cut down version of the absolute door stopper of a book. Richard Adams wrote animals like J.R.R. Tolkien wrote elves - very wordy. There are pages of backstory about every hill and gully, long tangent legends about the first rabbit, Elahrairah, and the whole Efrafa expedition is about a third of the book, with days of Bigwig working his way into the burrow and learning his way around, and Hazel planning the great escape. The voice actors in this movie are some of the best British character actors of their day. John Hurt, Sir Ralph Richardson, Joss Ackland, Denholm Elliott, Roy Kinnear… The only exception is: 16:08 For that crazy damn seagull, they got Zero Mostel, of all people. 27:22 This is even more dramatic in the book. Woundwort assumes that Bigwig is the chief because he’s the biggest rabbit - to him, obviously the biggest and strongest are going to rule over the others. And so he imagines a huge rabbit, even bigger than Bigwig, giving the orders. But while Bigwig is their muscle, Hazel is their chief because he’s the smartest.
And the most important thing is that Woundwort simply cannot comprehend that some people are leaders because people naturally just choses to follow them. All he knows is staying on top by tyrannically walking over others, that, in his mind, wouldnt hesitate to stab him in the back. That someone would be a natural leader because people respect their compassion and aspiration for justice and equality is beyond his capability to understand. The contrast between the leader and the tyrant is really well done.
My parents rented this movie from Blockbuster when I was a kid thinking it was a cute cartoon about rabbits. I loved it and it is still one of my favorites. I don’t remember ever being bothered by the violence. I was enthralled with the story.
Same. People who cry about this movie "traumatizing" kids seem to forget that kids love dark stuff. There were whole book series of scary stories aimed at kids when I was growing up (and they did not hold back with scaring the bejeesus out of their readers).
My aunt saw this as just some cartoon film that was on some evening, so plonked us down in front of it. The Black Rabbit of Inlé haunted my dreams for years afterwards, as did the visions of the warren being gassed. I had to laugh at you saying it wasn't as violent or as disturbing as you thought because to so many of us watching it as children, it was terrifying!
Legendary experimental animator John Hubley did the prologue and was supposed to direct the film but was fired halfway through the production and replaced because the higher ups in charge didn't care for his art style, so except for his prologue everything that he worked on was redone. They didn't even give him credit for the prologue art. Hubley never had a chance to contest it because he died before it was released.
Cowslip is a plant/nature name. Almost all the rabbits have plant or nature names. The few that don't have names based on their physical characteristics like Bigwig, Silver, and Fiver ( Called that because he was the runt of the litter and rabbits can't count past four).
Old time fan of book and movie. "What is flay-ra?" Flay is food. The suffix "ra" means "great." Cowslip had access to high quality food (carrots). While not a sequel, many have recommended The Plague Dogs, based on another book by this author, and adapted by the same studio. It is not as cheery and light as Watership, but is excellent. And a VERY familiar and recognizable voice actor appears before he was famous (not spoiling it).
Watership Down is a real place in England. A down is a synonym for a hill. The rabbits don't know it's called that, though. The book had included a map (with topographic markings) of all the area covered by the rabbits on their journey.
Kind of a LOTR for rabbits. There's a map and everything. haha. But, instead of going towards the evil, they were running from it. Quite the hero's journey for many of the rabbits.
A down is a a low hill in the English countryside. Watership Down, the rivers streams, the cruxa, the iron road and farm... all the locations are all real places. The beech tree is really there. It's my understanding the old beech finally died recently and a young beech tree has been planted in It's place.
Watership Down is mainly called shocking and brutal because most people don't assume a G-rated cartoon movie about bunnies to have any blood in it I believe XD There are definitely more brutal animated movies about animals out there though, the cat murder mystery movie Felidae for example or Plague Dogs which I found so tragic that I've only ever managed to watch it once
I've never actually watched Plague Dogs, and I honestly don't want to. The book, while brilliant, was just so horribly depressing that knowing the movie has the ending he originally intended, and not the 'happy' (ha!) one his editor requested, is enough to make me avoid it.
It's one of my favorite books to pick up every few years and read. Like Tolkien, but not quite as detailed, Richard Adams came up with a limited rabbit language, and in the book, the scene where Bigwig and General Woundwort confront each other in the warren, Bigwig says in rabbit language what translates to "Eat shit, oh stinking prince!" I always found that entertaining.
You've got to watch "The Plague Dogs" it's the follow up to this, some other "disturbing" animated features - When The Wind Blows Barefoot Gen Felidae Grave Of The Fireflies The King Of Pigs Its Such a Beautiful Day
The Animals of Farthing wood and the last unicorn too. Stand by me and my girl are not animated but are films that SEEM like Kids films but are psycologically scarring if you view as a kid.Lost Crystal has scary scenes too and Charlotte's Webb less disturbing but can get you very emotional.
Watership Down is a real place in Hampshire that just happens to sound as if there is some connection to water. It's not a fictitious name invented for the book; it's an area near where Richard Adams lived as a child The second part, Down, is a noun and here has a meaning similar to 'hill'. To quote the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a down is "an undulating usually treeless upland with sparse soil - usually used in plural: sheep grazing on the grassy downs" the ship part of the title refers to friendship, hardship, and township. Some of the rabbits are friends and the rabbits face hardships throughout the movie in order to to get to the warren which for them may as well be a township. Homba is another word for fox. The dog is an English black lab which is shorter and stockier than the more lean American Labrador American labs were bred mostly for hunting while English labs were bred for show but still make great hunting dogs. A well trained one won't chase after prey but will retrieve it after hearing the gunshot from the hunter. They can sit quietly for hours on end with the hunter as they wait for prey to come by and have soft mouths so they do not puncture the dead animal as they retrieve it since that is a health hazard.
Watership Down, Nuthanger Farm, the Iron Road (railroad) are all real places in England. Watership Down is very close -- within sight, I think -- to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's estate. I believe downs are small hills. I read this novel in high school when the book was still on the best-sellers list. My daughter even chose it as a book to read for a class assignment in middle school. Her teacher told me it was the longest book any of her students had ever chosen. So proud of her. The kid has taste.
The Plague Dogs is even more shocking than this one and it's from the same director and author. Be warned, though. That one is a pretty tough watch. The Secret of NIMH or An American Tail are also good choices, still dark (especially for G rated) but more enjoyable
@@morcellemorcelle618 To each their own. Richard Adams actually really liked the movie adaptation himself, the movie ending was actually how he intended the book to end initially. I won't say more because spoilers
@@gugurupurasudaikirai7620 yeah, I know that was the intended ending, and I for one am not against it, it was the ending I expected, and was quite surprised by the book. But for me personally, the movie came across as rather boring, where as the book was extremley sad. I actuarlly dont know why
I saw this in the cinema in 1978. It amuses me when people say it's disturbing. To me now and then it was unutterably beautiful. The music, artwork, great voice acting and story are probably the best I've ever seen in animation. But it's the story that I believe makes people react so strongly. It's a visceral fairytale fable about heroism, sacrifice, community and of course death. The ending lingers long after the credits roll. The book is pretty good too. 😉
Even when you put aside the trauma and violence, this movie is beautiful. Gorgeous music, beautiful animation and a great depiction of what real life rabbits go through every day. I love it! ❤
My mom put this on for me and left me home alone when I was little. I was 7 and remembered running to my aunt's house down the street when it was over.
This movie scarred me as a kid. I was a really softhearted kid and it genuinely upset and scared me watching this. Never watched it again after that 😂 I’m an 80s kid though and I do think kids nowadays are pretty desensitised with most things. Which is scary in itself
In the books, it's explained that rabbits do not have a word for up, so they call hills "downs". As for Watership, that's implied by the later plot device.
The later series of Watership down and the series animals of farthing wood were shows that were around my childhood in the 90s. Watching them today makes me question why they were consindered children shows. I mean, it did not really traumatize me but absolutely left a lasting impression and the message that nature (and humanity) can be very cruel but thats just the way it is. Still, when my friend asked me if they could give the book Watership down to his 8 year old nephew because "it has bunnies on it", I declined and suggested waiting a few more years.
I live just a few miles away from the actual Watership Down and they’ve captured the beauty of the area so well. It used to make me chuckle that for years Channel 5 tv here in the UK used to show this an afternoon family film at Easter. Clearly nobody had actually seen it.
Oh yes rabbits fight like that. They're absolutely vicious. Also Hazel wasn't rejected by Frith. Frith was basically saying "I'm staying out of this. So whatever is going to happen will be by your merits alone"
Ooh, interesting choice! I must confess, I have yet to actually sit down and watch this whole movie, even though the original novel by Richard Adams is one of my favorite books ever. Also, no direct connection to Animal Farm, but some similarities I suppose. Love that you reacted to this. Cheers!!
It's still on RUclips I think at time of writing this but a guy went visiting the locations featured around leadership down. From the down n its tree to the railway Etc. So it is based on a real countryside
I watched this as a kid when it came on TV when I was 7 years old. Now as a kid I'd get scared during movies really easy. I mean scared like not being able to stop my brain running on a loop the scary part over and over and just constantly shaking because of it. When I was like 5, The Blob came on TV , and this wasn't even the 80's one but the 50's one, but it got to me! Same thing happened when the 50's version of War of the Worlds came on TV. Now when Watership Down came on, I don't know if it was because I was getting older or it was a cartoon or a combination of both, but it didn't scare me like that. It thrilled me. If those other movies generated the same kind of fear that someone pointing a gun at me to rob me would...then Watership Down generated the kind of thrilling fear you get when riding a roller coaster. So while I know others were scarred by this movie as kids and I had been scarred by other movies as a kid, it wasn't that way with me here and so I ended up loving the movie! I watched it many, many times. It was just so unique for an animated film to be so earnest in the portrayal of the life of a wild animal, and kids can pick up on things like that...and some, like me, can appreciate it. I've also been a sucker for world building since even before I knew what world building was. The mythology created by Richard Addams for the rabbit society was just so fascinating to me. The creation myth at the beginning is one of my favorite parts! Watership Down is the name of the area of England they were in. Look up images of the real place and see how amazingly accurate they drew it for the movie, it is such beautiful countryside! Best Regards!
Oh....Watership Down. such a wonderful movie. Very traumatizing too to a young kids in back the day! I think i first watched it on tv over two nights. LIke it said, very traumatizing! Art Garfunkel's "Bright eyes' is really beautiful, and haunting too!
You have to remember that this is an animated movie that came out in 1978, but didn't really got any attention until it showed up on HBO in the early 80s (when I saw it) and in video stores. The videotape packaging made it look like a kids movie, with happy rabbits on the hillside. Kids animated movies just didn't have this level of violence (or any violence) at that time.
Ah, the first movie to traumatise me. My stepdads mum had me pick a VHS when I was 6 and of course I picked the one with the cute bunnies. She left me alone to watch it 🙃
This was somehow a movie I missed growing up, but I read the book at 12 the first time (have given it many re-reads) and it’s one of my favorite books of all time, so, so good. The movie I find kind of weird as an adult but I see what they were trying to do. It’s good and interesting in its own way
I saw this movie when I was a kid around 1980. They used to play it on HBO all of the time; and didn't find it to be too shocking back then because we kids were not really protected from things like this. I think that only now does it seem shocking because they don't make cartoons like this for kids anymore; and so people today who didn't grow up seeing the likes of this are going to be more sensitive to it. Cat: 'Can you run? I think not. I think not.'
Based of my favorite novel of all time, I think I've read it 4 times. The movie is fairly close to the book, seeing as altought they cut alot of the 500 pages out, the relevant stuff is actually really well adapted. The only thing I wasnt a fan of was how fast paced cowslips warren was. That was my favorite part of the book, it was so intense, it took a while for the rabbits to find out what was actually going on, and you just got this really uncomfortable feeling that something was terribly wrong and when we finally got to the part where Bigwig was caught in the snare the impact of the build up was imediate. That whole sequence felt way to rushed in the movie, and I wish they'd added an extra 10-15 minutes to get that scene right. I have seen people refer to this story as The odessy of animals, and it really is one of those grand adventure stories about life and death, only with rabbits as lead characters. I really really recommend reading the book, it dives a lot more in to the lore of rabbit, and also have a lapin dictionary, that explains all the rabbit words like Homba, Silflay and hrududu. General Woundwort is okay, the movie seems to have focused more on the "scary" sides of him, where as the Netflix series focused more on the "mad dictator"- part, but didnt make him nearly as intimidating. He is, imo, one of the best, most interesting antagonists in fiction and I think a mix of movie- and Netflix Woundwort would have been perfect. The Netflix series is good as a stand alone, but I dont really like it as a book adaptation. It took to many liberties and it felt like they didnt understand the essence of the story. Also, the reason why this traumatized an entire generation was because parents who had not read the book thought "great, a cute film about rabbits", and then took their five year olds to see it. You are an adult 😉
100% agree. Every adaptation seems to omit the character of Strawberry, but I always loved him so much. Him just squealing in pain when they asked him where his wife was, and then whispering "the wires" always made me cry for him.
Totally agree. While I like this version, the music is great, the voice talent spot-on, the wistfulness of the animation superb, it feels so truncated and rushed through a lot of the fun and depth of the book feels missing. I suppose not having read would have meant I wouldn't have noticed all that. The new version is.... lacking best describes it. In the end I have still to see the last part. The book is excellent. All of the rabbits are fleshed out more and have distinct personalities. And the book has so much more in there. The El-ahrairah chapters told as stories give rabbit culture and the narrative as a whole, added depth. This is essentially a fantasy novel where the main characters happen to be rabbits.
There were two later animated adaptions for TV. One was a UK-Canadian production form 2000 that never aired in the US. It ran for three short seasons and started following the novel/movie but finished that in the first season and then segued into the further adventures of..... A few years ago there was a CGI miniseries on Netflix that adapted the novel.
As a child I watched this and I had nightmares about multiple things related to this film, however as I grew into adulthood I noticed a lot of references like you said to leadership, fighting for freedom but also some very subtle WW2 references like the general symbolising hitler and his owsla representing the SS troopers and the rabbits under them representing the Jews and non desirables of the nazi party at that point in history. I highly recommend this movie purely because it’s very real in its representation of how life is for a wild rabbit aside from the obvious fictional factors of premonition etc there. I recommend felidae and the plague dogs if you want any other films like this to react to in future, they are much darker in tone but still worth a watch if interested.
I never watched this film, but I first read the book for my 8th grade English class and loved it. I hadn’t reread it until 25 years later, and was delighted to find that it really holds up.
Wow! Rare reaction. It’s pretty wild how early it was introduced to us in school. Of course that was the early 80s & the world was very different. I remember lots of scared friends, but I loved it. The Dark Crystal & The Secret of NIMH were my favorites besides this one. I’m glad my education involved things that wouldn’t be allowed today, and more glad it was before cell phones. 😂 Thanks for a great reaction.
And yes Rabbits can fight I work in a pet shop and sometimes we have to seperate them if it gets bad although we don't like to as they should be in pairs. We have a spray that can calm them down but sometimes it doesn't work. Doesn't happenn often though
I love every version of this story, the novel, this movie, the netflix series, the 2000s series. All of them have something that makes them worth diving into, but I love the pall of bittersweetness I always leave feeling when I see this one.
As dark as this movie can get, I really enjoy it. You should listen to the audiobook version. It’s read by Peter Capaldi, who does the voice of Keehar the seagull in the Netflix version.
(Sees the notification)Oh,boy. Ooooooohhhh boy...!😨🐰🩸 00:36 - 00:40 I LOVE the"Animal Farm"cartoon!!😍You could react to that too!!😃🤩 03:04 - 03:10 🤭🤭🤭 Anyway,this movie reminds me a bit of"The Animals of Farthing Wood".I don't know if it's the same level of trauma,but if it isn't...I'd say we're pretty close!;-S 20:41 - 20:49 "Yeah,show some *respect* to our *ugly* rabbit leader!ù^u"
this movie has haunted me my whole life. especially the soundtrack.. my mum made the mistake of assuming it was a kids movie.. so i watched this as a 6 or 7 year old. not that i blame her.. it gave me a realisation of life and death and nature.. but the soundtrack has stuck with me always
I was a very young child in the 80s (less than 10 years old) when I first watched this. It scard me as a child. I don't think there's ever been a more violent cartoon eve made.
@@LA_HA You mean Felidae? Be careful. Before you do, I've gotta warn you. It's very, VERY graphic. Blood, gore, and one particular 18+ scene between two cats. It's very weird and not for the faint of heart. It pulls absolutely zero punches.
@@WinterLynne94 [Edited] I actually meant the other one. I vaguely recall the title of felidae. I haven't seen that one either, though. So, okay. Now I'm nervous. So, I'll pick a good, bright, sunny day to watch it to counteract the things you've warned me about. Thank you. I'm glad to know what I'm dealing with if it's off the rails
I'm glad you reacted to this; the animation's a little clunky but the emotion of the story comes through. The book is a great read, and gives much more detail about the rabbits' society, including a short dictionary of rabbit words like homba (fox) and lendri (badger). Have you seen 'The Secret of Nimh?' It's an animated animal adventure film, and the animation is just gorgeous.
I watched This as a Child and liked It and Weirdly was not scared and somehow never noticed how violent It was. Which is really weird because other things that don't Disturb other kids disturbed Me like Jurassic park and the simpsons
Yeah… this is not a kid’s movie. This is based on a book by the same name, written by Richard Adams; well worth reading if you get the chance. Nothing to do with Animal Farm, more like a grownup version of Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (only with rabbits, rather than mice and rats) - Watership Down is a real place in England. Probably built over by now, sadly. I think the reason people find the violence disturbing is because they do not expect it. This is an animated movie. About bunny rabbits. That typically signals something a bit more gentle and safe.
@@morcellemorcelle618 I looked it up. It wasn't. For UK the original cut was rated A, which later became a PG. In the US it was released as PG but got kicked up to PG-13 once the PG-13 classification was released.
I was very young when my aunt took my two older cousins and myself to see this. I was relatively ok afterwards but my cousins weren't very good afterwards. The trouble is the rating to see it was U which means Universal and suitable for all. The theme song was no. 1 in the UK for weeks and seemed such a gentle song and didn't convey the graphic, at least to a child, details of the film. This lead to many parents taking taking young children to see it and wishing that they hadn't! A good reaction so thank you. Another UK animated film that might interest you if you haven't seen it is When the Wind Blows. It gives a true mix of emotions but I don't want to say more than that as I don't wish to spoil it.
The trauma of this was contextual to the time period. In the 70's and 80's childrearing was more "free range" than it is nowadays. There were entire summer months after age 7 where my folks just didn't know where I was or who I was with for most of the day if it was sunny out. LOL. Television was considered an acceptable babysitter, and the west was completely unfamiliar with anime or the concept that animated films would ever be anything except disney or cartoons for kids. So folks would take their young children, sit them down in front of the TV set, and turn on HBO where this first played, and then leave the room to go do whatever it was our parents did when we weren't around. It was extremely rare to find a set of parents who would watch everything with their kids or insist on knowing where they were all the time. We used to make fun of our friends for being raised by scardy-cat wussies of parents when that happened. (For all of the 1970s and most of the 1980s there was literally a Public Service Announcement which would play during a commercial break on all broadcast TV channels which said every night, "The time is 10pm. Do you know where your children are?" Like, for real, they had to nag the Boomers into remembering that they had kids and it was getting late so maybe go check on 'em or shove food in their faces or something.) Most of the kids in the 70's were traumatized by this movie because our folks put it on the TV set and then left us alone to deal with it, and if you tried to tell your folks that there was a scary cartoon on TV, they'd tell you to stop being a sissy and just change the channel if you didn't like the cartoon. Seriously. And these were the GOOD parents, because they were around.
Adam Pacio: [Edited] Haha. They were right. But, even today, people haven't learned to change the channel instead of sitting there complaining about something they don't have to watch. My older siblings grew up under this practical parenting and, though I came along later, this was my upbringing, as well. Far from traumatized, I'm infinitely grateful and happy that my parents decided to stick with what worked instead of switching to any number of harmful new childrearing methods that turned out... different... kids. As a result, I miss it. A lot. Except, my parents and my friends' parents didn't just ignore us. They All had parameters to our freedom. It had to be earned through trust, good behavior, and chores. The street lights rule was The Rule for getting in at night. If The Rule was forgotten, parents all over the neighborhood would call out our names and we'd go running; or they'd send siblings to bring us in for dinner...after bath time, right, because running around doing Everything all day was a smelly business. Of course, I recognize that not everyone had the same experience of such fond memories of an idyllic childhood. It's not possible and I'm sorry if it wasn't a good time for you. No negativity meant. I just wanted to stick up for the Great parents who did good by those who had the time of their lives. Those days are likely gone forever and, I truly believe, that's to be mourned
The context is that when this was released in Great Britain ... it was NOT rated the American equivalent of PG13 ... or even PG ... it was rated U ... the equivalent of the American G. Suitable for EVERYONE of ALL ages. Which ... it ... is ...NOT. As you can see from the comments below.
I believe the author have stated that he did not aim for it to have a deeper meaning or any parallels that people tend to draw. The book is really good too, I like that the rabbits have their own words, in the book there are footnotes that has the translation Luckily the movie was not my first introduction to this, there is a cartoon show which is a lot more suitable for a young audience. I watched that when I was like 4-5 years old. Then looked for it when I was around 11 but found the movie instead 😂😅
This animated film hosted a who's-who of voice talent: John Hurt, Zero Mostel, Nigel Hawthorne, Roy Kinnear, even Art Garfunkel singing "Bright Eyes" - names from the 1970's that people remember to this day, such was the talent.
I HIGHLY recommend the book. It goes into more detail on rabbit culture and language. The scene with Cowslip's warren is longer and much more disturbing, and Efrafa gets more development as well. While seeing Hazel die at the end is bittersweet, it's honestly the best ending he could have had. So few wild animals survive long enough to die of old age, especially prey animals like rabbits, so the fact that Hazel got to that point is honestly a miracle. Just to be clear, he didn't die right after the battle. The book states that he was Chief of the warren for a long time before he died.
Also the book does a much better job of depicture the conflict between Bigwig and Hazel. You don't really feel it really in the movie. As well as the friendship between Kehaar and Bigwig. It is so great in the book :D
Not to forget the book has my favourite character! Bluebell
well that changes a lot. I only know the movie and for me it was always so sad that he would die so soon after saving his people
The ending is so sweet yet somber and realistic. We all die in the end ❤
Kehaar is a black headed gull which is common in Britain as well as other seagulls like the herring gull but like any other animal he speaks in broken English to the rabbits ❤
@soloragoldsun2163 Grew up seeing the film every year on Boxing day on tv throughout the eighties and the opening still gives me goosebumps. Love the book as well (when i finally read it, 20 years later)... And of course, as Richard Adams has always said, there is absolutely, definitely, inconceivably no allegorical or metaphorical meaning at all, not even subconsciously. Non what so ever. Zero. Nada. It's just a story of rabbits looking for a new, peaceful place to live.🤔😁
I remember watching this as a 4 year old child and being scared shitless by Fiver's premonitions and the scene where the rabbits were all trapped in the caves suffocating. Its a BIG piece of my childhood, this movie. The book is equally good, I remember stealing it from the school library when I found it
It was exactly the same scene for me. I could take the blood and violence but not the rabbits suffocating in this artstyle. It was 100% a movie for children, but somebody just went a little bit to far. the remake or the nikelodeon series was much more tame.
I saw this movie as a kid,and the scene you described was actually more horrifying than mere suffocation. Fiver’s premonition was of home development coming to the area. The warren was closed in deliberately and they were gassed,likely going crazy and attacking each other,as well as being subjected to the terror of having machines dig up their warren with them still inside,those still alive unable to really move because of all the dead bodies. It’s basically thoughtless development from the point of view of the wildlife affected.
Oh my God I also watched this movie when I was about four years old, and I too do this day gets flats back from it. And from that dam Cat!
Omg I came here to comment exactly that!! It was fivers premonitions that scared me the most- they were so haunting as a small child around 5!! The scary rabbits were scary but definitely the scary premonitions making you feel the world is surrounded in danger and impending doom. Yes I'm not sure it's really suitable for young children. It does have a lot of good life lessons in it but maybe for older children around 8. I love the spitituality in it and the themes about the vulnerability of nature and wildlife, the human impact on the environment. I'm sure this movie had a big effect on my life as environmental concerns, animals and nature have always been very important to me from a young age. Also I'm have a very spiritual perspective on life. I love the team work of the good rabbits too and how they all bravely work together. I definitely relate to the comment above about flashbacks to fivers doom laden premonitions - at least growing up. Seeing it again always brings it back!! Also Thor seemed to think it was a good ending when Hazel went with the Black rabbit, but for a 5 year old not fully comprehending death I was heart broken for Hazel having worked so hard to save his people and then having to leave them behind- it was traumatic!!😭Of all the rabbits I think I relate most to Fiver but he was very heroic in his own way and did save then all with his insight. I was born the year of this movie and it was regularly shown on TV in the UK growing up.
@@leogem177 I would have been disturbed by Hazel’s passing too if not for the understanding that he lived a full life with his people and undoubtedly became a father,grandfather,great-grandfather,etc.,and only had to pass from old age. If he’d passed from grievous injuries,I would have been traumatized too.
The main reason people remember this as very violent and shocking, is because many people saw it for the first time as a child of under 10. Sometimes because their parents saw the cover or poster and thought it would be about cute bunnies, in my case because my parents were okay with me watching it. It stuck in people's minds, either as the cute movie that turned out to be way more violent than they thought, or the first really bloody movie they saw. Like, compare this with the average cartoons children see...
Cant agree more. My experience exactly, I was in grade school when it came out
Being traumatized by this movie is a universal and much cherished childhood experience across the UK, at least to a certain age idk if it's still the case.
This was my favourite comfort watch as a child. They were different times. All my friends were watching Dawn of the Dead and An American Werewolf in London. If I’d told them I’d been traumatised by Watership Down they’d have laughed at me.
@@Person01234I think it stopped showing at christmas in 2018 or just after.
Either way I will never forgett this movie and what it did to the kids I saw it with for the first time. Neither one of us could look at rabbits the same way after that.
The same company also did another film of Richard Adam’s book called ‘Plague Dogs’, definitely worth checking out if you enjoyed Watership Down.
That’s another great, but dark movie.
super good movie but super dark and sad.
Might be hard to find. I don't think it was ever available in the US
@@bmoak The entire movie used to be uploaded to RUclips somewhere.
@@bmoak its free on youtube movies channel ruclips.net/video/mHY5kJCc1KI/видео.html
Watership down is a hill in Hampshire England. It’s a real place, I’ve been there. Looks pretty much like it does in the film.
In the US, this was standard movie watching for kids age 8-13. Before the movie came out, you could find the book in every school library! Great story about good vs evil, I remember being around 11 or 12 sitting around with my friends discussing this movie and trying to figure out what characters we wanted to be.
The novel wasn't written FOR children, more like a great novel for anybody to read! It was considered to be a children's book by people who hadn't read it, because they're just fluffy little Bunnies, right?
Yes, I agree. Plus, in Great Britain it was given a "U" rating, like our "G" so hey, family friendly! Bring the three year olds! And then there was much grousing about the violence and blood. But I never viewed it as a childrens novel or movie. In a way Disney made people feel that any movie with cute talking animals in it was kid friendly. This movie is one of my all time favorites.
@@leslie2149 People in the 90s let their kids watch South Park because "it's a cartoon" -- people are stupid.
The author told this story to his young children to keep them occupied in the car while driving to holiday, well before writing the book. This 100% was conceived of and created to be a children's story. It's just that in the 70s kids weren't coddled as much as they are nowadays.
@@pacio49 Yep. Some of the best children's books started out as stories told to the author's children.
I've always known it as a children's story.
Not for 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 children, of course; I wouldn't show this to preschoolers!
It seems like it's regarded as a good story to bridge the transition between "feel-good" fairy tales, where the prince wins the heart of the princess and they live happily ever after, and the more "adult" themed novels with moral dilemmas, where the reader has to come up with their own answers.
If a kid is too old for 𝘊𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢, I would definitely recommend having them read this before handing them 𝙎𝙡𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚.
I LOVE this movie and book. I remember getting in trouble in grade 6 for reading it in class instead of paying attention to whatever the lesson was.
Just brilliant and emotional.
I approve!!!!
Lendri. Owsla. Hrududu. In Richard Adams' excellent novel the rabbits had their own terminology for things, a Lapine vocabulary (included in a glossary at the end of the book). This made the Lapine society much more believable.
Flay hraka. Emari marli mi U embleer homba!
@@tommc3622 Language!
So for example from this, since Thor asked: Flay is green food, like plants. Rah, added to something, means 'king' or 'lord' or 'great.' So Flayrah is special great food.
It's even in names. Elil Hrair Rah means 'Princes with a Thousand Enemies' from elil (predator) hrair (uncountable, which for rabbits means 'more than four') rah (prince). And they say what the character's names actually are in lapine. Fiver, for example, is Hrairoo - literally 'little thousand' but it's a cute name that means he was one of more-than-four in the litter.
@@ianburns1167 Very good explanation. Whenever I see a bunny I refer to it as "Hrairroo".
And technically speaking, "flay" means eating or to eat. Silflay is the act of eating outdoors. Flayrah would translate as "princely eating" but the term is used to describe particularly yummy foods.
The actual word for "food" in Lapine is unknown.
The Lapine language has been expanded, to a small degree, outside of Mr. Adams' book.
"Mari" is the act of breeding, or to breed. A verb.
"Emari" is a possessive adverb; "You breed"
"Marli" is Lapine for mother.
"Marli mi" is possessive. Your mother.
😀
...sorry for the language.
One thing you have to understand: this movie is a drastically cut down version of the absolute door stopper of a book. Richard Adams wrote animals like J.R.R. Tolkien wrote elves - very wordy. There are pages of backstory about every hill and gully, long tangent legends about the first rabbit, Elahrairah, and the whole Efrafa expedition is about a third of the book, with days of Bigwig working his way into the burrow and learning his way around, and Hazel planning the great escape.
The voice actors in this movie are some of the best British character actors of their day. John Hurt, Sir Ralph Richardson, Joss Ackland, Denholm Elliott, Roy Kinnear… The only exception is:
16:08 For that crazy damn seagull, they got Zero Mostel, of all people.
27:22 This is even more dramatic in the book. Woundwort assumes that Bigwig is the chief because he’s the biggest rabbit - to him, obviously the biggest and strongest are going to rule over the others. And so he imagines a huge rabbit, even bigger than Bigwig, giving the orders. But while Bigwig is their muscle, Hazel is their chief because he’s the smartest.
And the most important thing is that Woundwort simply cannot comprehend that some people are leaders because people naturally just choses to follow them.
All he knows is staying on top by tyrannically walking over others, that, in his mind, wouldnt hesitate to stab him in the back.
That someone would be a natural leader because people respect their compassion and aspiration for justice and equality is beyond his capability to understand.
The contrast between the leader and the tyrant is really well done.
My parents rented this movie from Blockbuster when I was a kid thinking it was a cute cartoon about rabbits. I loved it and it is still one of my favorites. I don’t remember ever being bothered by the violence. I was enthralled with the story.
Same. People who cry about this movie "traumatizing" kids seem to forget that kids love dark stuff. There were whole book series of scary stories aimed at kids when I was growing up (and they did not hold back with scaring the bejeesus out of their readers).
I'm 47 and saw this movie when I was a kid in the 80s. Still haven't fully recovered lol.
44 and same 🤪🤣
My aunt saw this as just some cartoon film that was on some evening, so plonked us down in front of it. The Black Rabbit of Inlé haunted my dreams for years afterwards, as did the visions of the warren being gassed. I had to laugh at you saying it wasn't as violent or as disturbing as you thought because to so many of us watching it as children, it was terrifying!
Legendary experimental animator John Hubley did the prologue and was supposed to direct the film but was fired halfway through the production and replaced because the higher ups in charge didn't care for his art style, so except for his prologue everything that he worked on was redone. They didn't even give him credit for the prologue art. Hubley never had a chance to contest it because he died before it was released.
Cowslip is a plant/nature name. Almost all the rabbits have plant or nature names. The few that don't have names based on their physical characteristics like Bigwig, Silver, and Fiver ( Called that because he was the runt of the litter and rabbits can't count past four).
A blast from the past. The book was a huge success in Britain, as was the film, it even spawned a no.1 song, Art Garfunkel’s Bright Eyes.
Old time fan of book and movie.
"What is flay-ra?" Flay is food. The suffix "ra" means "great." Cowslip had access to high quality food (carrots).
While not a sequel, many have recommended The Plague Dogs, based on another book by this author, and adapted by the same studio. It is not as cheery and light as Watership, but is excellent. And a VERY familiar and recognizable voice actor appears before he was famous (not spoiling it).
Brad Bird (The Simpsons, The Iron Giant, The Incredibles etc) was one of the Plague Dogs crew.
Watership Down is a real place in England. A down is a synonym for a hill. The rabbits don't know it's called that, though. The book had included a map (with topographic markings) of all the area covered by the rabbits on their journey.
Kind of a LOTR for rabbits. There's a map and everything. haha. But, instead of going towards the evil, they were running from it. Quite the hero's journey for many of the rabbits.
A good follow up to this if you haven't seen it would be 'The Secret of NIMH'
A down is a a low hill in the English countryside.
Watership Down, the rivers streams, the cruxa, the iron road and farm... all the locations are all real places.
The beech tree is really there. It's my understanding the old beech finally died recently and a young beech tree has been planted in It's place.
I love what Frith say. 'If they catch you they will kill you. But first they must catch you.'
Watership Down is mainly called shocking and brutal because most people don't assume a G-rated cartoon movie about bunnies to have any blood in it I believe XD
There are definitely more brutal animated movies about animals out there though, the cat murder mystery movie Felidae for example or Plague Dogs which I found so tragic that I've only ever managed to watch it once
I've never actually watched Plague Dogs, and I honestly don't want to. The book, while brilliant, was just so horribly depressing that knowing the movie has the ending he originally intended, and not the 'happy' (ha!) one his editor requested, is enough to make me avoid it.
@@Bindi342 I love the book, but didnt like the movie at all
Plague dogs is by the same person
It's one of my favorite books to pick up every few years and read. Like Tolkien, but not quite as detailed, Richard Adams came up with a limited rabbit language, and in the book, the scene where Bigwig and General Woundwort confront each other in the warren, Bigwig says in rabbit language what translates to "Eat shit, oh stinking prince!" I always found that entertaining.
"Flay hraka U embleer rah!"
You've got to watch "The Plague Dogs" it's the follow up to this, some other "disturbing" animated features -
When The Wind Blows
Barefoot Gen
Felidae
Grave Of The Fireflies
The King Of Pigs
Its Such a Beautiful Day
I like the book, but I actually was not a fan of that movie.
I know a lot of people are, though.
A lot of fucked up cartoons from the 80s lol
The long long holiday is another good one!
The Animals of Farthing wood and the last unicorn too. Stand by me and my girl are not animated but are films that SEEM like Kids films but are psycologically scarring if you view as a kid.Lost Crystal has scary scenes too and Charlotte's Webb less disturbing but can get you very emotional.
Watership Down is a real place in Hampshire that just happens to sound as if there is some connection to water. It's not a fictitious name invented for the book; it's an area near where Richard Adams lived as a child The second part, Down, is a noun and here has a meaning similar to 'hill'. To quote the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a down is "an undulating usually treeless upland with sparse soil - usually used in plural: sheep grazing on the grassy downs" the ship part of the title refers to friendship, hardship, and township. Some of the rabbits are friends and the rabbits face hardships throughout the movie in order to to get to the warren which for them may as well be a township. Homba is another word for fox. The dog is an English black lab which is shorter and stockier than the more lean American Labrador American labs were bred mostly for hunting while English labs were bred for show but still make great hunting dogs. A well trained one won't chase after prey but will retrieve it after hearing the gunshot from the hunter. They can sit quietly for hours on end with the hunter as they wait for prey to come by and have soft mouths so they do not puncture the dead animal as they retrieve it since that is a health hazard.
Watership Down, Nuthanger Farm, the Iron Road (railroad) are all real places in England. Watership Down is very close -- within sight, I think -- to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's estate. I believe downs are small hills. I read this novel in high school when the book was still on the best-sellers list. My daughter even chose it as a book to read for a class assignment in middle school. Her teacher told me it was the longest book any of her students had ever chosen. So proud of her. The kid has taste.
Downs are specifically chalk hills if I remember correctly.
The Plague Dogs is even more shocking than this one and it's from the same director and author. Be warned, though. That one is a pretty tough watch. The Secret of NIMH or An American Tail are also good choices, still dark (especially for G rated) but more enjoyable
I like the book, but I actuarlly was not a fan of that movie.
I know a lot of people are, though.
@@morcellemorcelle618 To each their own. Richard Adams actually really liked the movie adaptation himself, the movie ending was actually how he intended the book to end initially. I won't say more because spoilers
@@gugurupurasudaikirai7620 yeah, I know that was the intended ending, and I for one am not against it, it was the ending I expected, and was quite surprised by the book.
But for me personally, the movie came across as rather boring, where as the book was extremley sad.
I actuarlly dont know why
Dk I found this worse than plague dogs tbh
I saw this in the cinema in 1978. It amuses me when people say it's disturbing. To me now and then it was unutterably beautiful. The music, artwork, great voice acting and story are probably the best I've ever seen in animation. But it's the story that I believe makes people react so strongly. It's a visceral fairytale fable about heroism, sacrifice, community and of course death. The ending lingers long after the credits roll. The book is pretty good too. 😉
a few years ago they showed this on easter sunday .. yeah
"American Tail" and "Gargoyles: awakening" - 90s animated movies worth watching!
I literally just watched this movie yesterday and I have the book on my TBR. I was hoping one of the reactors I follow would watch it. Thanks
Perfect timing!
@@nickreacts6394Highly recommend grave of the fireflies
And Hachi a dogs Tale if you haven’t seen any of these films
They showed us this movie in elementary school in the 90's lol.
When I watched, I didn't understand Kehaar and it didn't have subtitles. Its good to read what he was saying
Even when you put aside the trauma and violence, this movie is beautiful. Gorgeous music, beautiful animation and a great depiction of what real life rabbits go through every day. I love it! ❤
My mom put this on for me and left me home alone when I was little. I was 7 and remembered running to my aunt's house down the street when it was over.
Excellent reaction thank you!
This movie scarred me as a kid. I was a really softhearted kid and it genuinely upset and scared me watching this. Never watched it again after that 😂 I’m an 80s kid though and I do think kids nowadays are pretty desensitised with most things. Which is scary in itself
In the books, it's explained that rabbits do not have a word for up, so they call hills "downs". As for Watership, that's implied by the later plot device.
The later series of Watership down and the series animals of farthing wood were shows that were around my childhood in the 90s. Watching them today makes me question why they were consindered children shows. I mean, it did not really traumatize me but absolutely left a lasting impression and the message that nature (and humanity) can be very cruel but thats just the way it is. Still, when my friend asked me if they could give the book Watership down to his 8 year old nephew because "it has bunnies on it", I declined and suggested waiting a few more years.
Honestly, I'd let a child read the book with a parent around. The story was originally told by the author to his own children during car rides.
I live just a few miles away from the actual Watership Down and they’ve captured the beauty of the area so well. It used to make me chuckle that for years Channel 5 tv here in the UK used to show this an afternoon family film at Easter. Clearly nobody had actually seen it.
The book had a glossary of a about a few dozen rabbit words. Quite a few of them end up in the movie with no explanation.
Lendri=Badger.
hrududu=a car or truck
Flay means food. Rah means king or king of. Flayrah is the"king of foods" and is used by rabbits to describe carrots or other garden veggies.
hraka=droppings. Also used the same way we would use bullshit.
homba=fox
Oh yes rabbits fight like that. They're absolutely vicious.
Also Hazel wasn't rejected by Frith. Frith was basically saying "I'm staying out of this. So whatever is going to happen will be by your merits alone"
Ooh, interesting choice! I must confess, I have yet to actually sit down and watch this whole movie, even though the original novel by Richard Adams is one of my favorite books ever. Also, no direct connection to Animal Farm, but some similarities I suppose. Love that you reacted to this. Cheers!!
Glad you reacted to this. I think it’s totally underrated.
You think this is shocking? You should see Plague Dogs.
I actuarlly really disliked that adaptation.
Althought, the book absolutley broke my heart.
Even almost 50 years later, this movie still holds up for me!
It's still on RUclips I think at time of writing this but a guy went visiting the locations featured around leadership down. From the down n its tree to the railway Etc. So it is based on a real countryside
I watched this as a kid when it came on TV when I was 7 years old. Now as a kid I'd get scared during movies really easy. I mean scared like not being able to stop my brain running on a loop the scary part over and over and just constantly shaking because of it.
When I was like 5, The Blob came on TV , and this wasn't even the 80's one but the 50's one, but it got to me! Same thing happened when the 50's version of War of the Worlds came on TV.
Now when Watership Down came on, I don't know if it was because I was getting older or it was a cartoon or a combination of both, but it didn't scare me like that. It thrilled me. If those other movies generated the same kind of fear that someone pointing a gun at me to rob me would...then Watership Down generated the kind of thrilling fear you get when riding a roller coaster.
So while I know others were scarred by this movie as kids and I had been scarred by other movies as a kid, it wasn't that way with me here and so I ended up loving the movie! I watched it many, many times. It was just so unique for an animated film to be so earnest in the portrayal of the life of a wild animal, and kids can pick up on things like that...and some, like me, can appreciate it.
I've also been a sucker for world building since even before I knew what world building was. The mythology created by Richard Addams for the rabbit society was just so fascinating to me. The creation myth at the beginning is one of my favorite parts!
Watership Down is the name of the area of England they were in. Look up images of the real place and see how amazingly accurate they drew it for the movie, it is such beautiful countryside!
Best Regards!
The book is a must read. I absolutely love this movie. It really depicts the life of a rabbit and the many threats it faces. Awesome watch.
Watership down is an actual place. It's in Hampshire, England.
Oh....Watership Down. such a wonderful movie. Very traumatizing too to a young kids in back the day! I think i first watched it on tv over two nights. LIke it said, very traumatizing! Art Garfunkel's "Bright eyes' is really beautiful, and haunting too!
You have to remember that this is an animated movie that came out in 1978, but didn't really got any attention until it showed up on HBO in the early 80s (when I saw it) and in video stores. The videotape packaging made it look like a kids movie, with happy rabbits on the hillside. Kids animated movies just didn't have this level of violence (or any violence) at that time.
I read the book, and watched the newer animation on Netflix, but not this classic cartoon. Thanks for the reaction!
There are two tv remakes, one hand drawn ( I did storyboards on that one) and a more recent CGI version.
The book and this movie made me bawl like a little girl. Bc I a little girl and I’m still not over it.
We watched this so much as kids, the tape broke. Such a great film that I appreciate in a totally different way as an adult.
ah, the first of the childhood trauma trio
❤🩹
Ah, the first movie to traumatise me. My stepdads mum had me pick a VHS when I was 6 and of course I picked the one with the cute bunnies. She left me alone to watch it 🙃
This was somehow a movie I missed growing up, but I read the book at 12 the first time (have given it many re-reads) and it’s one of my favorite books of all time, so, so good. The movie I find kind of weird as an adult but I see what they were trying to do. It’s good and interesting in its own way
I saw this movie when I was a kid around 1980. They used to play it on HBO all of the time; and didn't find it to be too shocking back then because we kids were not really protected from things like this. I think that only now does it seem shocking because they don't make cartoons like this for kids anymore; and so people today who didn't grow up seeing the likes of this are going to be more sensitive to it.
Cat: 'Can you run? I think not. I think not.'
I love the darker choices. Please consider Mary and Max.
Based of my favorite novel of all time, I think I've read it 4 times.
The movie is fairly close to the book, seeing as altought they cut alot of the 500 pages out, the relevant stuff is actually really well adapted.
The only thing I wasnt a fan of was how fast paced cowslips warren was. That was my favorite part of the book, it was so intense, it took a while for the rabbits to find out what was actually going on, and you just got this really uncomfortable feeling that something was terribly wrong and when we finally got to the part where Bigwig was caught in the snare the impact of the build up was imediate.
That whole sequence felt way to rushed in the movie, and I wish they'd added an extra 10-15 minutes to get that scene right.
I have seen people refer to this story as The odessy of animals, and it really is one of those grand adventure stories about life and death, only with rabbits as lead characters.
I really really recommend reading the book, it dives a lot more in to the lore of rabbit, and also have a lapin dictionary, that explains all the rabbit words like Homba, Silflay and hrududu.
General Woundwort is okay, the movie seems to have focused more on the "scary" sides of him, where as the Netflix series focused more on the "mad dictator"- part, but didnt make him nearly as intimidating.
He is, imo, one of the best, most interesting antagonists in fiction and
I think a mix of movie- and Netflix Woundwort would have been perfect.
The Netflix series is good as a stand alone, but I dont really like it as a book adaptation.
It took to many liberties and it felt like they didnt understand the essence of the story.
Also, the reason why this traumatized an entire generation was because parents who had not read the book thought "great, a cute film about rabbits", and then took their five year olds to see it.
You are an adult 😉
100% agree. Every adaptation seems to omit the character of Strawberry, but I always loved him so much. Him just squealing in pain when they asked him where his wife was, and then whispering "the wires" always made me cry for him.
@@zammmerjammer 😭
Totally agree. While I like this version, the music is great, the voice talent spot-on, the wistfulness of the animation superb, it feels so truncated and rushed through a lot of the fun and depth of the book feels missing. I suppose not having read would have meant I wouldn't have noticed all that.
The new version is.... lacking best describes it. In the end I have still to see the last part.
The book is excellent. All of the rabbits are fleshed out more and have distinct personalities. And the book has so much more in there. The El-ahrairah chapters told as stories give rabbit culture and the narrative as a whole, added depth.
This is essentially a fantasy novel where the main characters happen to be rabbits.
@@williammcnirlan4820 have you read the "sort of sequel" Tales From Watership Down?
I’d recommend The Plague Dogs. Time and tide are watching over me.
OMG this film scariest cartoon ever! And made me cry
There were two later animated adaptions for TV. One was a UK-Canadian production form 2000 that never aired in the US. It ran for three short seasons and started following the novel/movie but finished that in the first season and then segued into the further adventures of.....
A few years ago there was a CGI miniseries on Netflix that adapted the novel.
As a child I watched this and I had nightmares about multiple things related to this film, however as I grew into adulthood I noticed a lot of references like you said to leadership, fighting for freedom but also some very subtle WW2 references like the general symbolising hitler and his owsla representing the SS troopers and the rabbits under them representing the Jews and non desirables of the nazi party at that point in history.
I highly recommend this movie purely because it’s very real in its representation of how life is for a wild rabbit aside from the obvious fictional factors of premonition etc there.
I recommend felidae and the plague dogs if you want any other films like this to react to in future, they are much darker in tone but still worth a watch if interested.
I think the author served in WWII and based the hero rabbits on his war buddies.
I never watched this film, but I first read the book for my 8th grade English class and loved it. I hadn’t reread it until 25 years later, and was delighted to find that it really holds up.
This film terrified me as a child!! 🫣
Consider reading the book!
The novel adds details that make the story make more sense.
Aww I'm so glad you wanted this, really enjoyed your reaction and comments ☺️ keep up the great work Mr Thordo!
No "Bright Eyes"?? It's a musical icon of the Seventies!
Wow! Rare reaction. It’s pretty wild how early it was introduced to us in school. Of course that was the early 80s & the world was very different. I remember lots of scared friends, but I loved it. The Dark Crystal & The Secret of NIMH were my favorites besides this one. I’m glad my education involved things that wouldn’t be allowed today, and more glad it was before cell phones. 😂 Thanks for a great reaction.
Elfin lied said hold my beer."
And yes Rabbits can fight I work in a pet shop and sometimes we have to seperate them if it gets bad although we don't like to as they should be in pairs. We have a spray that can calm them down but sometimes it doesn't work. Doesn't happenn often though
Like many I watched this at a very young age. It left me with a long term fear of rabbits.
I love every version of this story, the novel, this movie, the netflix series, the 2000s series. All of them have something that makes them worth diving into, but I love the pall of bittersweetness I always leave feeling when I see this one.
It scarred me. It made me cry and was a big part of my childhood. Such a great film honestly 😎
As dark as this movie can get, I really enjoy it.
You should listen to the audiobook version. It’s read by Peter Capaldi, who does the voice of Keehar the seagull in the Netflix version.
Capaldi is amazing in it yes.
Not a patch on Zero Mostel.
(Sees the notification)Oh,boy. Ooooooohhhh boy...!😨🐰🩸
00:36 - 00:40 I LOVE the"Animal Farm"cartoon!!😍You could react to that too!!😃🤩
03:04 - 03:10 🤭🤭🤭
Anyway,this movie reminds me a bit of"The Animals of Farthing Wood".I don't know if it's the same level of trauma,but if it isn't...I'd say we're pretty close!;-S
20:41 - 20:49 "Yeah,show some *respect* to our *ugly* rabbit leader!ù^u"
this movie has haunted me my whole life. especially the soundtrack.. my mum made the mistake of assuming it was a kids movie.. so i watched this as a 6 or 7 year old. not that i blame her.. it gave me a realisation of life and death and nature.. but the soundtrack has stuck with me always
So happy you're watching this movie! This was one of my favourite movies growing up. I still watch it once in a while. The soundtracks are beautiful!
I can't even watch you watch this. As a child this movie gave me serious nightmares. I'm still haunted by it.
Thanks for the video!! See you later!! Stay safe.
I watched the series actually before watching this, and I thought it was very well done!
So, in the book the rabbits have their own words for certain things.
Homba = fox
Lendri = badger
Flay = food
I was a very young child in the 80s (less than 10 years old) when I first watched this. It scard me as a child. I don't think there's ever been a more violent cartoon eve made.
The Animals of Farthing Wood came close. And Felidae is on another level.
I used to watch the animals of farthing wood. Fox, Vixen, Badger and snake. Loved that cartoon grow in up.
@@WinterLynne94 Oh, never heard of that one. I'm gonna check it out. Thank you
@@LA_HA You mean Felidae? Be careful. Before you do, I've gotta warn you. It's very, VERY graphic. Blood, gore, and one particular 18+ scene between two cats. It's very weird and not for the faint of heart. It pulls absolutely zero punches.
@@WinterLynne94 [Edited] I actually meant the other one. I vaguely recall the title of felidae. I haven't seen that one either, though.
So, okay. Now I'm nervous. So, I'll pick a good, bright, sunny day to watch it to counteract the things you've warned me about.
Thank you. I'm glad to know what I'm dealing with if it's off the rails
I'm glad you reacted to this; the animation's a little clunky but the emotion of the story comes through. The book is a great read, and gives much more detail about the rabbits' society, including a short dictionary of rabbit words like homba (fox) and lendri (badger).
Have you seen 'The Secret of Nimh?' It's an animated animal adventure film, and the animation is just gorgeous.
I watched This as a Child and liked It and Weirdly was not scared and somehow never noticed how violent It was. Which is really weird because other things that don't Disturb other kids disturbed Me like Jurassic park and the simpsons
This was considered a G rating back in the day.
Really?? haha the poor unsuspecting parents who took the younglings...
@@nickreacts6394two movies you should check out if you haven’t already is Grave of the fireflies and Hachi a dog’s tale.
@@nickreacts6394two movies you should check out is grave of the fireflies and Hachi a Dogs tale.
Have you watched When the Wind Blows yet? I'm still traumatised 35 years on...
Yeah… this is not a kid’s movie. This is based on a book by the same name, written by Richard Adams; well worth reading if you get the chance. Nothing to do with Animal Farm, more like a grownup version of Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (only with rabbits, rather than mice and rats)
- Watership Down is a real place in England. Probably built over by now, sadly.
I think the reason people find the violence disturbing is because they do not expect it. This is an animated movie. About bunny rabbits. That typically signals something a bit more gentle and safe.
I never thought I would see someone react to this movie or even the series. Thank you for that.
And this isn't even the darkest "kids" movie made in Great Britain. Wait until you see _Plague Dogs._
You siriously say The Plague Dogs was u-rated?
In sweden, it's rated "15 yrs and older".
@@morcellemorcelle618 I looked it up. It wasn't. For UK the original cut was rated A, which later became a PG. In the US it was released as PG but got kicked up to PG-13 once the PG-13 classification was released.
I was very young when my aunt took my two older cousins and myself to see this. I was relatively ok afterwards but my cousins weren't very good afterwards. The trouble is the rating to see it was U which means Universal and suitable for all. The theme song was no. 1 in the UK for weeks and seemed such a gentle song and didn't convey the graphic, at least to a child, details of the film. This lead to many parents taking taking young children to see it and wishing that they hadn't!
A good reaction so thank you. Another UK animated film that might interest you if you haven't seen it is When the Wind Blows. It gives a true mix of emotions but I don't want to say more than that as I don't wish to spoil it.
The trauma of this was contextual to the time period. In the 70's and 80's childrearing was more "free range" than it is nowadays. There were entire summer months after age 7 where my folks just didn't know where I was or who I was with for most of the day if it was sunny out. LOL. Television was considered an acceptable babysitter, and the west was completely unfamiliar with anime or the concept that animated films would ever be anything except disney or cartoons for kids. So folks would take their young children, sit them down in front of the TV set, and turn on HBO where this first played, and then leave the room to go do whatever it was our parents did when we weren't around. It was extremely rare to find a set of parents who would watch everything with their kids or insist on knowing where they were all the time. We used to make fun of our friends for being raised by scardy-cat wussies of parents when that happened. (For all of the 1970s and most of the 1980s there was literally a Public Service Announcement which would play during a commercial break on all broadcast TV channels which said every night, "The time is 10pm. Do you know where your children are?" Like, for real, they had to nag the Boomers into remembering that they had kids and it was getting late so maybe go check on 'em or shove food in their faces or something.)
Most of the kids in the 70's were traumatized by this movie because our folks put it on the TV set and then left us alone to deal with it, and if you tried to tell your folks that there was a scary cartoon on TV, they'd tell you to stop being a sissy and just change the channel if you didn't like the cartoon.
Seriously. And these were the GOOD parents, because they were around.
Adam Pacio: [Edited] Haha. They were right. But, even today, people haven't learned to change the channel instead of sitting there complaining about something they don't have to watch. My older siblings grew up under this practical parenting and, though I came along later, this was my upbringing, as well.
Far from traumatized, I'm infinitely grateful and happy that my parents decided to stick with what worked instead of switching to any number of harmful new childrearing methods that turned out... different... kids. As a result, I miss it. A lot.
Except, my parents and my friends' parents didn't just ignore us. They All had parameters to our freedom. It had to be earned through trust, good behavior, and chores. The street lights rule was The Rule for getting in at night. If The Rule was forgotten, parents all over the neighborhood would call out our names and we'd go running; or they'd send siblings to bring us in for dinner...after bath time, right, because running around doing Everything all day was a smelly business.
Of course, I recognize that not everyone had the same experience of such fond memories of an idyllic childhood. It's not possible and I'm sorry if it wasn't a good time for you. No negativity meant.
I just wanted to stick up for the Great parents who did good by those who had the time of their lives. Those days are likely gone forever and, I truly believe, that's to be mourned
The context is that when this was released in Great Britain ... it was NOT rated the American equivalent of PG13 ... or even PG ... it was rated U ... the equivalent of the American G.
Suitable for EVERYONE of ALL ages.
Which ... it ... is ...NOT.
As you can see from the comments below.
I believe the author have stated that he did not aim for it to have a deeper meaning or any parallels that people tend to draw.
The book is really good too, I like that the rabbits have their own words, in the book there are footnotes that has the translation
Luckily the movie was not my first introduction to this, there is a cartoon show which is a lot more suitable for a young audience. I watched that when I was like 4-5 years old. Then looked for it when I was around 11 but found the movie instead 😂😅
The darkest animated movie that was not produced by Disney
Dude, have you seen The Plague Dogs?!
This animated film hosted a who's-who of voice talent: John Hurt, Zero Mostel, Nigel Hawthorne, Roy Kinnear, even Art Garfunkel singing "Bright Eyes" - names from the 1970's that people remember to this day, such was the talent.
"Animated Rabbit Tarantino" is amazing and if you're going for that there's this crazy movie called Felidae that is EXACTLY that