Make no mistake: Watership Down is not a completely happy story. It is a moral fable, and as such, it has enormous mishaps in the trajectory of the main characters, almost insurmountable things. Although originally being a childlike story, its previous adaptations were considered so strong that they fit in the horror genre (watch here).
Based on Richard Adams’s novel, Watership Down talks about a rabbit community that is threatened in its territory. There are several predators that surround the place. One day, one of the rabbits has a premonition about the future of his companions, which leads his brother to lead the search for a new place for them to live in. The community departs in search of this new oasis, in a journey that will not be easy for anyone, and that can culminate in a great disaster.
The dub team is simply fantastic. James McAvoy, Olivia Colman, Nicholas Hoult, among many other great movie stars lend their voices to the main characters in Watership Down. The production so far had everything to be perfect: great cast, a strong story and an universal message … so, what went wrong?
Watership Down has a serious flaw in its design and development. The animation seems to have come straight out of some video game in 2005. In fact, it is a suffering. At certain times, it even gets poorly done, as if they had released the unrendered version to the public. There is the strong impression that it was made in a hurry, without due care in its details – and we know that what determines the success of an animation are precisely the details.
Still, for the message that it delivers and for being a good adaptation of an already known story (even if you do not remember the name, you must have seen it somewhere in the last few decades), Watership Down can be a good option. But it is necessary to abstract much of its failures to be able to take advantage of it in its fullness.
You can also like Hi Score Girl, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, Back Street Girls: Gokudolls and Spy Kids: Mission Critical.
Synopsis: A warren of rabbits battles many threats on their daring journey to find a new home in this adaptation of the classic novel by Richard Adams.
Age rating: 14;