Watership down

Nach langem hab ich heute mal wieder : America – Bright Eye´s gehört. Und ich kann mir nicht helfen, aber dieses Lied erinnert mich immer wieder an den Film, für den es eigentlich geschrieben wurde, Watership Down. Und so bin ich Heute auf das Thema gekommen, und hab auch mit ein paar Leuten drüber geredet. Aber zu meinem Bedauern musste ich feststellen, dass fast niemand den Film kennt, und wenn, dann nur die völlig versaute Super-RTL-Kinder-Version… Zwar handelt es sich hier um einen Zeichentrickfilm, und dennoch ist er nicht ohne.

Das Original:

WATERSHIP DOWN
Nepenthe Productions, UK/Canada, 1978, Rated PG
Warner Studios
Background

On drives through the English countryside, Richard Adams would make up tales about the local rabbits and tell them to his children. He would eventually organize those tales into his first novel, the allegorical Watership Down. The work was critically acclaimed and much beloved in his native England, and it wasn’t long before filmmakers turned their eyes toward Adams’ unique work. Animation was an obvious choice for the material, considering that Adams’ main characters were mostly rabbits. However, the story’s more mature subject matter, as well as the inclusion of a fair amount of violence, blood and death meant that the resulting animated movie wouldn’t be your average Disney-style flick. Fortunately for fans of the book, animator and filmmaker Martin Rosen rose to the challenge and made a movie worthy of Adams’ detailed story.

Plot

The film opens with a rabbit creation myth. The great Frith creates the world and makes all the animals with similar abilities. But the rabbits soon overpopulate and are consuming all the food, so Frith tells the Prince of Rabbits, El-ahrairah, to control his people. El-ahrairah arrogantly refuses, claiming that his are the strongest people in the world. So Frith blesses some of the other animals with special attributes such as fangs and claws and a sharp desire to hunt and kill the children of El-ahrairah. Soon, the rabbit population is decimated and El-ahrairah flees in fear for his life. Frith comes to bless him as well, but El-ahrairah is too terrified to face him and hides in a partially dug hole. So Frith blesses the only part he can, El-ahrairah’s bottom. Great speed comes to El-ahrairah and all of his children and as the Prince of Rabbits runs off to face the world’s dangers, Frith gives him both a warning and a pledge:

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warren. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people will never be destroyed.”

Hazel and Fiver are brothers who live in an average warren in the English countryside. On one lazy afternoon, Fiver has a vision that the field outside their warren is covered in blood, that every rabbit in the warren is in great danger and that they all must leave immediately. Cognizant of the fact that Fiver’s visions are right time and again, Hazel takes him to see the Chief Rabbit who quickly dismisses their concerns.

Hazel decides to leave the warren and a number of the other rabbits decide to accompany him and Fiver. But they run afoul of the warren’s Owsla or military police. A number of them are captured but Hazel, Fiver and a few other rabbits escape with the help of Bigwig, an Owsla officer who decides to join them on their journey.

Fiver tells them that they need to find a “high place” where they can find refuge. Along their arduous journey, the rabbits must face a dark and dangerous forest, a graveyard crawling with rats, being caught between a curious dog and a swiftly moving stream, a seemingly inviting warren of rabbits eager to share but who conceal a dangerous secret, and an inviting farm house that has a couple of surprises of its own. On that journey, Hazel must also contend with doubts about their journey raised by some of the other rabbits and conflict with the rival warren Efrefa and its militaristic leader.

What Works

Adams original story had a fair amount of violence and when making the movie, the decision was made not to sugarcoat that aspect of the story; the movie is a much better film for that decision. Even during the very stylized introduction, after Frith has blessed the other animals, the screen is literally filled with very stylized and still very dead rabbits. Only minutes later, when Fiver has his vision of a blood-covered field, the camera doesn’t shy away from showing exactly what Fiver sees. Also disturbingly effective is the stylized scene where the rabbits learn of the actual destruction of their original warren as foreseen by Fiver. Even in its stylized form, the imagery of rabbits trapped underground, suffocating and vainly trying to escape will likely be vividly remembered by anyone watching this movie. There are also scenes of combat and violence between rabbits, and while not overly gruesome, such combat is shown in a fairly realistic manner; one instance is even shown in slow motion. Rabbits have wounds, bleed and even sport scars from various mishaps. The movie is rated “PG” and that’s a rating that’s well deserved.

Part of the appeal of Richard Adams’ novel was the whole rabbit culture and society, complete with its own special words. It may not be completely fair to praise the movie for Adams’ creation in that regard, but the screenplay does very well at working in many rabbit words and showing us some choice examples of the rounded culture that Adams created. It’s very easy to have made up words in a book and use the surrounding prose to show what that word means, but it’s a bit more challenging to do in a movie. The movie handles that challenge very well and it’s very clear when a word like “Owsla” is used, for example, both what it means as a word and what place the “Owsla” has in rabbit culture. It also shows the filmmakers had some regard for the audience’s intelligence that they didn’t shy away from using rabbit words in the film. Other aspects of rabbit culture are also included, such as a brief prayer spoken at the falling of a comrade, or rabbits’ superstitious nature.

Despite having a limited budget with which to work, Martin Rosen makes the most of his resources and produces an animated movie that’s quite pleasing to the eye. The backdrops for the film’s action are primarily watercolors, which are slightly muted and as such, actually bring to mind what we might expect for the English countryside. In addition, the rabbits themselves aren’t made to look overly cute or cartoonish, they’re realized in a fairly realistic manner. Despite the realism, the rabbit characters also have very expressive faces and run the gamut of emotions. That’s no small trick, creating animated rabbits that both look realistic and can emote, because if there is any creature that does NOT have a very expressive face, it’s a rabbit. And it’s not always serious emotions that the rabbits show either—their collective expressions when Kehaar takes flight for the first time is priceless. Also watch for subtle details such as Pipkin’s little sidestep when Hazel asks him to do something unpleasant.

The “plot device” is a concept almost as old as movies themselves, where a seemingly innocent and innocuous occurrence early in the movie will have a deep and resonating impact at the film’s climax. During their flight from their original warren, one of the incidents the rabbits face does indeed turn out to be a plot device but one that’s cleverly concealed among a group of other incidents that are not. Said device turns out to be relevant not once but twice during the film’s closing act.

In addition to the rich backstory and culture that Adams’ created for his original story, another reason that the novel resonated with fans is Adams’ creation of a very colorful and diverse cast of characters. Leading the rabbits on their journey is Hazel, given voice by film veteran John Hurt. Hazel never actually claims a position of leadership within his community and instead, rises to its challenge. He never acts in a superior or officious manner, always treating the other members of his warren as equals and as such, earns the respect and loyalty of the other rabbits. This is in direct contrast to the militaristic leader of Efrafa and how his subjects are expected to address him.

In addition to some very good choices, Hazel makes some faulty decisions in his position as the rabbits reluctant leader; such as deciding to stay in the graveyard or returning to the farm not once but twice despite the fact that increasingly bad things happen each time the rabbits return to the farm. This being an allegorical tale, Hazel’s fallibility puts the rabbit leader in a decidedly human light. Hazel is very much a Moses like figure, leading his people on a perilous journey at the end of which lies a safe haven where they and their descendants can live in peace; and that journey is very much a spiritual one. Early in that journey, Hazel and the other rabbits even are faced with a “deal with the Devil” as personified by the character of Cowslip (Denholm Elliott, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, A BRIDGE TOO FAR, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK). Cowslip’s warren is one where food is plentiful but for which the residents pay a terrible price, one they have chosen to accept and their easily lifestyle almost tempts Hazel and his people, with near tragic consequences.

And as Hazel, John Hurt’s quiet, almost mellow voice is perfectly suited to Hazel’s low key approach to leadership. As voiced by Hurt, Hazel sounds much more like a friend making suggestions than an impassioned leader trying desperately to save his people, an important selling point as to the strength of that particular character.

Hazel may be the central figure in these proceedings but by far the most memorable character in both the book and the movie is that of Bigwig. He is irascible, irritable, foul mouthed (for a rabbit, anyway) but loyal to the core of his being and would literally lay down his life to defend his warren. Bigwig is a character that easily inspires trust in others and his opinion and voice carries great weight with his constituents. Given voice by Michael Graham Cox, the character is very successfully translated from the book to the screen.This film was also the last involvement in a motion picture for legendary actor Zero Mostel (THE PRODUCERS, RHINOCEROS), who plays the seagull Kehaar who helps the rabbits in their struggle with Efrafa. Kehaar provides some good solid comic relief as well as being vital to the story. Mostel obviously had some fun putting a voice to Kehaar and this film provides a positive final note to his illustrious career in film and stage. Some critics have charged that the character of Kehaar is some sort of stereotypical slur but I’d be very curious to learn exactly which particular group might have been slurred by Mostel’s rendition of Kehaar.

What Doesn’t Work

As is the case with any adaptation of literature, some things are always lost in the translation. With WATERSHIP DOWN, what’s lost is the development of some of the story’s secondary characters. In Hazel’s warren, Blackberry, Dandelion and Silver all have a few lines but we never really get much of an idea about these characters. And in Efrafa, the doe Hyzenthlay is also reduced to having just a few lines despite the crucial nature of her character in the proceedings. And General Woundwort, while still remaining an imposing presence as well as a worthy villain, is decidedly two dimensional in his cinematic incarnation.While the most is made from the small budget, there are some times where the limited resources means that the end result doesn’t quite come together as well as it should. For one thing, whenever large numbers of rabbits are seen, except for one scene in Efrafa, there never seem to be enough rabbits. Also, running rabbits sometimes don’t seem to run as fluidly or naturally as we might expect, an effect which is made more evident when we see a number of rabbits in flight. And lastly, the traditional cel animation used to realize the rabbits doesn’t always jive well with the watercolor backdrops.

There’s also the matter of the song “Bright Eyes” performed by Art Garfunkel. I actually like the song and have copies of it on various media. However, considering its subject matter and its placement in the movie, it might have been more appropriately placed at the end of the movie than in the middle where it seems rather haphazardly dropped. In addition, it’s a fractured version of the song, of which we hear only half of the first verse and the chorus before returning to the film’s symphonic score, only to have the chorus resurface again to jarring effect.

The DVD

This is a typical Warner DVD which means we’re lucky to get so much as the movie, which is presented in a surprisingly good widescreen transfer in the usual cheap plastic “snapper” case. There is a Special Features section, which is expectedly meager considering the company releasing this disk. There’s the requisite Cast and Crew list which is little more than a static screen of credits and offers no detail on anyone involved in this movie. A very brief bio of Richard Adams is also included, as well as a list of his various works. A brief article informs viewers as to the present state of the land where WATERSHIP DOWN was set. There’s a section entitled “Bunny Talk” which provides definitions for the rabbit words that made it into the film as well as some that didn’t. The film’s Theatrical Trailer rounds out the selection of Special Features. There is no commentary track or a “Making Of” featurette and those items are sorely missed, especially considering Martin Rosen’s affection for the original material.

The Final Word

While some of the peripheral characters may have been given short shrift and some of the finer details of the novel may have been summarized, WATERSHIP DOWN stays very faithful to the spirit of Adams’ original work. The core story and more importantly, the emotional impact of that story remain both powerful and very much intact in the translation from book to movie. While the animation quality might not be as high quality as the Mouse’s studio or as technically complex as Pixar’s offerings, WATERSHIP DOWN is a most worthwhile view for fans of animation, Adams’ novels, or just plain good movies.

Meiner Ansicht nach, ein Film, der es wert ist, angeschaut zu werden. (Und bitte nicht die vernietlichte Form von Super-RTL mit den putzigen Häschen, mit den viel zu großen Glubschaugen… -.-)