Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Delayed Reaction: Watership Down

Premise: A group of rabbits try to find a new home and not die in the process.

 


I'm glad that I either never saw this movie as a child or successfully blocked it out. This movie is scarring. Not on a Grave of the Fireflies level but definitely in the same discussion. I thankfully missed the movie when I was old enough for it to do the most damage to me, then I avoided it for a couple more decades after listening to how people talked about it. Frankly, the movie was tamer than what I imagined (which was a relief).

 

I like the somewhat messy animation style. It resists the urge to make any of the animals too cute. It's striking how violent the movie gets. When the one rabbit nearly dies in the snare early on, I worried that this was going to be a movie about how they all slowly get picked off. It sure made the scene of them crossing the road tense. The story in the movie seemed a little scattered. It was hard to say if that's because the pace of the novel didn't translate to film of if they just had to make some awkward cuts. I kind of liked it though. That leans into the fact that it's a more adult movie despite the bunny rabbits.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

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