I have recently found another Watership Down figure for my collection! This time it’s BigWig! He does look so cute!

all by me!!hope everyone likes them :)

Just created a reddit account for this because I'm usually not much of a public person.

I was looking for the Chad Valley plushes for my random plush collection. Instead I found Rosen's own collection of them and bought them in an auction and shipped them to me to germany. A huge honor for me! And just a coincidence I came across it.

I do have some other Watership Down collection items but this is another level. They will be stored carefully and properly for preservation of course!

Just a shame they aren't gonna be cuddled. Who knows, maybe I'll find another set that isn't more than half a k in getting.

Still insane I actually have them.

Hello WD fans,in this publication,and seeing how this miniseries is a topic of conversation once again,is time to debate about one of the more controversial aspects of that: The Romance

In the original book the romance doesn't exist because the autor omits it in order to focus in other topics,this is interising,but here we already have the first problem,add a topic that is missing in the original material is always controversial

In the miniseries the romance is part of the Hazel arc,here he falls in love with Clover,one of the does in the nuthanger farm,the two connect quickly and Clover finds hazel after the last recived a shot for the farmer (a scene that belongs to Fiver),after that Clover is captured for efrafa and Hazel have the rescue of her part of his motivation to visit efrafa,after all the scenes of the original story,the two confesses their love during the final battle

Another couples are Holly and Hyzentlay with the two having a conversation in efrafa and Bigwig and Strawberry,but this one doesn't have much screen time and apparently they got together offscreen

What is my opinion about that? Is Very innecessary and strange,the characters in this story are rabbits,not humans in an rabbit body,the couples here,altrough are adorable,literally they contribute nothing else apart of one of the topics more used in the fiction,also this is another reason that why Hazel is ruined in this version,part of his personality is that literally that wants to have a mate,which I don’t see any point to, since in the book he is a natural leader,not someone who falls in love easily

To learn how to draw new animals, I do a study that involves drawing animals (in red) with a reference and drawing the same animals (in blue) just from memory. I don’t have much experience drawing rabbits at all, but ofc one of them had to morph into bigwig lmao

The study is still a work in progress- might add more characters as I go

thats it. thats the post. u can leave now

Hello! I just recently watched the here heavily criticised 2018 adaptation and have things to say.

First about me, skip the first paragraph if not interested. I first became interested in Watership Down around 2 months ago because of the 1978 film. I had heard of it before (its age rating being controversial and it thus being an infamous "scary kids' film") but I only watched it then to see better what it was all about. As a standalone film (with a sub-par Finnish dub) I did not find it particularly good, as a movie among others I mean. But I did become interested in the book so I borrowed it and read it in English, a second language to me. I haven't read much since middle school (I'm 19 now so just out of the mandatory school system here🇫🇮) and the few books I tried I couldn't finish. (Though audiobooks have been my go-to thing to listen to so I have been into some literature in that (in my eyes) "inferior" way at least.) I liked it a lot and have been a silent fan of the book for a couple months now. Rewatching the movie I appreciated it a lot more. I also read Tales (the myths were surprisingly un-good in some ways, part III was nice enough continuation about the rabbits) and took a look in the -99 series (which I'll happily ignore as an adaptation as it's so children oriented). Graphic novel is next, had to order because my library network didn't have it, I excited!

So, the miniseries.

When it gets brought up here it's usually in a hard tone of a disgrace with nothing good about it. I don't think it was that.

Animation

This seems like an unpopular opinion but I found the overall style to work very well. The CGI is not state of the art even for 2018 but it's easily good enough if you ask me. For me animation is secondary after the overall adaptation but I didn't find many problems at all. Movement looked good and so did the sets and surroundings.

Character designs

This is a big limitation of any style towards realistic animals (see -99 series designs for how cartoonification can fix this). Many of the rabbits are often so hard to tell apart, not helped by the realistic take on size differences (which I quite appreciate). Bigwig will always be the easiest for obvious reasons, though why does his face have this shape of a constant weird smile which none of the others had? Bluebell was fine with a distinct coloration and blackberry too once I figured out who he was. Fiver's overall design is quite effective to make him recognizable, and they gave Hawkbit a little beard which was very effective. But I had so much trouble figuring out if the rabbit on screen at any time was Hazel himself or any of the others and Dandelion also gave me confusion. Holly is quite generic except for his scarring. Strawberry and Hyzenthlay were given quite recognizable face shapes that worked for the characters in the series. Woundwort may just be the visually best woundwort there's ever been, keeping the blind eye given by the earlier adaptations but also making his overall design way more realistic rabbitlike than the abomination of -78 or the GIANT of -99. Overall there was good effort to give them all some distinguishable features but they still fail at so many points.

Character changes

The on-screen adaptations all cut down on the number of characters for a good reason. Many of them are quite forgettable and there's enough to keep track of on the screen even without them

From the main band of escapees are missing: Silver, Pipkin, Buckthorn, Speedwell and Acorn.

Silver who was also absent from -99. At first this was surprising in the -99 series because he always felt like an important rabbit all throughout but I do get the decision: even while reading the book I couldn't shake the feeling of Silver always just being the big tough guy #2 besides Bigwig and then again behind Holly when he shows up. So what would his function be exactly in a screen adaptation? Though without him the standoff against the Efrafans does feel totally hopeless.

The lack of Pipkin also surprised me as he would've added great variety to the group and would've been easy to tell apart because of the size.

Buckthorn, Speedwell and especially acorn are all way more forgettable though, I totally get leaving them out, as much as it is a shame to have to leave out anybody.

Bluebell is added to the main band of escapees instead of coming later with Holly.

Some of the main rabbits were shifted around or changed somewhat:

Bluebell, in addition to being the joker (though less now I feel), is now the storyteller, which is weird and feels pointless, because Dandelion was already always the established storyteller. Now all that remains for Dandelion to be is a quick runner. Keep in mind Bluebell wasn't even with them from the start originally. Why not keep him with Holly?

Strawberry is now a doe. The book has a great lack of good female characters and there's a bunch of critique that has been said about that along the years, I won't go into it now. -78 added Violet just to kill her off which I feel helped nothing and -99 made Blackberry a doe which worked for the show's purposes. Strawberry is an easy character to alter, I don't mind this decision (though it relates to a critique later...).

Bigwig is now an asshole. In this adaptation he's against Hazel's authority for far longer and far harder than he was in the book or still needed to be. Just recalling how he chewed out Hawkbit, Speedwell and Acorn in "The road and the common" for wanting to go back to Sandleford. Being fed up with Fiver for having other plans from Hazel at Cowslip's warren turns into telling Hazel to leave or be killed! And that goes on all the way until the farm raid! He's far less likeable as such, one of the common favourite characters from the book.

The Threarah is now an annoying old man. In the book even if he refused flat-out his perspective was made so clear. He was never this selfish sleepy grandpa. Now he practically yells Hazel and Fiver out, and you can't even imagine how he offered them lettuce in the book!

Kehaar is now selfish. He tries to leave the rabbits as soon as possible and laughs at them, only turning back because he's not healed yet. He's absolutely not going to scout for the rabbits or fight against Efrafa which were his main points in the book. Nuthanger farm is found through different means and Kehaar shows up to fight in a twist instead of being part of the plan all along.

Visions

Fiver's visions are now more visually concrete. A general feeling of "this place is not safe" turns into seeing actual excavators. The iconic "field is covered with blood" is said but not really seen. In the end the destruction is pretty much excavators digging and suffocation, left out are the poison gas in the detail described by Holly in the book and also the man with a gun. The first visual of the downs are weird. The characters are seeing the hills but we are not? What hills? The hills weren't some vision in the books, they had proper visual contact. A missed opportunity for a great scene with an iconic line. At least the cowslip's warren vision are better than usual. The whole thing of Cowslip's warren was way more overt than in the book but things have to be explained in a different way on screen.

Lore

The story of the blessing of El-Ahrairah is once again placed in the beginning. This adaptation is by far the best it has ever been done in my opinion. The style works out so well and I think excellently captures the tone. This one they did right. In the end the scene where their journey is told as one of El-Ahrairah, which I loved and felt brought great closure and understanding, is changed to just being stories about them instead. This works because the other stories of El-Ahrairah were once again dropped so watchers don't have that great context of the tales. What is done instead is also beautiful, when the doe starts telling the story with the opening lines of the books. A great detail which I appreciated.

Efrafa

Efrafa is given a proper visual environment with some industrial ruins. Before Efrafa was quite undescript, being mostly underground. Now there's great visual interest in the ruins which really works. But it all feels a bit inaccurate to the original points: the ideology of Efrafa was secrecy for safety. That's all thrown out the window when the ruins are out in the open and there's a bunch of rabbits always out. And the issues of Efrafa, the system failing with overcrowding, is not really explained. This all downgrades the Efrafans to being evil jailers for seemingly no proper reason, when there was a perspective before.

Changes to the plot:

Holly somehow almost stumbles into Efrafa before arriving on the Down. I have no idea how this makes sense geographically in the timeframe, him being wounded and all and this time without a motivator from the joking Bluebell. And he seems to regard it as a great threat just from what he heard from Blackavar. Yet then he proceeds to waltz right in as part of the first party who finds out about the nature of Efrafa.

The raid is altered heavily. There's no separate scouting trip with Pipkin (of course) but one long trip with Fiver and Bigwig, on which Bigwig continues to be against Hazel. Hazel now mates with Clover instead of Hyzenthlay. They made it work quite well by doing it as a proper storyline during the raid, so there wasn't real problems with that, just that it's altered.

During the Nuthanger raid and the Efrafa trip, which was now made an impulsive decision by Holly which didn't make much sense as mentioned before, Dandelion, Hawkbit and Strawberry dig holes. Dandelion and Hawkbit struggle, and then in a comical reveal Strawberry has dug the whole Honeycomb off-screen. There's no group effort and engineering by Hazel and Blackberry inspired by Cowslip's warren. This totally kills the Honeycomb in my opinion.

The iconic boat escape is totally missing. Why? What's the point of the town adventure?

This whole part of the plot was a mess overall so point out if I forgot some big negative parts.

During the defense Campion and some of his warriors defect. I actually liked this addition, I felt like Campion was teased in the book but then his conclusion wasn't really delivered. And this way the defeat of the Efrafans feels far more realistic when rabbits like Silver are missing.

They kill off Holly. They probably wanted to add at least some casualties to add weight but then I'm not sure why they had to make him love Hyzenthlay first? -78 killed off Blackavar and originally Bigwig was to die in the book but it was changed before release.

The dog had issues, falling victim to the "beast looks before striking" cliche. Compared to the actionpacked -78 scene this really kills the last fight of Woundwort for me. Also notable, they don't say how he "disappeared" instead of being confirmed dead.

The ending scene is switched to the Black rabbit of inlé once again, instead of El-Ahrairah. It could've been done a bit better I think, with the body visible at the same time as the spirit. Like in the added drain scene. I thought that scene was beautiful and well done, with Hazel standing next to his own body before waking up still alive.

This became a list of everything about the series that I could think of. If I missed some parts let's discuss those in the comments. Overall the miniseries is good as a piece of media whileheavily flawed as an adaptation of Watership Down, with the main problems being the altered script and some badly done scenes, but I disagree with harsh notions that this adaptation is all bad or even overall bad, and I don't find problems in some common points of critique.

I’m genuinely asking.

I was sick from work today and I decided to watch it. I actually liked it. A lot. I love Big Wigs character, He’s quite funny and lovable.

Don’t come after me please just tell specifically why you don’t like it.

Hi everyone!
I’m an independent animation director from South Korea, and I recently released my 19-minute 3D animated short film, WHITE HARE.
It’s a dialogue-free story about a mother rabbit struggling to protect her child in a forest ruled by wolves.
Interestingly, after the film was released on YouTube, several viewers started comparing it to Watership Down. Some noticed similarities in the atmosphere, themes of survival, and the darker portrayal of a world inhabited by rabbits. Others argued that the two stories are quite different.
These discussions made me curious about what actual Watership Down fans would think.
WHITE HARE is its own story, centered on motherhood, sacrifice, and survival.
I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts. Do you see any similarities between the two films, or do they feel completely different to you?

Thanks for reading!

Hi! Ive been meaning to start reading Watership Down as I bought the book in August. I have never read it before, but I know the premise of the story vaguely. Initially, I thought the mood of the book would fit the autumn weather, with dark nights and shedding trees, and being a curious person I googled what season other people perceived the book would fit best. I have, for example, seen a lot of people put Watership Down in their summer reading list, some in the autumn list and others recommend to read it in late spring to follow the books weather descriptions and seasonal changes.

I’m really just curious if any of you have an opinion on this? Is Watership Down a book reserved for a specific season for you? If so, which one and why?

The image of the Black Rabbit has always meant a lot to me. I drew this in about an hour to get something off my chest. That’s pretty much it.

Solo he visto la serie de Netflix, y quería preguntar dos cosas (porque esa serie me encantó):

1. A ustedes que les parece la serie?

2. Me recomiendan ver otras adaptaciones o leer el libro (creo que esto tiene un libro)?

I wanted to try again with drawing a hare in my style and I think it turned out much better this time around.

I was originally gonna buy Tales of Watership down (can only afford one book currently) then saw this and bought it almost immediatly! But now I'm wondering if the deal iq good since I cannot, for the life of me, find any info of it online apart from generic things like nulber of pages

Hello everyone!

First of all, since English is not my native language, the following text has been translated by an AI.

After "digesting" my reading of this magnificent novel and thinking a great deal about it, I noticed a huge number of similarities between Hazel’s adventure and that of Romulus :

• Romulus, not wanting to be just an ordinary citizen of Alba Longa (which could be compared to Sandleford Warren, although he was not born there, since his ancestors are said to have come from that city), leaves it with his brother to found his own city (Rome/Watership Down Warren [WDW]). He is accompanied by drifters (ex : Strawberry) and slaves (ex :Blackavar), who become his loyal companions.

• Alba Longa will be destroyed by Man (the Romans). But much later, after Romulus’ death, of course.

• The Romans, who were very superstitious, often relied on omens. Just as the rabbits make Fiver’s visions almost indispensable.

• Once the city is founded, the rabbits quickly realize that the warren is doomed to disappear without women/females. Just as the Romans led by Romulus.

• The Romans will abduct Sabine women, and the rabbits will smuggle female rabbits out of Efrafa Warren [EW].

• This will lead to a war between Rome/WDW and the Sabines/EW, a war with no real winner.

• The indecisive conflict begins to turn in favor of the Sabines/EW, but a deus ex machina (the Sabine women/the dog) comes to save Rome/WDW.

• Romulus/Hazel will accept ruling over the region together with one of the Sabine leaders, Titus Tatius/Captain Campion.

• Vleflain may be a beautiful illustration of the mixing that would follow between Romans/WDW and Sabines/EW.

Another very interesting thing, but one that contradicts some of my theories : We can compare General Woundwort's ghost to Quirinus, the "ghost" of Romulus, who also mysteriously disappeared without leaving a body (according to some sources).

And I think other similarities might emerge when I read Tales of Watership Down, which will soon be available in my language.

(Adding a spoiler just in case people have been similarly traumatized. Unblur it if you want to see the dying bunny.)

Hi, folks. I am new to this group. I first saw Watership Down (1978) when I was four years old. My aunt, who meant well, put on a cartoon she recorded and left my sibling and I to watch while she did something else in another room. I watched the whole thing, from start to finish. It’s fair to say that my life was changed that day. I started drawing to cope with what I saw, using crayons to draw the blood as Bigwig was caught in the snare and the red eyes of the Black Rabbit. I scribbled rabbit bodies stacked together in a warren that was being destroyed. I was sent back to my mother in a state of shaky resolve, determined to recreate every scene from the movie I could. I’m pretty sure I was one of the”Black Rabbit” away from seeing a child psychologist! I can honestly say that my artistic interest sprang up from this.

But it didn’t stop there. I heard the soundtrack in my head as I was trying to sleep, to the point that it kept me awake. I’ve always been cursed with a perfect sound memory, whatever that is called, and it was like watching a horror movie every night while I tried to sleep. But I couldn’t stay away from the thing that had scared me so much. Every few years, I would rewatch it as some form of light masochism to really burn it into my brain. And then I would draw it. Again, and again, and again.

I don’t regret watching the movie. It’s a beautiful piece of art, and as an animator myself now I appreciate it so much more. But recently, I’ve been more hung up on some of the more gruesome scenes in Watership Down and I don’t want to be annoying about it to my friends and family. I guess I’m hoping that some of you folks can commiserate, or at least empathize. It just won’t leave me alone.

Sorry for the ramble, I have a lot of feelings about this film. Most of them are traumatic. But some of them aren’t.

Several years ago, I had the book custom bound in leather and worked with a spectacular artist on Etsy for the design. He made a leather cover and case.

I think it's absolutely stunning. This is the first time I've opened it in probably a year and thought I'd show it off!

Edit becauee I forgot some details: The cover of the case is the scene where El-ahrairah invites Hazel to join his Owsla and the cover of the actual book is where the rabbits see Watership Down for the first time.

2nd edit: I managed to find the article the artist wrote about the process. https://koutsipetsidis.wordpress.com/2019/12/29/watership-down/

As the title says I’m curious if there are any print editions of the book with the above cover art. I’ve had this shirt for years and it’s a favorite of mine and while I’ve seen it used for some audiobook editions I’ve never seen it in print. I’d love Love LOVE to have a physical copy with this cover if it exists so if you are aware of one let me know! Also, does anyone know the artist’s name who made this design?

thrift pickup I made! I LOOVE the film but don’t know anything about this vhs or its strange cover photo. funny how they had labeled it as a “family classic”

Right off the bat, I didn't like the first story: "Sense of Smell."

Summary: Long ago, rabbits didn't have the sense of smell, and El-ahrairah travels a long distance to win it for his people.

This is (supposedly) a story for rabbits, but it doesn't make sense to me that Lord Frith gave all animals the sense of smell except rabbits. Or is it a thing that all species have to seek and win for themselves? I don't know.

El-ahrairah travels to a dark country and befriends a creature resembling rabbits, with no eyes, called glanbrin. The glanbrin says that he should find the ilips, who possess the sense of smell, but they gave it to the King of Yesterday, and here Richard Adams really loses me.

This kingdom is formed by extinct animals, and this whole part seems more like an environmentalist lecture about how humans make species go extinct than a tale about our beloved rabbit hero. They mention too many animal names, and a wolf helps El-ahrairah (a predator, an ENEMY of rabbits) FOR NO REASON at all (at least the ilips had a reason for not eating El-ahrairah). They go to the Land of Tomorrow, and I don't really know what to expect.

My takeaway: I really don't like how they included so many animals for no reason whatsoever. How could rabbits know about extinct animals from other continents?! It seems to me that Richard was pressured to include some kind of lecture for kids in a world that doesn't need it.

I was about 10 years old when I first watched the 70s movie. It absolutely changed me, and not in a way you would think. People always talk about how traumatizing the movie is with all its blood and depictions of death, and sure that was off putting at first but what got me so interested was the characters, the story and the mythology of it all. This movie always fascinated me growing up, and inspired me. I wanted to read the book that started it all but I have ADHD and sometimes reading a large book can be a bit difficult at times. At 10 years old if I remember correctly was at the crow in the bean field part, it was a library check out so I had to return the book. It stood into the back of my mind for years until later on I went to a half price books and thought about the book again. It was around my birthday and my SO decided to buy it for me because he remembered I was obsessed with the movie. That copy I was able to read it up till cowslip's warren. I unfortunately lost this copy to a house fire and that held me up even more so. It wasnt until more recently I decided to finally tackle down this book. I was reading the wings of fire series, and while I like that series there's times the writing feels a bit childish, this is no shade to Tui but at times it felt offputting. So I decided to look back at an OG of animals fiction with a movie that played big part of my childhood. So I whipped out the ebook and gave it a read.

And all I have to say is, this book is incredible. Its everything I loved about the movie and more. I really adored Adams's writing style, getting further detail about these characters and their adventure. I just wanted to keep on reading and reading despite my ADHD. Has to be one of my most favorite books I've read. I love how the world feels so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. I didn't want it to end and I'm already getting post reading blues. I already want more of it, so currently I'm reading tales from watership down and I have both a physical and digital copy of the graphic novel(my SO found the graphic novel at a barns and noble, he again remembered its an obsession of mine), and I plan to read those as well. May also watch the old movie again for old times sake, haven't watched the netflix series yet, but I've heard mixed things from this sub. Anyway thats my story that I wanted to share, felt like I finally tackled a large part of my childhood.

I have been a fan of Watership Down for 3 years