TV Review Watership Down

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A very watered down Watership Down Spoiler alert The Richard Adams novel of Watership Down was great, as was the 1970’s 90 minute movie version that covered a lot of ground. So a four part, three and half hour TV mini-series should have added much more, but somehow it seemed to take everything away. The CGI animation was beautifully rendered but it reduced all the rabbits to the same shape, size and shades of bland, making it near impossible to tell some of them apart except when they constantly relate one another’s names. Even Woundwort was depicted without his usual hideous battle scarring. Both book and movie shocked many for the brutal realism of nature red in tooth and claw, especially when they expected Beatrix Potter but all that was terribly sanitized away here. When characters died it was often off screen or their characters just faded out (Woundwort and the dog disappear like ghosts in the midst of their final charge at one another) The Prince Rainbow mythologizing of the rabbit religion was largely drabbed out and though it was obvious this wouldn’t use the heart-breaking Art Garfunkel – Mike Batt Bright Eyes song, it used an instantly forgettable score instead. Keehar the rude seagull loses his German accent just for Peter Capaldi to play him as Scottish. Adams created realism that separated his story from Flopsy & Mopsy cutesification, and while this version doesn’t go back to that, it strips the struggle of the rabbits to find their new utopian burrow to something utterly boring. I struggled to maintain interest as an adult. I expect many kids will have given up caring quite early on with this. Very disappointing. Youtube – Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes Arthur Chappell