Watership Down
Short description
Watership Down follows a group of rabbits living in an English warren whose home is threatened. One of them, Fiver, has a disturbing vision of the danger, and a small band led by Hazel, Bigwig and Blackberry leaves the burrow to look for somewhere safe to settle. Their journey across open country brings them up against predators and hardship, and eventually another rabbit community whose ways prove hostile. The story is an animated adventure based on Richard Adams's novel.
The film was released in 1978 and runs 92 minutes. Martin Rosen directed and produced it, and wrote the screenplay with John Hubley; it was his first feature as director, followed later by The Plague Dogs. The voice cast includes John Hurt as Hazel, Richard Briers as Fiver, Michael Graham Cox as Bigwig, Simon Cadell as Blackberry, John Bennett as Captain Holly and Ralph Richardson as the Chief Rabbit, among 21 credited cast members. Around 93 crew members are credited.
The production had a budget of about 1 million dollars and took roughly 4 million dollars worldwide. Reception has been favourable over the years: on IMDb it holds 7.5 out of 10 from around 43,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 out of 10 from more than 700 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 37 reviews puts professional assessment broadly in line with how audiences have rated it.
What's left behind the scenes
- The animated film was based on the book of the same name by British writer Richard Adams. He originally began telling it in the evenings as short stories about rabbits to his two daughters. They insisted that they be written down and published. This process took over two years.
- Richard Adams' book was first published in 1972 by the British publisher Rex Collins. Before that, it had been rejected in turn by seven other publishers. The book quickly gained universal acclaim from literary critics and became a major bestseller. Over forty years, its total circulation worldwide exceeded 50 million copies.
- The budget of the animated film, at 2 million British pounds, was fully funded from independent sources. This provided maximum freedom of action for the director and producers.
- Initially, John Hubley was to be the director of the animated film. After his death in 1977, the project was headed by Martin Rosen, for whom the film was his directorial debut. Some of John Hubley's groundwork was preserved and included in the final version of the film.
- Several British distributors in turn refused to work with the animated film. After lengthy negotiations, the producers managed to reach an agreement with Cinema International Corporation, a distributor of foreign films for Paramount Pictures. They agreed to release the film on the condition that its producers cover all release preparation costs.
- Starting with a limited release in a handful of cinemas, the cartoon eventually ranked sixth among the highest-grossing releases of 1979 in the UK and Ireland.
- The title song from the cartoon, Bright Eyes, written by British singer and composer Mike Batt and performed by American singer Art Garfunkel, became a colossal hit in Britain. It stayed at number one in the charts for six weeks and, with 1.15 million copies, became the best-selling single of 1979 in Britain.
- Composer Mike Batt wrote several other songs for the cartoon, but none of them made it into its final soundtrack. Three of these songs were also performed by Art Garfunkel.
- In 2004, the major British magazine Total Film ranked 'The Watership Down' 47th among the best British films of all time.
- The film is based on Richard Adams' novel-fairy tale "Watership Down" (1972).
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