Watership Down 4K 1978 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

The movie, like the book of the same name, tells about the adventures of rabbits. In search of a new home, a group of rabbits gets into various troubles.

Review 4K Movie

I'd like to start by saying that Watership Down in high school, like a lot of English-speaking fans of the book I didn't read. Moreover, I hadn't heard of it then, nor had I heard of the movie. I became familiar with Richard Adams' novel much later, so Watership Down is not a childhood classic for me. Immediately after reading it, I came across the trailer of the film adaptation, interested in its creepy realism, thought that the book about the adventures of rabbits made a terrible fairy tale and decided to watch it.

Richard Adams in his book described in great detail the world and mythology of rabbits, invented for them their own language Lapine, history, legends and gods. In addition, he was extremely accurate about the habits, activities and physiology of rabbits thanks to information taken from The Private Life of The Rabbit. All of this served not only to broaden the reader's horizons and the scope of the not at all thin book, but also to better understand some of the events and actions of the characters. For example, without the stories of the nimble El-Ahrairah, many rabbits would not have been able to do half of the crazy things they had to do. They wouldn't have had the courage. I am leading this to the fact that without mentioning the thorough elaboration of the novel, to go to the description of the film adaptation is simply not fair. I think I'm getting close to the beginning.

It's hard to refrain from comparing it to the book version, although it's fair to say that the screen adaptation adheres to the plot line of the novel. Some events are cut out, sometimes the sequence is broken, but for a hundred minutes of time such a shortened version is fine. The key scenes are there and, if we ignore the occasional lack of logical connection, the story is told exactly as in the book. The characters are another matter. Toward the end of the novel you already know the key features of each rabbit's character, while in the movie you can hardly remember and distinguish how and who's name is called, given that some of the 'book' rabbits are not in the movie at all.

One thing to praise about Watership Down is the visuals. The movie is drawn without a doubt by very talented artists. Wild nature, with its thick yellow fields and small blue rivers, dark, gloomy forests and undergrowth, their various inhabitants, cozy houses of people, constantly changing sky, sun, moon, all this looks stunningly realistic and very beautiful. When there is a mix of fantasy with reality or one of the rabbits sees a dream, the visuals are astonishing and mesmerizing at the same time, watching the fanciful animation is incredibly pleasant. Equally enjoyable is listening to the music from the movie. Light melodies, catchy and beautiful in their simplicity, which you want to whistle to the warm breeze, feeling the rays of the sun on the top of your head.

Watership Down as a screen adaptation is absolutely worth checking out. Despite the partial compression of the plot, the truncation of some characters, and the almost complete lack of mythology, this is a wonderful animated movie that touches on a myriad of both moral and ethical issues. It's beautiful, emotional, sometimes disturbing and violent, but that's what makes it worthwhile. It is a shame that it is now undeservedly forgotten.