Spot on - it's one of the greatest adventure stories ever written about leadership, heroism, self-sacrifice & battling against tyranny. The fact that it features bunny rabbits makes it truly unique.
This makes me admire del Toro more than I already did. I've loved Watership Down ever since I saw it during it's initial release. A very moving film with one of my all-time favorite scores. I really like The Plague Dogs, too.
Watership Down is in my top 3 novels of all time. The ending of the book was so emotional, and written in such poetic pose, that I still draw back to it every now and again just to capture that same feeling. Love to hear others singing its praises too!
I remember finishing this book when I was something like 11 years old, in a car, family had gone into a shop ir something at the time and I started weeping when I finished it. The magic of this book is utterly spellbinding. It thought me so much and I know I can grab that book again and feel like a kid again reading it for the first time with a whole new perspective.
I am forty two and saw Watership Down on television I would probably say when I was around ten years old. It really had a profound effect on how I viewed the world and mortality.
+NY Mogul Well said. It's one of those films that can leave a vivid impression on you. TCM just showed it this past Friday before Easter. I got to re-live those memories all over again, and even saw a few things I missed the first time I saw it way back when. After doing a bit of research, I found out one of the voice actors in that film later went on to play the butler in that Eddie Murphy / Dan Akroyd film Trading Places.
I saw Watership Down when I was VERY young, and I remember not understanding much of it, but the imagery stayed with me. When I was around 9 or 10, I picked it up again and I was pleased to finally see an animated movie that didn't talk down to me or insult my intelligence. I was not "traumatized" as some people apparently were, and I don't think there is anything wrong with the film. It's still one of my favourite stories for all the reasons described in this video. I read the book as an adult and found the movie to be a fair summary. Hazel-Rah!
I watched this film for the first time when I was around 5 or 6 years old, I remember being totally terrified out of my mind, like hiding under a blanket terrified, of Fiver's vision scene with the bloody field, and even the opening animation sequence. It had such a major impact on me, it was pretty eye opening for a kid that hadn't really considered death before, and it stuck with me. I just kept going back to it though, I'd watch it like once a year for the rest of my childhood, still being scared out of my mind, and now I share it with everyone I can. It's just a brilliant film, the pacing, the characters, the soundtrack, I'm really weirdly attached to it. The music still gives me shivers.
I think I was about ten or maybe twelve the first time I saw it back in early eighties and it had me transfixed from beginning to end. Must watch it again soon.
This is so refreshing to hear. I admit as a child I was kind of scared of the movie but also deeply interested in it as well. Over the years this film has become one of my all time favourites and deservedly so, because it´s such a masterpiece. This why I´ve decided to write my masters thesis in filmstudies about this film (and it´s two other adaptions as well, but mostly the film), because so few has been said and especially written about it that it´s really just kind of sad. No hate on Animal Farm (which is also brilliant), but Watership Down deserves more attention.
If I could only see del Toro's interpretation of Wtaership Down , you could shoot me in the head afterward because no movie could possibly be better than that.
It sounds as if he would not consider another interpretation necessary from the full video this is taken from - his admiration of the work on the film is clear and very eloquent, especially in its influence on his mind as a young person and future filmmaker.
Thoughts No One Asked For What’s also sad is that Art Spieglman himself said in the intro of Maus 2 that he was offered numerous times to have his work animated but he turned them down because he didn’t want them to be adapted.
Has anybody heard of "The Thief and the Cobbler"??????? I recently found about this amazingly animated film and after reading its history (around 25 years in process of filmmaking), it seems a film worthy if preservation. Please, any film fanatic out there, search this film. I think criterion would be perfect for its restoration.
+Angel Emilio Villegas Sanchez Don"t worry, The Thief and the Cobble is a very well known film among movie critics and fanatics. Sadly undervalued in mainstream society though.
lol i saw this movie when i was 6... i loved it because what del toro said it was raw and real. i had not seen anything like it before. still have the vhs!
Those scars carved in your youth, and particularly adolescence when you're more alive than you'll ever be, cannot be erased or removed, they stay with you forever, and one of those for me is watership down. Brutal, brutal stuff, but necessary. Middle-upper class Kids grow up in such a sheltered world that doesnt prepare them for the cruelty and rawness of life. Later you learn that this cruelty, mortality and temporality of all things, is what makes life something incredible and worth living but to appreciate life for what it is you need to see the bad and the good from an early age, I dont believe protecting your children from all evil is a good idea.
I saw this film when I was 8 ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED ME. And now I'm 16, I Always been a big fan of Watership Down and I'm not excited for the CGI Watership Down Reboot.........Anyway THANK YOU CRITERION COLLECTION, I KNEW SOMEDAY YOU GUYS WOULD RELEASE THIS BEAUTIFUL PIECE. (Not Counting last years digital release)
+Christian Deleon I never liked CGI. It lacks the warmth and personality of hand-drawn animation. That said, there's a certain charm regarding the animation in the original movie, and it really helps develop the characters and carry the plot along. To reboot it in CGI is basically cinematic sacrilege to me.
@@6672rock There are many different styles to make CGI with, especially now that major packages support versatile "toon" rendering shaders which can potentially give a much more drawn cel appearance that regular CG - and extra software can impart further stylisation on top of that with new AI algorithms that can impart style from a famous painting onto an image, there are potentially limitless ways to customise an CGI animation as long as you are willing to go off the beaten path and experiment a bit, and all the best CG short films do manage to.
When is there going to be a new 35mm print struck in the UK so we can see it in all it's former beauty. The USA have got one and it's an English film so we should have it before them!!
Reading it right now, I'm inclined to agree. The themes of man and God are a fascinating topic that no one wants to address anymore, and so far, I feel like the book has a very interesting take. It is rather wordy on the exposition, so you'd need a really good writer in order to translate it as well. One thing though, they need to use a real bear. I've seen it done, and you really can't top a real animals physical presence.
When I was 5 my mother decided this was my favourite film, and would put it on and leave me with it whilst she went off and did other things. Horrible experience, really didn't like it.
