Watership Down ~ Lost in Adaptation 

The glaring mistake in claiming the film came out in 1994 instead of 1978 was due to a typo in the script that I didn't catch because I read these things like Ron Burgundy.

A possible opposite to In Name Only: *The Book Incarnate*

“It’s ok honey. Here’s a nice story about a puppy to make you feel better “ Writes Plague Dogs

Hey, I remember this childhood trauma! For real though, this was a great book. Something I really appreciated more as an adult than as a kid was how ELDRITCH the humans seemed to the animals. Like they do things that are incomprehensible to the rabbits, ranging from killing off hundreds of them at a time, to building unknowable things, to saving the life of a single rabbit just 'cause. Their actions have seemingly no rhyme or reason to them, but make perfect sense to us humans, and it creates a fascinating dichotomy between what we see and what the characters in the book see.

I should have been prepared for your poetic plot summary mood piece…

George R.R. Martin: I am the most sadistic author when it comes to killing characters. Richard Adams: That's cute.

I'd call it a Too Close for Comfort: an adaptation that's so close that it, while faithful, is sometimes very uncomfortable in how close it is

I would argue Hyzenthlay was a strong female character, though not a main character, as the leader of the resistance movement in Efrafa. She had an even greater role in the book so I'm surprised she didn't even get a real mention. She was one of the only characters who had the guts to stand up to Woundwart to his face. She's pretty pivotal so to have her be ignored in a review seems a bit of a let down.

I do love Bigwig’s little “My Chief Rabbit has ordered me to defend this run” speech, it’s just great on so many levels - like, it’s just a badass/awesome moment to begin with, but also shows his character development because he’s learned to trust Hazel, and when Woundwort hears it, he’s like “if this guy isn’t the Chief, then their Chief must be a fucking monster”… and then it turns out that the Chief is Hazel, who isn’t big or strong or intimidating, but is Chief because he’s so smart… I fucking love it

"General Woundworts body was never found. It could be he still lives his fierce life somewhere else, but from that day on mother rabbits would tell their kittens: "That if they did not do what they were told, "The General" would get them". Such was Woundworts monument and perhaps it would not have displeased him." Best ending to a villain in movie history.

I've always loved Watership Down - I do have a hard time believing the author's intent when it comes to allegory, especially when it comes to the details of the totalitarian rabbit community. Though that's more pushed in the film than the book. Really good breakdown, Dom!

As a devoted WSD fan, I must say "Surviving against all odds through the sheer power of British grumpiness" is perhaps the best description of Bigwig I've ever heard. Was real glad you mentioned the 1999 animated series, because it's one of the lesser known adaptations but it's one of my favorites! Since its a series it's able the devote more time to developing the rabbits as characters & illustrating what makes Hazel a uniquely qualified leader. Do not let the cute art style fool you!

May I suggest the title "Page to Stage" for the basically the book on screen? It was what we had nickname a module at uni where we were taught how to convert books into screen/stage plays and then the best one was chosen from class and we learnt it, made costumes, props and set and performed it.

Maybe try "To the Letter" as an opposite designation to "In Name Only."

“The characters have been watered down”? Don’t you mean they’ve been “watershipped down”?

This was the film that taught my mother, after she watched it with my siblings and I, that must because its animated, Does Not mean it's appropriate for children under the age of 12. A great lesson was learned that day in the Brammer household.

The part where the rabbits get trapped, poisoned, and crushed in their warren by construction equipment makes me never want anything to be built ever again, so good on Richard Adams and the filmmakers for making that scene so fucked up.

Fun fact: The entire Watership Down movie used to be on RU-vid split into nine parts around 2010. And a nine-year old me stumbled across it on early RU-vid and proceeded to get extraordinarily affected by it. This is probably the single movie that's caused the greatest amount of childhood trauma to unknowing children. Still remember that gorey, bloody Bigwig vs Woundwort fight and the fake warren scene like yesterday. Can't believe this movie got a "U"-rating. The people that gave it that genuinely can not have watched the movie.

I demand an in-depth, 1 hour behind-the-scenes where we see Dom record all the horrific bloody bunny costume scenes. I refuse to believe the real filming wasn’t done to a soundtrack of nonstop laughter.

Adams used “The Private Life of the Rabbit” by naturalist RM Lockley as research for rabbit behaviour. The study includes descriptions of bucks fighting over territory and does in heat and yep it can get pretty brutal.

"Swear to god Martha the neighbors just dumped a rabbit costume covered in blood into their trash. I told you these binoculars would pay off!"

"Name-Worthy" Short, rolls of the tongue, you immediately know what it means.

Never expected to hear “bunny” and “intimidating” in the same sentence, but here we are

"Carnage. Like fucking Venom. Like the Venom villain." Gotta love the bloopers! 💖💖

I really love how the rabbits have their own mythology. For lack of a better term this detail makes them seem more human. Think about it: There was a time when mythology and religion went hand-in-hand, if not considered the same. These bunnies have a mythology, an established deified figure, and the concept of an afterlife. Although I don't consider myself a religious individual, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge what a powerfully unifying force religion can be between many individuals, so I think it's only natural that many of us would feel a sense of connection or relatability to these characters in addition to their ability to speak and behave in some ways akin to human beings.

Here's an idea of an antonym to "In Name Only": Page to Script As in the story is so faithful it's as if the pages of the book became the pages of the script. Aside from that, I loved this film, although the gore never really bothered me strangely. I still prefer it to the recent Netflix adaptation, even though that one had more time to detail some of the scenes from the book.

All the world is your enemy if they catch you they will kill you…but first they must catch you! I loved that Richard pulled no punches with his work especially with plague dogs.

I didn’t read this until my sophomore year English class, but I was really into the Warrior Cats and Guardians of Gahoole books as a kid. Mrs. Brisby and the Rats of Nimh was also one of my favorite books growing up, so by the time we got to Watership down I was already on board with violent, elaborate, and emotional stories involving animal societies. For some reason, not a lot of my peers appreciated it in the same way I did.

The opposite of "In name only" should just be "A Watership Down" in honor of this adaptation

I remember my uncle gave the movie to my brother and I for Christmas. He had never read the book and just assumed since it had talking animals then it must be safe to give to children. Certainly raised some eyebrows at that Christmas dinner when I asked questions about “rabbit Jesus”

I remember my parents dumped me and my sister off at the cinema I was 5 she was 10. It was a form of cheap babysitting for my parents so they could go off and have a good time. It was a double feature of Water ship Down and Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. It was absolutely terrifying. Parents couldn't get away with it in this day and age.

"here's a quick summary" well, it was quick, and it made me laugh my head off

The holy trinity of violent and depressing animal films we stumbled across as children: Watership Down, Plague Dogs, and Felidae >:’) Excellent video! As an animator, I love when you cover animated adaptions! The film does such a good job with translating the horrors of the book to the screen. The animation at the beginning of the film explaining the rabbit’s lore is some of my favorite stylized animation to date. If you ever tackle Plague Dogs or Felidae, I fear what the “quick synopsis of the books” sections of your videos are going to look like! Lol

Velveteen Rabbit: "This will be the saddest story about a rabbit ever written." CLASSIC! Monty Python's Holy Grail: "This bunny is the most deadly creature ever in the history of everything." CLASSIC! Watership Down: "Both of you hold my carrot juice." CLASSIC! Children : "Why do you hate us?"

I think "worthy of the name" would be a good award for extremely accurate adaptations

"by the way, there's a low-hanging bridge you should know about." I lost it at how utterly niche that joke is.

There's also a point in the book where Bigwig says to general Woundwort, "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah," and if you'd been paying attention to the rabbit language thus far, you know that roughly translates to: eat shit, sir. Also, the bright eyes song slaps.

When I was a kid my pet rabibit, Silky died. Dad came in and found me crying in bed. He was nice and asked if I wanted to be read to, I said “yes”. Poor man then asked me what I was reading, and I said “Watership Down”, and just burst into floods again! 😂 He then just went for my mum. I loved it though, it was my favourite book and the film was my favourite film. Thanks Dom, love hearing your perspective. 😀

I stumbled onto Watership Down when I was about 13 and immediately fell in love with it, reading it twice in the first month. I was transported by the lore and the rabbit language; it all felt so magical to me. I still feel transported when I read it. It's a lifetime favourite.

_"Silflay hraka, u embleer Rah..."_ Film or book, Bigwig was one bad rabbit.😎 Another note on Bigwig since Bakshi's LoTR was mentioned, we essentially had Boromir in lapine form thanks to Michael Graham Cox voicing Bigwig. It always felt complete hearing Hurt and Cox in both films growing up, and they're both missed, but their work is our memorial.

After watching the animated movie I went to bed and was legitimately afraid that a Rabbit was gonna pop out and kill me in my sleep. I was not ready for how dark and violent Watership Down was.

Idea for the new clause: The 'Both are Bunnies' clause. Since to my knowledge this is the first time LIA has had to make up a new clause for a movie that so heavily follows the plot of the book, it seems fitting to have it reference the first instance. Both are bunny's , both are Watership down.

just in regards to the blooper at 18:55 if any childrens book was going to win the "Carnage" award it would be this one lol

the fact that the story was originally conceived as something to entertain two little british girls causes all the violence and terror to make WAY more sense

Considering what rabbits do to each other in real life, especially the babies, this is probably the most accurate interpretation ever written.

"There's a dog lose in the woods" is one of the best lines, such a great callback. Watership Down was my favorite movie as a kid and it became my favorite book. I reread it every Winter.

This was a fun watch. My Mom read me Watership Down as a bedtime story, and I was excited to see the network TV premiere of the 1978 movie. The thing is, it didn't ever traumatize me. I grew up reading Grimm's fairy tales, Greek mythology, and watching nature documentaries. I knew that nature is harsh and brutal and that rabbits have it exceptionally tough, so the brutality in the book struck me as very authentic. and the lapine protagonists' tenacity in the face of such a cruel world was very inspiring. Something that I admired a lot. It was very anti-Disney in that way, and that was refreshing. Especially seeing an animated movie that wasn't from Disney in an era where they dominated. So the usual hyperbolic reaction to the book's violence always struck me as odd. A bit overstated.

I probably watched this cartoon 100 times in my childhood. There should be a word for "Animated shows ostensibly for children, but are really dark--so for children who are comfortable with a lot of grim drama?" I was so into this movie. I eventually read the book, but I just have so much nostalgia for this film.

This book was magical for me, especially since I grew up in the country. I never had a problem with the "gore," since it was pretty accurate to the real life of wild animals that I encountered every day.

“Greek legends like the Aeneid.” Dante Alighieri: **INCOHERENT ROMABOO SCREECHING**

I mean, Adams winning the "Carnage" Medal for this book would be appropriate.

This is like sitcom-logic where Dom gets increasingly attractive every season.

A choice for the opposite of "In Name Only" could be "Obsessively Loyal"

Suggestions for opposite of In Name Only: "It's All There" "In Name, Plot, Dialogue, Theme, and Concept Only" "Every Word on Screen" "They Filmed the Book" "Most Faithful of Adaptations"

I've just realised, I first read the book before the film came out and when I feed our rabbits I still tell them I've brought "flayrah". (Richard Adams' rabbit word for the best food)

First of all; I did really enjoy the video, but CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT VIOLET?? Look, I understand that a movie has to cut "some" stuff when adapting a book to a 1½ hour film. But when you ONLY cut away the humor and the nice moments, but keep ALL the violent parts as well as needlessly emphasize the gore, then I (personally) don't think you're doing the source material justice. A great example being *Violet* . There's a scene in the movie with a rabbit being taken by a bird of pray while eating grass, and Fiver sadly states "Violet is gone". ...but here's the thing though; there was NO RABBIT NAMED VIOLET IN THE BOOK. And NO RABBIT WAS TAKEN BY A BIRD. In other words, the movie decided to add a rabbit and a scene for the sole purpose of having MORE. BUNNIES. DIE. It's also worth mentioning that while *Blackavar* was torn to bloody shreds by Woundwort in the FILM (4:49), he ABSOLUTELY survived in the book, fighting bravely in the battle of Watership Down, and becoming friends with Holly and a rabbit called Silver afterwards. That being said, I can appreciate the movie as its own thing. But I had a completely different experience reading the book.

In reference to a meme that went around, this movie is BOOKSLAPPED! Someone made sure this followed the book exactly by slapping the director/writer with the book.

Some ideas for names for immensely accurate adaptations: either "Found in Adaptation" or "a Watership Movie"

One of my favourite books when I was younger and I loved the cartoon too. I was never traumatised by the cartoon or book, I guess cause I watched bbc wildlife documentaries, so understood that this was just how things are for wild animals. I actually appreciate how Adams pulled no punches with his writing.

I distinctly remember watching this in my pajamas while eating coco pops back in 1996 when I was only 4. I absolutely loved this film as a kid and I loved the book when I read it as an adult. Not entirely sure what that says about me if I didn't find this disturbing when I was 4 but there you have it!

There's a couple in my hometown with "HRUDUDU" and "HRUDU2" license plates for their two cars. I take a picture every time I see them.

Re: the magnificent John Hurt: our family first got to know of him as Caligula, in the mini-series "I, Claudius", where he acted alongside such wonderful talents as Brian Blessed, Sian Phillips, George Baker, Patrick Stewart (with hair and playing a villain) and of course Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Hurt's Caligula ran away with the show whenever he was featured. It took our family a little while to accustom ourselves to hearing the voice of Caligula coming out of Aragorn and Hazel.

God, I love Bigwig. "My Chief Rabbit has told me to stay and defend this run, and until he says otherwise, I shall stay here."

Ah, one of my favourite animated films! Also, the voice actor for Bigwig, Michael Graham Cox, voiced Boromir in Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings. So both he and John Hurt starred in two gory animated films in the same year. Weird, huh?

I have been waiting years for you to do this adaptation, and you didn't disappoint. Very nice episode. Some things I think we're worth covering - Blackavar being casually killed by Woundwort in the film (he survived the book), adding in a doe named Violet who escaped from Sandleford with them just to have her snatched by a hawk (she didn't exist in the book), Fiver terrifying Woundwort's second in command with a matter-of-fact prophecy of his death in the book, and a few events being out of order in the film.

4:01 Unless I "feverdreamed" this movie (and soundtrack LP) as a child in the 80s it most definitely wasn't released in 1994. Wikipedia says 1978.

"Shitting your mind-pants" : Perfect. Also, how about 'As Loyal As Possible' as a name for faithful adaptations?

You could call it a Bookslap adaptation, because they clearly had someone to slap the film makers with the book when they said "What if we changed this?"

Glad to see that i'm in the company of Adam's daughters in my love for Bigwig. 'Survived by the power of grumpiness' 😂 One aspect of the book that I loved that didn't really come across in the film was Woundwort being utterly dumfounded to learn that Bigwig wasn't the chief. They definitely referenced it in the film, but we get to hear book Woundwort thoughts and learn how he took this to mean there was an opponent even bigger and tougher than Bigwig that he was yet to face, and that he'd have to marshal the entirety of his Owsla to surround and take down this terrible beast. He couldn't conceive of a rabbit leading through anything other than brute force, and he didn't even realise he'd MET the chief already - that small rabbit who'd limped away after the failed negotiation.

I only saw the movie in my early twenties, but read the book when I was 12/13, an age where I was old enough to understand the story and some of it subtext, but not nearly old enough to understand all of it. I mostly remember how scary General Woundwort was, not because he was the books 'villain', but because he was scary in a very real kind of way, in a way humans in real life can be scary too, which made him so scary to me. Another what very much stuck with my was this books representation of death, the black rabbit of Inlé as it's grim reaper, wherein was both the fear of death and the fight to stay alive, but also somehow it was not scary or menacing, neither good nor bad, it just was. It had a very much 'when we die, we die' kind of feeling to death in the book, wherein the way to die was a lot more scarier than death itself, and that somehow really surprised me and felt weirdly comforting to 12 year old me (in fact I wanted to start a rock/metal band in high school called Black Rabbit, named after this character).

One pretty significant change comes at the tail-end (sorry). As you said, in the book, it was El-ahrairah's spirit that came for Hazel in the end--pretty much the equivalent of King Arthur coming to an Englishman on his deathbed and saying, "Party in Avalon tonight, Gawain's bringing the keg, wanna come?" It showed just how exceptional a Chief Rabbit Hazel was, that he could have this honor. We know it was El-ahrairah because of the description of starlight in his ears--a callback to one of the stories-within-a-story we got during the novel. In the movie, it was clearly the Black Rabbit, whom we'd seen in the beginning and during the "Bright Eyes" sequence. The implication here was that the Black Rabbit came for Hazel as he'd come for any dying rabbit--but that he was honoring Hazel by inviting him to be part of his guard. I can kind of see why they did this--they cut out most of the El-ahrairah stories except the creation myth, and most audiences would have forgotten what he looked like from the beginning of the movie. That "scream" Fiver made in the book was also a callback to one of the stories--a tale about El-ahrairah outwitting a farmer's bumbling dog. Fiver used the words the dog did in the story--in his trance, he was literally channeling a dog and barking and howling like one, scaring off the rabbits. They probably played this down in the movie because, again, they cut that story and it wouldn't have made any sense to suddenly have this rabbit bark like a dog.

What I really love about this movie is how closely the animation manages to capture the movements of real animals, rabbits in particular. I'm thoroughly impressed by it, even having read the book way before seeing the movie.

Perhaps "loyal to a fault" would be a good opposite of "in name only"? Or, "same soup, different pot?" "Visually/virtually unabridged"?

I’m too young to have been traumatized by this but this comes across as a much bloodier version of warrior cats, which every elementary school girl loved in the early 2000s.

Growing up in America with Eastern European parents from Romania they LOVED Watership Down they gave me the book at the age of twelve I loved, loved the book and loved the film.

Watership Down is the mark of grit in service of plot. Adams isn’t inserting gruesome details just to get a rise out of people, but to matter-of-factory convey what a sentient perspective would be for a small animal’s POV. He doesn’t talk down to anyone. He is bringing an experience to life.

I read my mom's copy of this book before I was even the right age to understand it fully. My childhood was rough, and I escaped into books. My travels with Hazel, Fiver, and the rest of the gang was magical. Then I've read it over and over again as an adult, and of course got even more out of it. It has a very special place in my heart. Never watched the movie, I look forward to hear how it was different, and your opinions.

When I read the book, I always had to refer to the glossary to the lupine language. But soon, due to its repetition, I began to realize I was _learning the language._ By the time came up the line, "Silflay h'raka, u embleer rah," I all but cheered, knowing precisely what the sentence meant. I was horribly disappointed in the movie version in which that powerful line was simply reduced to the word H'raka, which on its own wasn't exactly much of an insult.

Mind, I *love* the song Bright Eyes (Art Garfunkel's only solo success, I think), but it does stop the film dead. I get what they were trying to do (depict Fiver's grief over his brother's death & his confusion over his conflicting visions), but it wasn't the best way to do it. And bluntly, I always get pissed at folks claiming that "it's not for children!" when something is violent or otherwise real. We're supposed to be teaching our kids of life, real life does not care about "children" when it comes to horrifying violence, and sanitizing stories & art only gives them a skewed, unrealistic view of the world that ends up sabotaging them in the long run.

The song near the beginning is Sudden Death by Sightless in Shadow for anyone wondering. Great gag btw Dom, that was a good laugh.

I've heard of this movie/book but never seen/read it, so I'm prepared to be dismayed. 😁

When I saw this movie as a kid it inspired me to adopt a rabbit to protect it from all the ... Everything Mr Warren lived a long full life

I had a friend whose dad had the same name as the author and, as it was my favorite book, I was in awe of him. But I was too scared to ask him about it or have him sign my copy or anything. He was rarely there when I visited and usually just said hi before going to his back room which made him feel unapproachable. One day, I asked my friend what it was like having an author for a dad and they said "what are you talking about? My dad's a ___" (honestly can't recall what the dad actually did). We got into a small argument over it until the mom got involved and thought it was hilarious. Apparently, the dad didn't even read books much less write them. Anyway, that's the day I learned that people can have the same name and not be the same person.

My brother had to read this for school in 9th grade. I borrowed it from him (I was in 5th grade) and read it, and LOVED it. It was so good. Then I watched the movie, and, again LOVED it. Also, the Black Rabbit of Inle walks the land

Say what you want about this movie; Bright Eyes, the song that was in this film, is truly beautiful and moving.

i went on a pilgrimage to watership down in 1998. "fun" fact, it's owned by andrew lloyd webber, and is a stud farm. the local pub thought we were off our rocker to walk there late autumn in the rain, but needs must. we didn’t see any rabbits, but left a small shrine for the black rabbit of inlè. 💖

I've never read the book but the film has indelibly seared itself into my brain as a child. My sister who is ten years older cannot watch it still. So many good life lessons came from this film.

"reminiscent of Greek legends like the Odyssey and the AENID" Virgil and Homer are rolling in their graves :(

Please do Lost in Adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. The book is so beautiful and yet all of the adaptations miss a lot of really great points. I would love to see a video on it.

There's a great Hop Along song about _Watership Down._ "The General, buck-toothed, bright eyes frothing red/Baltimore, you on the floor, me on the edge of the bed./We saw him in one brutal gesture tear that rabbit open,/And you turned to me. 'Isn't this supposed to be for children?'/So strange, to be shaped by such strange moments." This was one of my favorite books as a kid; I always heard that the movie was a horrifying trauma fest lol, so it's nice to see how they compare!

Ah yes, this delightful little movie I was shown as a child by my overly enthusiastic mother that thought nothing of exposing her very young daughter to cute little bunnies ripping each other apart, being torn asunder by a rabid dog, and foul-mouthed sea fowl. My dreams are still haunted by the colony genocide sequence. Even more amusing, my mother was a first grade teacher that decided to play this film to several years worth of children in her class. To this day I still wonder what exactly went through her head to make her think it was appropriate for that particular age group, and I'm also still amazed that she never got complaints from the parents all those years ago. Then I remember that Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark was rated PG here in the States. And so was Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Before reading Watership Down I was told it would make me cry. I got to the very last chapter without shedding a tear and thought meh, no tears here. However I could barely read the last few pages due to a sudden and overwhelming flood as I bawled my eyes out.

The rabbits legends were my favorite part of the book, I loved how at the end of the book Hazel's story is being told as an El-Ahrairrah tale!

Interesting that decades later, the Warrior Cats series would come out, a book series with a similar level of violence done by feral animals, this time cats. There is also the Wings of Fire series (Which is getting a Netflix adaptation at some point, I've heard that it could be late 2022), which I am more familiar with, that is Warriors with dragons and is more high-fantasy. I wonder if Watership Down was the inspiration for the series.

Damn it. I remember my parents buying that VHS when I was a kid. In Italian, the movie (and book) literally translates like "The rabbit's hill" and the cover displayed those nicely drawn rabbits standing all together. Then I played the videotape and the bloodbath began. I don't think I ever watched that movie twice.

As a suggestion for the inverse of “In Name Only": maybe just a simple “Verbatim”? It’s short, easy to remember, and Latin is classy, haha

I was a weird kid, as I f**king loved, LOVED, the Watership Down the movie when I was 5 years old. LOL, I remember being upset at the time that G.I Joe never had anyone get shot when everyone had guns and I thought that was really unrealistic so the horrible death of rabbits film was a breath of fresh air.

Uh...Did you mention General Woundwort's backstory that was completely removed in the movie or did I just miss it? And yeah, a one character the movie removed just happened to be _a comic relief_ character Bluebell. He escaped the destroyed warren with Holly and his jokes and optimism helped him to keep going when he was about to give up.

The Bright Eyes section is less than a minute long, and it's amazing, so sod you.

I read Watership Down in 1986, recommended by a teacher. I love it and it's on my re-read every year list. Oh, I was 10 when I read it.