Watership Down Reviews

...lovely to look at and fun to listen to, but dull and lethargic in spots, too, and sometimes brutally savage.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

A rare movie that keeps kids on the edge of their chairs without inducing in their parents an overwhelming desire to escape theirs for a smoke in the lobby.

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A beautifully realised animation, Watership Down ultimately works because it doesn't dilute the violence and drama of Adams' book with a rose-tinted lens.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Expertly and realistically animated, this version of the popular novel didn't seem to have an audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A brief spark of imagination survives in a prologue sequence, designed by the great John Hubley before he was fired from the film. The rest is blandness.

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The rabbits' interactions mirror those of human behavior, and so too does the film possess a startlingly tangible sense of death.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

Artful, pretty forgotten (and it should not be) animation of best seller.

| Original Score: 4/5

The 'camera' takes a conventionally objective viewpoint, perpetually rolling over rolling countryside, which effectively robs the plot of all its terror and tension.

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Classic non-children's animated film.

| Original Score: 4/5

Cuts so deep on so many ethereal levels that you can flip to nearly any page in the history book and see a parallel.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Don't listen to anybody who writes it off as a 'cartoon about bunnies.' Stunning beauty, smart scripting, a splendid score ... this is a serious film for serious moviegoers.

Full Review | Original Score: A+

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Full Review

Richard Adams's unforgettable, much-loved tale is honorably brought to life in a low-key, realistic animated style well suited to the naturalism and mature tone of the book.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

A respectful screen version of Richard Adams' bestselling novel.

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For a kid, it's great. Kids can't normally smell extremely episodic, fractured narratives.

| Original Score: 3/5

Multiplying isn't all the rabbits are good at...

| Original Score: 4/5

Great animation.

| Original Score: 3/5

Unsentimental and terrifying.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A dark and transfixing fable that happens to star cartoon bunnies.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

| Original Score: 4/5