Watership Down (1978)

Watership Down
Directed by Martin Rosen
Written by Martin Rosen from a novel by Richard Adams
1978/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Frith: There is not a day or night that a doe offers her life for her kittens or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his Chief, but there is no bargain. What is is what must be.

This is quite watchable but could have been better.

The film begins with a narrator recounting the Lapine creation myth.  Lord Frith created all the animals but they were the same.  The rabbits got too big for their britches.  As punishment, he gave each kind of animal a special gift.  Many were given claws and teeth to kill the rabbits.  To the rabbits, he gave a bright white tail and speed.  The rabbits were told that they were to be the prey of any who could catch them but first they had to catch them.

We segue into the main story.  Fiver is a skittish psychic kind of rabbit who gets a premonition that something terrible is going to happen to his whole warren.  Hazel (voiced by John Hurt), his brother, talks many of the other rabbits into seeking out a new home.  Other rabbits prefer to remain behind.

The rabbits go through many dangerous situations and have several adventures along the way.  They meet an injured seagull named Kehaar (voiced by Zero Mostel) and nurse him to health.  Kehaar becomes a potent asset as a spy and warrior.

Finally, the rabbits meet up with a warren run by a dictator.  They want Hazel’s group to join their warren – or else.

This is not a children’s film.  The rabbits are not cute and have many scary enemies.  It tells a cautionary sermon about habitat destruction.  I thought it was pretty good until it starts getting all Animal Farm-ish toward the end and lost me.