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Watership Down BBC Miniseries


Starlord

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Apparently, this will be 4 ep. mini-series released before xmas.  IMO this is one of the greatest stories ever created and should be treated onscreen as such.  As some know, there is a version done in the late 70s that was quite dark and really short-changed a lot of the characters.

 

Hopefully 4 episodes will allow them to to tell nearly the full story.  Sounds like top level voicework but I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in the animation.

 

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The animated movie traumatized me.  And then a few years ago a friend of mine, upon learning of my trauma, insisted that I watch his laserdisc copy so I could see that it wasn't that bad.  And I was traumatized again.  And afterward he said, "Yeah, that was a lot more disturbing than I remembered."  Thanks a lot.

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10 minutes ago, Old Man said:

The animated movie traumatized me.  And then a few years ago a friend of mine, upon learning of my trauma, insisted that I watch his laserdisc copy so I could see that it wasn't that bad.  And I was traumatized again.  And afterward he said, "Yeah, that was a lot more disturbing than I remembered."  Thanks a lot.

 

 

"You're weeeelllcommmmee" *Goes off singing like the Rock*

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9 hours ago, Starlord said:

Hopefully 4 episodes will allow them to to tell nearly the full story.  Sounds like top level voicework but I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in the animation.

 

I see what you're saying about the animation. It seems awfully stilted compared to what's available these days. It looks like something that was done with 3D rendering software in the '90s!

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The detail's there but it still looks like mid-level video game quality.  Some of it might be poor POVs.

 

But yeah, the story's very dark in places, and how much pastoral, rabbits all hopping happily in the meadow, can we take?  Certainly, the dark tone is in the book.  Adams didn't push it that much, that I can recall.  Granted, it's been 30-40 years.  But that's the part that makes for the conflict to drive the story.

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If you think Watership Down is dark, you should see The Plague Dogs.

 

But yes, Watership Down is dark and multi-layered. And it has one of the great taglines: "All the world will be your enemy, and when they catch you they will kill you.  But first they must catch you."

 

The destruction of the original Warren (as told be a survivor) is duly horrifying. In the original film, the animation is nightmarish.

 

My worry about the new film is that it will attempt to tone down the horror that is, in many ways, life as a rabbit.

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An interesting article about the book:

 

The rabbit language of Watership Down helped me make the leap into English

 

This is the first book I remember reading with invented language that didn't seem ponderous and overthought (looking at you, LotR) but actually helped move the story along.

 

I wonder if they'll keep that aspect in the BBC production. 

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On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 1:02 AM, Pariah said:

An interesting article about the book:

 

The rabbit language of Watership Down helped me make the leap into English

 

This is the first book I remember reading with invented language that didn't seem ponderous and overthought (looking at you, LotR) but actually helped move the story along.

 

I wonder if they'll keep that aspect in the BBC production. 

 

 

I loved Bigwig's line, "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!"

 

No translation provided, but by that point you've met all the words before and know what he's saying.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary translates it as "Eat shit, you stinking chief rabbit!"

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It is available on Netflix. I have watched it because I will watch or read anything Watership Down related (there is another book called Tales from Watership Down btw) I felt they changed some of the story unnecessarily but other additions I thought were ok.  I didnt really like the "love story" stuff they added in. Overall it was...meh. I liked the original traumatizing animated movie better.

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On 12/11/2018 at 1:32 PM, Starlord said:

Apparently, this will be 4 ep. mini-series released before xmas.  IMO this is one of the greatest stories ever created and should be treated onscreen as such.  As some know, there is a version done in the late 70s that was quite dark and really short-changed a lot of the characters.

 

Hopefully 4 episodes will allow them to to tell nearly the full story.  Sounds like top level voicework but I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in the animation.

 

In watching the BBC version, it has just reached end of part 1 and continued with part 2 so it is roughly 45-50 mins an episode. And so far the only rabbit deaths are the old warren as the group has just met Captain Holly again.

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