WARREN PEACE

Watership Down: Richard Adam’s timeless classic, crafts a story through survival and freedom.

British animated films were hard to come by in the 1970s. These films weren’t your typical animated Disney films – an adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and The Beatles Yellow Submarine – nor did they come with a happy ending as can be seen by the BBFC rating being upped from a U to a PG. Normally film ratings decrease as people become more and more tolerant, Watership Down, made and marketed as a family film with its fair share of violence, fell victim to this in 2022.

Watership Down epitomises community and the struggles of the world conveyed through the lives of rabbits. With everyone against them, can they fight against their enemies and ‘be cunning and full of tricks and never be destroyed’?

To call the animation beautiful would be an understatement. It is a visually stunning film with amazing hand-drawn backgrounds which brings to your attention the English countryside. The animation brings together all the aspects of  Watership Down in Hampshire, even with the electricity pylons, to try and make the feel as real as possible. The start of the film uses an abstract style of art with bright colours to tell a folk story which contrasts with the natural watercolour style presented through the rest of the film. 

Moments in this film will stick with you for a lifetime with their horror but it’s not all doom and gloom with hope and joy prevailing. This restoration does justice to the original with Doug Weir, head of restoration at the BFI, saying ‘the colours are very accurate to its first showing on screen in 1978’. Even the dust on each frame adds to the film, making the authenticity really shine through.

Watership Down 4K restoration is released at cinemas on October 25 and on Released on Limited Edition UHD and Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime on November 25

By Albie Yr 12

Winchmore School, London