Watership Down (1978)

At last! Martin Rosen's stunning, touching and above all faithful adaptation of Richard Adams' novel gets the 4K treatment from the BFI.

You probably know the story by now - a bunch of rabbits leave their warren after one has a premonition of it being destroyed (which turns out to be true). They have a number of adventures in their quest to find a new home - the Watership Down of the title - and then have to defend it against the marvellous villain that is General Woundwort.

Richard Adams' novel made a huge splash when it was published in the mid 1970s. Nobody could decide on the target audience, though, and so Penguin published it in both adult and children (through their Puffin imprint) editions. Consequently for a lot of nine and ten year olds (myself and my friends included) it was our first taste of more adult-orientated fiction and we loved it. Kids went rabbit mad and when the film came out there was no question of us going to see it. 

In the excellent booklet that accompanies the extras Martin Rosen says he would have preferred the film to have not be awarded a 'U' certificate. Interestingly it's only recently that I've learned that a few people (and parents) felt traumatised by it. Certainly there was no outcry back in the day - we just all left the cinema with tears in our eyes because of how lovely that ending is, and, I suspect now watching it through older eyes, because of Angela Morley's score, rather than because of any 'scary violence'. In fact it was a relief to a lots of us kids at the time to see an animated film that that didn't portray animals in the 'Disney cute' style.

The BFI's 4K transfer is a wonder, and will be especially of interest to animation fans because it really allows you to see a level of detail in the compositions that was previously impossible. Extras include some ported over from previous releases - a 2005 commentary track from Martin Rosen (with Chris Gore), a 17 minute conversation with Rosen and editor Terry Rawlings, and 12 minutes of discussion with the animators ('Defining a Style'). There's a new commentary from academic animation scholars Catherine Lester and Sam Summers, 14 minutes of storyboard comparisons, a 28 minute Super 8 digest version, and, most fascinating of all, 3 minutes of home super 8mm footage from Arthur Humberstone of the animators at work. 

There's also a bunch of interesting 'odds and ends' short films including 'Bolly in a Space Adventure', a five minute cartoon from the psychedelic era. Do not watch unless you want the brief theme tune stuck in your head forever. There's also the creaky 'Once We Were Four' (nine minutes), Rabbits for Profit (15 minutes) and another creaky one -Cartoonland, Make Believer (17 minutes).

Finally, the set comes with a double-sided poster, four postcards, and an 80 page book that offers more fascinating insights into the making of the film and its release and reception. 

    Hey! I got to the end of this and didn't mention Bright Eyes. It wasn't quite the Brian Adams 'Everything I do' of 1978 but it was a song you couldn't move for for weeks back then. 

Martin Rosen's WATERSHIP DOWN is released by the BFI on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on Monday 25th November 2024