Watership Down (2018)

It is rigorously intelligent, absolutely thrilling, and--unless the kids are about 17--definitely not for children. ... One of its virtues is its fidelity to the source material—dark, filled with dread, marked by stinging indictments of fascism, fundamentalism and cruelty. Being so true to itself, it’s utterly absorbing--once you get past the fact that the principal characters are rabbits. ... All the performances are convincing.

Despite cheap computer-animation, director Noam Murro (“300: Rise of an Empire”) and writer Tom Bidwell (“My Mad Fat Diary”) evoke a strong sense of empathy for the animals while crafting a stirring limited series built on big, frightening themes of life and death along with more humble thoughts on love, friendship, and socialism.

Allowing for the sweetness in Adams' original work to come out in this modern take is part of what makes the BBC-Netflix version of Watership Down work best. The conversations and character development of the rabbits are the bricks that build the story. And while the animation is at first a downside--seemingly retro, too saturated with brown and black tones, making many of the rabbits indistinguishable from one another--that limitation allows the voice work to shine, which of course relies heavily on Adams' lovely descriptions.

Luckily, the story is so good that it shines above the shoddy animation, but the 1978 adaptation is still a better bet and the original story itself is still the best. Give this one a watch only if you can stomach the visuals and the visceral material.

Emotional but blandified adaptation. ... If the Netflix Watership Down fails its potential, it benefits from strong voice performances (Boyega is expressive as the bluff but loyal Bigwig) and a solid central story. Even this easy-listening version, which lays on the romance, jokes and limp dialogue (“They may not have wanted a war, but by Frith, that’s what they’ll get”), has moments of grandeur and the sweep of a fantasy epic.

Personally, I liked it, but only that. I didn't take anything from it. And even though I wasn't that impressed with the cult animated film from 1978 either, I have to say I liked that one better. This miniseries adaptation isn't bad, it's just brutally unnecessary.

Just really bad. I give it 4/10 only because the animation wasn't terrible, but as an adaptation of a beloved piece of literature or as a story in its own right, it's extraordinarily disappointing. As someone who loved the original book, my impression is that this was created by people who had no affection for or understanding of the source material. It's not just that the content is abridged; the core of the story is gutted because it would be difficult to adapt the introspective journey full of personal growth. Instead whole sections are added to ham-fistedly heighten drama. Characters are totally changed in the name of creating melodrama where none existed in the book. Where the book all about the journey and the day to day life of rabbits in a unique world with a distinctly non-human perspective, the series is clearly bored with the all that business of living so it chooses to add action sequences that serve no purpose and convert subtle, sensible characters into a collection of cliches. I wouldn't be so offended if they had kept the same tone or purpose of the story, but I wonder if the writers of this even read the book? It's also got to be the worst case of "tell don't show" I've ever seen. The complete absence of any visual story-telling and the brutish dialog made me cringe.

Bad series, the biggest problem was that Boyega's character was really annoying so skipped the scenes wth him which was most of the episode.