Richard Adams - Watership Down etc.

[Courtenay]

I guessed you might know that bookshop, Floragord. Tales from Watership Down is a book of short stories as the name suggests, some from rabbit mythology (El-ahrairah etc.) and some about the further adventures of Hazel and co. after the events in Watership Down. It's not on anything like the grand scale of the original book, naturally, and I'm aware it received somewhat mixed reviews, but it's a good read as far as I recall — I've only read it once, not that long after it was published, and I don't remember it well, but I know I enjoyed it and wasn't disappointed. I've just ordered a copy of it myself for a re-read.

Meanwhile, I didn't manage to get a room at the Watership Down Inn (which isn't that close to the actual down anyway — obviously just capitalising on being in the general vicinity ), but I've booked a couple of nights later this month in Newbury for a real Watership Down holiday, so I'm looking forward to that!

[floragord]

You've got me sussed, Courtenay ! "Tales" sounds enjoyable, I'll add that to my rapidly expanding Amazon order, its lovely to have a line-up of interesting books to read. Have a delightful
"Watership Down" holiday later in May, how nice to visit the scenes from the book.

[Courtenay]

Well, well, turns out there's going to be a new computer-animated version of Watership Down on the BBC in two parts over Christmas! Here's a review from the Telegraph that's worth reading: Jerky rabbits, toned-down violence, but acres of emotional bite

Going by the trailer, I agree with the reviewer's remark that the rabbits "appear to have escaped from a decade-old computer game" (I'd say closer to two decades!! ) — it seems budgetary constraints had a lot to do with it. But I'm heartened by the report that it follows the original story "pretty faithfully", with a great voice cast and the countryside "gorgeously realised from photographs of the real Watership Down near Kingsclere in Hampshire" (I haven't forgotten my own recent trip there! ).

I was fond of the old animated version when I was little — it's beautifully done and I never found it disturbingly violent (the book itself, which I'd already read, is quite graphic in places!) — but there's one huge, huge omission that has always ruined it for me. At the end, the narrative switches straight from the climactic battle with the Efrafans to Hazel's peaceful death some years later, so if you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't know what happened to any of the other characters, including Bigwig, whom we last see seriously injured from his fight with Woundwort, and Fiver, whom we last see going into one of his strange visionary trances from which he can't be woken. In the book, we hear quite a bit more about what happened after Woundwort's defeat and have the assurance that all the Watership rabbits do go on to live happy lives and see the warren thrive. So I'm hoping that this new version will do a better job of the ending than the old film, at least. I will definitely be watching it!

EDIT: Having just watched a clip from the old 1978 film, I've re-confirmed that the animation in that was fairly hokey in its own way — not bad, but not exactly brilliant either — so I could quite possibly get used to the new "budget CGI" version if the actual storytelling is good enough... (It turns out I'll be working both the nights when it's shown on TV — 22 and 23 December — but I'll catch up with it on iPlayer as soon as I've got time.)

[Anita Bensoussane]

Did anyone else watch the CGI version of Watership Down? Although the rabbits looked rather ungainly and it was sometimes hard to tell them apart, I soon found myself fully immersed in the story and was quite moved at times - even though I already knew what was going to happen as I've read the book more than once and watched the 1970s cartoon at the cinema when it was released (and have seen it again on TV). Nothing beats reading the book though, as Richard Adams creates such a rich and vivid world and his love of language comes through. As a child I also loved reading some of Felix Salten's thought-provoking books written from the perspective of animals - Bambi, Bambi's Children and Fifteen Rabbits.

[Courtenay]

I did watch the first part of it, Anita, but sadly I was put off — I found the animation awful and the whole thing just seemed rather dark and strange and creepy. I didn't feel it truly captured the spirit of the book. The 1978 film lopped the ending off, as I think I've mentioned, and it was pretty gruesome — I watched some clips of it online recently and realised the version I had back in Australia as a child must have been somewhat censored, as I honestly don't remember that much blood and gore (and I watched it many times)!! — but it stuck very close to the book, and in most cases the dialogue was quoted word for word, or very nearly. (Including a swear word from Kehaar the seagull! ) The voice actors in the new version all did a great job, but hardly any of the dialogue was taken from the book, which to me made it feel like it wasn't quite the same story. And again, the CGI animation just looked weird and otherworldly and made it hard (I thought) to really feel for the characters and what was happening to them. The old film didn't have the world's most sophisticated animation either, but at least the rabbits looked like rabbits and there was a lot more life and colour and humour in it, gory bits notwithstanding...

From what I saw, there weren't any huge changes to the plot in the new version, but it wasn't nearly as close to the book and it all seemed strangely uneven and badly paced somehow. The best example I can think of is how they handled what happened to the rabbits' original home at Sandleford. In the book and in the 1978 film, soon after settling on Watership Down, the main characters one night have an initially terrifying encounter as they hear some creature moaning and crying desperately in the darkness. It turns out to be Captain Holly from Sandleford, who tells them how men came and destroyed their warren, gassing the rabbits underground and tearing apart the whole field. It's told in great detail in the book and portrayed in a stylised but graphic sequence in the film. In the new version, we do see one of Fiver's prophetic dreams at the start, but it's vague and misty with presumably dead rabbits sort of hanging in mid-air — more baffling than terrifying — and when Holly later finds them, he just sort of stumbles into view and declares that Fiver was right and the warren was destroyed. No tension whatsoever, let alone any real sense of the horror of what happened to Sandleford, which is one of the most powerful aspects of the book — turning the destruction of a rabbit warren in the name of human "progress" into one of the most gut-wrenchingly memorable episodes I've ever read. But in this new rendition, it was pretty much a non-event.

The background artwork in the 1978 version was also, I now realise, based directly on the real-life locations — I visited the real Watership Down earlier this year and was amazed to find I recognised it and the surrounding countryside even though I'd never been there before, because the old film portrayed it so accurately! But although the new CGI version had a lot of detail in the backgrounds, it somehow didn't look or feel real at all, let alone look or feel much like the exact places. By the end of the first episode, I'm afraid I'd had enough and didn't have any desire to see what they'd done to the rest of it. I'll give the book another re-read soon instead.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I can see how the computer animation could be off-putting, Courtenay, and I agree that the pace was uneven. I'm always curious about different interpretations of a book but nothing beats reading the story for oneself and experiencing the effect of the author's words on one's thoughts and imagination.

[Courtenay]

Agreed. Watership Down has got to be one of the most brilliant books I've ever read in that regard! I re-read it earlier this year (for the first time in many years) at the time I was visiting the real locations, and I soon realised I hadn't quite remembered just how beautifully written and moving and often outright gripping it is. The episode with Cowslip's warren was one part that really struck me. That was quite interestingly done in the new TV version — they certainly made it creepy, though I thought the bit with the rabbits worshipping crystals (not in the book) was maybe a little too weird — but I'd forgotten how gradually and subtly Richard Adams builds up the suspense in that episode until they finally discover the warren's terrible secret. I'd also forgotten how downright tense the chapters where Bigwig is in Efrafa are — I was just about on the edge of my seat with this re-reading even though I know very well what happens!!

I've made up my mind to have a look for the old film version on DVD now — it's so many years since I watched it (our version was taped off the TV in about 1991, I'm pretty sure!) and I'd really like to revisit it. I'm aware there was also another cartoon version — was it a series? — more recently, but I don't know much about it at all and don't know how much resemblance it bore to either the book or the first film.

Aha, here it is on Wikipedia: Watership Down (TV series) The descriptions of "drastic changes from the novel" detailed there are enough to put this stickler off already, thanks!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for the link, Courtenay. I'd vaguely heard of the cartoon series but it doesn't sound like my cup of tea as it gets further and further from the original story as it goes on. My daughter sometimes used to watch a cartoon series called The Animals of Farthing Wood, based on a set of books by Colin Dann, and certain elements of that put me in mind of Watership Down.

[Courtenay]

Oh yes, I read all the Farthing Wood books and saw part of the cartoon series when it was on — it was quite well done and followed the books pretty closely, apart from changing some of the male animals to female in the interests of gender balance (but that didn't have any major bearing on the story). There were a few slightly gruesome bits in it, such as where the animals find a butcher bird's larder with small creatures impaled on thorns — that happened in the book as well — but nothing on the scale of the 1978 Watership Down film. Farthing Wood was aimed at a younger audience overall and was less naturalistic than Watership Down, with a whole variety of animals travelling together as they escape the destruction of their home and swearing an oath that the predators in the group won't harm the smaller animals. It was an enjoyable read, but Watership Down is the one that's stayed with me far more.

[Courtenay]

While we're on the topic, just thought I'd share a few photographs from the real Watership Down in Hampshire! I visited there in May and had a lovely walk from Ecchinswell (the nearest town) to Nuthanger Farm — scene of a couple of dramatic episodes in the book — and up to the top of the Down itself. It's a very long, high hill with an absolutely marvellous view, and so quiet up there too — it's far enough from any major roads that you can hardly hear anything but the breeze and the birds and the bleating of sheep (and an occasional aircraft). I didn't see any rabbits, disappointingly, but it was too much in the middle of the day for them to be about, really. A wonderful experience, though — and as I mentioned, I soon realised the 1978 film is so accurate to the real-life locations that I recognised them, which made it even more special!


"Nuthanger is like a farm in an old tale... The house may be two hundred years old or it may be older, built of brick, with a stone-faced front looking south towards the down."


"... Hazel came out from under the branches and looked carefully round the lower slope. Then he stared upwards over the ant-hills, to the open down rising above....
'Fiver,' he said, 'let me get this right. You want us to climb up this place, however far it is, and find shelter on the top. Is that it?'
'Yes, Hazel.'"


"At this moment [Hazel] saw Dandelion, who had run well ahead, squatting on an ant-hill clear against the sky...
'Dandelion, get down!' he said. 'Why are you sitting up there?'
'Because I can see,' replied Dandelion, with a kind of excited joy. 'Come and look! You can see the whole world.'"

(You don't get much of an impression of how steep the Down is from those photos, but believe me, it's quite a climb!!)

[Anita Bensoussane]

Lovely photos, Courtenay!

[Courtenay]

This is following on from a few posts in the "top three children's books" thread, where I mentioned a book I'd read — Aeron Clement's The Cold Moons — which is similar to Watership Down and is about the journey of a colony of badgers fleeing for their lives, so I thought I'd post a bit more about it in the Richard Adams thread by way of comparison. (The original conversation about it starts here.)

For anyone who may be interested, I found a couple of reviews of The Cold Moons online, one very positive and the other more critical. (WARNING: both contain some plot spoilers, especially the second one, although I don't think there's anything there that would ruin the story for someone who hadn't read it.)

Review from "Flayrah" (positive)

Review from "Fantasy Book Review" (critical)

Both reviewers make good points and while it's a book I love and have re-read several times since I first read it as a child, I do agree with much of what that second review has to say about its weak points. The writing style IS a bit florid and overdone in places, though I got used to it after a while; the character development could be better (although it's not terrible — I found many of the characters very memorable); and probably the biggest weakness is that there's no dialogue at all — we're just told indirectly what the characters say to each other, without any actual words quoted. It's probably an attempt to make the story more "realistic" than it would be if it had the badgers speaking to each other in English, but it does get a bit laboured after a while. However, I found the story was strong and enjoyable enough to make up for that.

Of course, Richard Adams got around the same "realism" problem by writing his rabbits' dialogue in English, but reminding us regularly that they are actually speaking their own language, Lapine, and giving us plenty of useful words from it like "silflay" and "elil"! But I suppose if Clement had done the same thing and invented a badger language, he could have been accused of... well, it wouldn't exactly be plagiarism, but definitely blatant imitation.

One thing I think The Cold Moons does do better than Watership Down is emotional impact. There are a couple of episodes in Watership Down where it looks like one of the main characters has died, only for us to find later that they survived after all. There are several deaths of minor characters, but not the rabbits we're led to care about the most (except for one very peaceful passing-away at the end). Whereas in The Cold Moons, several main characters DO die during the course of the story, and I found those scenes quite wrenching. Not overwhelmingly — it has a very happy ending! — but if you read it, just be warned there are some sad parts.

Overall, I'd give The Cold Moons at least 7.5 out of 10 (unlike the more negative review, which gives it only 5!), but Watership Down definitely has a 9.5 out of 10 from me — and the loss of 0.5 is only because of the relative lack of female characters and a couple of disparaging remarks made about them by the male rabbits! The Cold Moons is also a bit dated from a gender equality point of view, but at least the female characters are part of the story the whole way through and they do have important supporting roles, just unfortunately not leading roles.

But those too are only minor quibbles. I'd definitely recommend The Cold Moons to anyone who enjoyed Watership Down and if anyone else here has read it or decides to read it, I'd love to know what you think! (It's out of print but there are second hand copies available from Amazon and other online sellers.)