Watership Down TV Series - Journey to Watership Down
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Actor: Andrew Falvey, Jane Horrocks, Phill Jupitus, Richard Briers, Stephen ManganDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 44 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-02-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Good Times Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Watership Down TV Series - Journey to Watership Down
DVD Review: One of my favourite kid's series'
Summary: 4 Stars
I first watched the Watership Down TV series when it aired in the UK in 2000 to 2001. At the time I was more drawn to the "fluffy bunny" genre, but now I realise the large amount of British celebrities who lent their voices to the characters. Some may find it distracting, but I enjoyed listening.
The story, in case you didn't already know, is about a group of rabbits travelling accross the English countryside, led by a vision, to reach a safe haven in "the high, lonely hills". The journey is perilous enough, and when they arrive, there are a few unexpected surprises...
In this day and age, almost all kid's programs seem to be computer animated, but Watership Down opted for traditional, hand-drawn animation, and the results are very pleasing, with bright colours, and some truly fanatstic animation in spots.
The story brings this down to four stars though. The original Watership Down (the book and the film) was painfully frightening and sad, a little funny, and very, very touching. But the stories have been altered and re-written with a young audience in mind (7 - 13 yr olds). Yes, it results in some pleasant, disney-esque animation replacing the dull, inconsistent browns of the film, but the storyline suffers. Not much blood appears for the first ten episodes, and the more frightening scenes, such as when one rabbit is caught in a snare, are toned down so much that the original brutality is lost. I'm not in favour of rabbit abuse or anything, I just think that keeping the scary scenes the way they were meant to be would have carried a stronger message. Also, the smallest rabbit, Pipkin, has been changed from just small in size in the original story, to being a BABY in the series. The intelligent rabbit Blackberry has also been changed from a male to a female, and the doe Hyzenthlay has been renamed "Primrose", probably to avoid pronounciation problems.
But the music is great. Mike batt, who composed the original score of the film, returned to write new music and songs for the series. And even the great Andrew Lloyd Webber contributed by writing an extra instrumental track, "In fields of sun". The cast is also excellent. Listen out for John Hurt (who starred as Hazel in the original film decades ago) return to voice General Woundwort, and Stephen Fry is genuinely frightening as the insane rabbit Cowslip. Other voices worth mentioning are Rik Mayall, who puts on the strangest voice possible for Keehar the gull, and Steve Mangan (who has recently been revealed as a comic genius in the innovative channel 4 comedy "Green Wing") is pompous and aggressive as Bigwig. My two favourite voices were Phil Jupitus and Lee Ross, who play Hawkbit and Dandelion providing the comic relief.
The young at heart among us will certainly enjoy this sweet series, but those of us who prefer a litle more.... drama in our animal dramas, may be better off staying home and watching the film instead.
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