Watership Down (2018 TV series)

Watership Down is a CGI-animated adventure fantasy drama television programme directed by Noam Murro. It is based on the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams and adapted by Tom Bidwell.^[1] It was released on 22 December 2018 in the United Kingdom and internationally on Netflix the next day.^[2][3] The BBC broadcast comprised two back-to-back episodes per day.

Watership Down
Title screen for the first episode
Genre	Action Adventure Fantasy Drama Adult animation
Based on	Watership Down by Richard Adams
Written by	Tom Bidwell
Directed by	Noam Murro
Starring	James McAvoy Nicholas Hoult John Boyega Ben Kingsley Tom Wilkinson Gemma Arterton Peter Capaldi Olivia Colman Mackenzie Crook
Music by	Federico Jusid
Opening theme	"Fire on Fire" (written and performed by Sam Smith)
Ending theme	"Fire on Fire" (written and performed by Sam Smith)
Country of origin	United Kingdom Ireland United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	4
Production
Executive producers	Rory Aitken Eleanor Moran Ben Pugh Josh Varney
Producers	Georgia Dussaud Cecil Kramer
Editor	Andrew Walton
Running time	50–51 minutes
Production companies	42 Biscuit Filmworks Brown Bag Films BBC Netflix
Budget	£20 million
Original release
Network	BBC One (United Kingdom) Netflix (international)
Release	22 December (2018-12-22) – 23 December 2018 (2018-12-23)

The music video for "Fire on Fire" (from Watership Down) by Sam Smith was released on 21 December 2018.^[2]

Voice cast

Main article: List of Watership Down characters

• James McAvoy as Hazel
• Nicholas Hoult as Fiver
• John Boyega as Bigwig
• Ben Kingsley as General Woundwort
• Tom Wilkinson as Threarah
• Gemma Arterton as Clover
• Peter Capaldi as Kehaar
• Olivia Colman as Strawberry
• Mackenzie Crook as Hawkbit
• Anne-Marie Duff as Hyzenthlay
• Taron Egerton as El-Ahrairah
• Freddie Fox as Captain Holly
• James Faulkner as Frith
• Lee Ingleby as Campion
• Miles Jupp as Blackberry
• Daniel Kaluuya as Bluebell
• Rory Kinnear as Cowslip
• Craig Parkinson as Sergeant Sainfoin
• Rosamund Pike as the Black Rabbit of Inlé
• Daniel Rigby as Dandelion
• Jason Watkins as Captain Orchis
• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Vervain
• Gemma Chan as Dewdrop
• Rosie Day as Thethuthinnang
• Emeli Sande as Thethuthinang Singing Voice
• Henry Goodman as Blackavar
• Peter Guinness as Silverweed
• Charlotte Spencer as Nettle

Production

In July 2014, it was announced that the BBC would be airing a new animated serial of Watership Down based on the 1972 novel and the 1978 film.^[4] In April 2016, it was announced that the series would be a co-production between BBC and Netflix, and would consist of four one hour episodes.^[5] The series has a budget of £20 million.^[6] The rest of the voice cast was announced in November 2018.^[7]

Release

Originally set for release on 25 December 2018,^[8] Watership Down was released on 22 December 2018, on BBC One in the UK and on 23 December 2018 on Netflix, internationally.^[9][3][2] In Germany, the series was released on DVD in Region 2, despite not being released in the UK.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	UK viewers (millions) [10]
1	"The Journey"	Noam Murro	Tom Bidwell	22 December 2018 (2018-12-22)	4.64
In Lapine language mythology, the world was created by a sun god called Frith. When the rabbits begin multiplying out of control, Frith created predators in order to hunt them down. However, he bestowed great swiftness upon the rabbits to ensure their survival. In the present day, in a warren called Sandleford, a young rabbit named Fiver has a vision of machines coming to destroy their warren where he lives with his elder brother Hazel. Despite being unable to convince the Chief Rabbit to evacuate the warren, Hazel and Fiver manage to convince five of the rabbits, all of them bucks named Dandelion, Blackberry, Hawkbit, Bluebell, and Bigwig, to leave. The group narrowly escape from their warren’s Owsla, led by Captain Holly, by crossing a river and head into the wild countryside. Over the next few days, the group encounter several hazards on their journey, including fighting off a flock of crows and seeking shelter during savage rainstorms. Further in their travels, the group is visited by a strange rabbit named Cowslip, offering to let them stay in his warren. Although it is full of well-fed rabbits, morale and numbers are strangely low. Bigwig is caught by a snare and starts to suffocate. Cowslip reveals that those snared are given to a farmer in exchange for food and protection. The rabbits manage to free Bigwig and leave, with a doe named Strawberry joining them. Soon after, they settle in a new warren on a wooded slope, naming it Watership Down. Later that night, they are joined up with an injured Holly, who informs the group that the Sandleford warren has been destroyed and that Fiver’s predictions had indeed come true.
2	"The Raid"	Noam Murro	Tom Bidwell	22 December 2018 (2018-12-22)	4.64
The next morning, Holly recounts his travels to find the group; after being the sole survivor of the Sandleford warren's destruction, he trailed the group's footsteps, before coming across a beaten buck named Blackavar who warns him about a nearby warren named "Efrafa". Knowing that there will be fighting between the bucks over the one doe they have, Bigwig suggests going to the nearby Nuthanger Farm to look for does, but Hazel disagrees. Kehaar, a seagull with an injured wing, crashes in front of the group, and Hazel befriends Kehaar in order to ask him to look for does. He flies off and returns with word of the Efrafa warren, which is said to be overrun with many does. Hazel goes with Fiver and Bigwig to Nuthanger Farm; there, they discover a hutch containing four hutch rabbits, all of them does named Clover, Boxwood, Haystack, and Laurel. Before Hazel and Fiver can free them, they are attacked and chased off by the farm cat. While traveling to Efrafa, located in an abandoned coal mine, Holly, Blackberry, and Bluebell are captured by a patrol of rabbit soldiers from Efrafa and brought before their leader, General Woundwort, where their request for does is denied, and they are marked and imprisoned. The following night, Holly's group stages a breakout with the assistance of an Efrafan doe named Hyzenthlay and they barely manage to escape with their lives. That same night, Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig return to the farm and free the does from their hutch, but are soon discovered by the farm cat who alerts the farmer’s wife. During the rabbits’ desperate attempt to escape, two of the does, Boxwood and Laurel are recaptured by the farmer’s wife, while the farmer pursues the remaining five rabbits with a shotgun. But while Fiver, Bigwig, Haystack, and Clover manage to escape, Hazel is shot in the leg and collapses into a storm drain. In a state of limbo, Hazel is visited by the Black Rabbit of Inlé, the Lapine grim reaper, and she assures him his time has not yet come.
3	"The Escape"	Noam Murro	Tom Bidwell	23 December 2018 (2018-12-23)	5.65
Entering a vision in his dreams, Fiver realizes that Hazel is alive and tells the others. Clover sneaks off and finds Hazel in the storm drain. She leaves Hazel to seek help but is captured and taken by a patrol of rabbits from Efrafa. Bigwig, while looking for Clover, finds Hazel and helps him return to Watership Down, where Kehaar removes the bullets from Hazel's leg. After hearing Holly's report of the conditions at Efrafa, Hazel hatches a plan to infiltrate Efrafa and save the imprisoned does. Leaving Holly, Strawberry, and Haystack back at Watership Down, Hazel leads the rest of the rabbits on a daring rescue mission to Efrafa. Bigwig infiltrates the warren as a wandering rabbit and is recruited into the Owsla by Woundwort. He finds Clover there, along with a number of frightened does and Blackavar, the buck that Holly had met while searching for Watership Down, who are all beaten and abused by the warren's Owsla. After earning the trust of Hyzenthlay, the leader of the Efrafan does who had previously helped Holly, Bluebell, and Blackberry escape from Efrafa, Bigwig attempts an escape from the warren alongside them, but the plan is foiled when Kehaar fails to appear to lead them to safety and they are caught. Hyzenthlay is accused of the escape plan and sentenced to execution. Bigwig is ordered to act as executioner in order to prove his loyalty to Efrafa. He declines and instead retaliates, fighting off the soldiers with the aid of Blackavar and helping Clover, Hyzenthlay, and several does escape from the warren. Bigwig, Clover, Blackavar, Hyzenthlay, and the escaped Efrafran does reunite with Hazel's group, but before they can make their way down to the river to safety, they are surrounded by the Efrafan Owsla and Woundwort challenges Bigwig to a fight to the death.
4	"The Siege"	Noam Murro	Tom Bidwell	23 December 2018 (2018-12-23)	6.78
Before Woundwort can attack Bigwig, Kehaar comes to the group's rescue and fights off the Efrafans. The rabbits hide in a nearby human village, thank Kehaar for his bravery the next morning before he leaves them, promising to return in future. The group returns to Watership Down, reunite with Holly, Strawberry, and Haystack, and settle down into their new life. But after several days of peace and quiet, they encounter an Efrafan scouting party. Hazel meets up with Woundwort and tries to offer terms of peace, but Woundwort declines and threatens to kill everyone in the warren if they do not return the does and Blackavar to them. Watership Down prepares for war and is soon under siege by the Efrafans. Though Hazel's group fight bravely, several rabbits are badly wounded and Holly is killed while trying to protect Hyzenthlay. The following morning, Fiver receives a vision of a dog running loose and attacking the Efrafans. Remembering the dog they had seen in Nuthanger Farm while breaking the hutch rabbits Clover and Haystack out, Hazel leaves for Nuthanger Farm with Fiver and Blackavar. Bigwig ambushes Woundwort when he finally breaks into the warren, both rabbits sustaining critical injuries to each other in the fight. Though they manage to free the farmer's dog from his rope, Fiver is captured by the farm cat and Hazel is forced to abandon him to lure the dog to the warren. With Blackavar's help, Hazel leads the dog to his warren, who attacks the Efrafans and kills one of the soldiers. The dog and a wounded Woundwort lunge at each other, though Woundwort's fate is left unknown. Fiver, having been rescued from the farm cat by the farmer's young daughter Lucy, is released back into the wild and soon reunites with Hazel and the rest of the rabbits, convincing Hazel of the humans' capacity for good. The warren prospers in the years that follow, with families made among the rabbits and Kehaar visiting his friends. One evening, an elderly Hazel enjoys silence by a creek. An older Fiver, sensing that Hazel will soon die, says goodbye to his brother. Hazel is then visited by the Black Rabbit of Inlé, who invites him to join her Owsla, assuring him of Watership Down's perpetual safety. Reassured, Hazel accepts and passes away peacefully. Outside the warren, Bluebell tells Hazel's story.

Reception

Watership Down received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the narrative, performances of its voice cast and soundtrack, but receiving some criticism for its somewhat tamer tone and the quality of the computer animation, described as "soulless"^[11] and "clunky".^[12] On Rotten Tomatoes, the drama has an approval rating of 74% based on reviews from 23 critics, with its critical consensus reading "Though its animation leaves something to be desired, Watership Down is a faithful adaptation that will resonate with viewers of any age."^[13] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on five critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".^[14]

The Guardian and The Independent both gave it two stars out of five, calling the production "tame, drab and deeply unsatisfying."^[15] and "spectacularly ho-hum – less tooth and claw than head shake."^[16]

The Times was more positive, giving it three stars out of five, writing "this was a meaty, lovingly made production that, spread over two days, felt far too long,"^[17] while The New York Times noted that though the adaptation "fails its potential, it benefits from strong voice performances and a solid central story. Even this easy-listening version, which lays on the romance, jokes and limp dialogue, has moments of grandeur and the sweep of a fantasy epic."^[18] Despite the negative reviews, it got four stars from the Daily Telegraph, which said that it had an "emotional bite".

The drama won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. It also got nominated for a Daytime creative arts Emmy awards for outstanding directing, sound editing, sound mixing, graphic design and music direction.^[19]