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LTTP: Watership Down - why isn't this a hard R?

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I still haven't watched Watership Down, though I've read the book, but I did watch the Farthing Wood series as a kid in the early afternoons in the '90s, featuring scenes like this (mice are talking characters):

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Farthingwood is A Song of Ice and Fire for children.
 
Pretty awesome movie. It's already been mentioned, but the opening is fantastic. Hooked me when I watched it as a kid. Then the rest of the movie was terrifying lol
 
I remember seeing the box for this on the shelf at the local video store some years ago, but assuming it was just another cutesy kid film. I did end up watching it after someone recommended it, and oh boy. I can't even imagine watching that as a little kid, lol.
 
I gotta say, I watched this at a young age and it really instilled some chilling lessons about injustice. I would actually recommend kids (after a certain age) try and sit through the gruesome parts.
 
Haven't seen it yet. Is it on Netflix? I might do so this week.

Good thing I didn't see it when I was a kid; I scared easily then. I remember the villain in Fern Gully terrifying me.
 
I was working at a library and this girl picked out Watership Down and brought it over to her dad because she wanted to borrow it. Her dad was like "No. That's not for kids" in a voice that had me pretty much convinced that movie must have scarred him.
 
Man, takes me back. Loved it as a kid, despite how bleak and scary it sometimes was. The book is also great. As a father, I showed it to my kids as well--they were like 6 & 7 iirc, so same age as I was--though I spoke to them about it beforehand.

This and Rikki Tikki Tavi really stayed with me. My kids loved that one too
 
I do think many of the popular animation features nowadays (and cartoons on tv) are too soft/sweet (compared to some of the more serious classic Disney products, for example), but man where there films that pushed things way too far. Yes, watership down probably scarred me when I saw in on TV as a kid.
 
My super religious grandparents bought this for me on VHS when I was around 7 or 8. The movie reaaaaally affected me.. The Bright Eyes song and suffocation scene has stayed with me - I'm about to turn 33.
Great movie but they had no clue what they were buying me.
 
Watership Down had the luxury of being released in an era when parents were actually parents and would take the time to tell their kids "don't be scared, it's only a movie, it can't hurt you" instead of relying on the government/BBFC to do their job for them.

Came to post this.
 
This was one of my little brothers favourite movies when he was little. He'd watch it if he was sick... I think he just liked the music.

All through school, whenever I was bored in class, I would absent-mindedly draw those eyes that I am sure came from the Black Rabbit of Inlé. I still do it to this day if I am bored and have a pen and paper to hand. A friend of mine is always commenting on it. I even sketched on my tablet once -

eyes.png
I'm quite certain I've seen a crime drama where a murderer left this as his calling card, lol. Edit: It might be "Hello Monster".
 
Never realized they made a movie of the book.. I LOVED the book, I read that book three times from the library and at 23, I would read it again because it was so good.

Damn that shit is graphic. Book talked about it and said what happened, but words don't do it justice compared to those screenshots.
 
Watership Down and A Nightmare On Elm Street on the same day

That's hardcore

You need something to take the sting off Watership Down
 
Then once you are done with Watership Down and Plague Dogs, follow them both up with the 1986 animated When the Wind Blows!
Hey, the guy who did that movie lived down in County Kerry. He died a couple of years ago, but not before returning to America to visit the internment camp that he and his family were put in when he was just a child (it was covered in a documentary detailing his life experiences).
 
This was one of my little brothers favourite movies when he was little. He'd watch it if he was sick... I think he just liked the music.


I'm quite certain I've seen a crime drama where a murderer left this as his calling card, lol. Edit: It might be "Hello Monster".

Would it be this?

hellomonster.png


Well, I know I've never seen this before, but that did give me a good laugh. Looking, however, in my sketches folder, I found two doodles that I remember were inspired also by the creepy Black Rabbit -

image_2012-09-24_091514.png


image_2012-09-24_091027.png


Cheery stuff! It seems that Watership Down definitely has an effect on people, some more than others perhaps.
 
I still haven't watched Watership Down, though I've read the book, but I did watch the Farthing Wood series as a kid in the early afternoons in the '90s, featuring scenes like this (mice are talking characters):

tumblr_inline_mzh0abJ9eG1qcqa66.jpg
Ha, the English title didn't ring a bell because the German one is quite different ("Als die Tiere den Wald verlieĂźen" / "When the animals left the forest"), but I immediately recognised that scene. Great series.
 
I fucking love Watership Down. Blew my mind as a kid and it's just as good all these years later.

Now go watch Plague Dogs, another animated feature by the same writer.
You're a bad man, heh. Great movie, though. Just really, really sad.
 
Haha, yeah, if you didn't know anything you were in for a surprise. That said it was a serviceable adaptation to an excellent book.
 
Would it be this?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12657734/hellomonster.png

Well, I know I've never seen this before, but that did give me a good laugh. Looking, however, in my sketches folder, I found two doodles that I remember were inspired also by the creepy Black Rabbit -

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12657734/image_2012-09-24_091514.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12657734/image_2012-09-24_091027.png

Cheery stuff! It seems that Watership Down definitely has an effect on people, some more than others perhaps.
Ha, that was it, not quite as close as I remembered.

Liking the black rabbit sketches, man the black rabbit was creepy.
 
I watched this for the first time a week or so ago, as Turner Classic Movies was airing it. Even as an adult, the movie still stunned me, and I think I'll get the bluray or pick up the book soon.

I think it's hilarious what rating it got, probably just on the premise that it's animation. More animated films can stand to not be child-friendly, I would love to see more animated films aimed towards an older audience. Think of how creative film directors could be without having to be limited by ratings.

In any case, what a great film. The mythos behind it is fantastic.
 
The film needed to be longer. It really just charges at full speed through the book's major plot points and doesn't really get any room to breathe until the second half.

The section with the warren of snares in the book starts out as kind of a mystery and really builds the horror slowly until the big revelation just hits you like a sledgehammer. In the movie, they do that entire subplot in what seems like 5 minutes.
 
You guys do realize that the black rabbit is the good guy, right?
It's more obvious in the novel though, and a more common thing for (European) novels to have. Death as impartial rather than active entity I mean.

Also, for people who were educated on plagues, continuous wars, and two world wars, this is nothing. This thread is kind of adorable for going 'but R' when that's basically Tuesday as far European sensibilities go. Or used to, maybe.

It's worth pointing out that the USSR was still 'at our doorstep' at the time, with nuclear annihilation very much still considered a threat in the '80s, which influenced a lot of things. "Death by X" doesn't exactly intimidate anyone when you can be vaporized at a whim. Or worse: survive. See Threads.
 
Watership Down is a retelling of the Aeneid and heavily influenced by the work of Joseph Campbell, fact fans.

Ehhhhh....those ideas were imposed by critics that came later. Richard Adams made it up as a series of stories to tell his kids. He eventually refined it into a final book.

It's also definitely not a retelling of the Aeneid. In the sense that it has universal characters and themes you could say it's influenced by Joseph Campbell or based on the Aeneid, but then you could say basically any heroic journey was based on those things. Epic stories have tropes just like anime, video games, etc.
 
Also The Secret of Nimh movie is kind of funny. You have this whole plot about scientists creating super-smart rats, but the really big reveal, which is totally glossed over, is that magic exists in our world.

The real story that needed to be told is how Nicodemus ended up with that amulet.
 
Also The Secret of Nimh movie is kind of funny. You have this whole plot about scientists creating super-smart rats, but the really big reveal, which is totally glossed over, is that magic exists in our world.

The real story that needed to be told is how Nicodemus ended up with that amulet.

I dunno. I liked the mystery. I think TSoN did well with being ambiguous where it could get away with it.
 
The film needed to be longer. It really just charges at full speed through the book's major plot points and doesn't really get any room to breathe until the second half.

The section with the warren of snares in the book starts out as kind of a mystery and really builds the horror slowly until the big revelation just hits you like a sledgehammer. In the movie, they do that entire subplot in what seems like 5 minutes.

Yeah, I have the same opinion too. In a lot of ways it is like Harry Potter 4 movie adaptation. The whole thing barely hangs on to coherence.
 
My old man took my eight year old little sister to see this at the pictures because fluffy bunny cartoon.

Yeah ....

Worse still, I myself forced the same sister to watch the nuclear apocalypse series 'Threads' on TV while babysitting cos hey, that's what passed for entertainment for dickhead elder brothers in 80's Britain. Oh and I also introduced her to 'The Evil Dead'.

Yeah ....

She's all grown up now and mostly ok so no real damage done.

....
 
At least those were good with sensible characters. My sibling went through the whole 'face of death' series when I was a bit too young to grasp it was all fake. :|
Oh yeah, he did the same with Evil Dead too. yaay, nothing gonna touch me noooow
 
just went and read the plot synopsis for Plague dogs
WHO thought that would make a good movie, and why was it ever made
good lord
 
In 1978 there was no PG-13 rating, just G, PG, R, and X, so it got a PG since there was no explicit boning in it.

If you wanted cartoon boning, I'm sure something by Ralph Bakshi was playing in the theater next door.
 
Ha, that was it, not quite as close as I remembered.

Liking the black rabbit sketches, man the black rabbit was creepy.

Close enough! And cheers, I was surprised myself when those came out. I've never been able to draw anything even if my life depended on it.

You guys do realize that the black rabbit is the good guy, right?

Like you say, more the impartial entity rather than good, or evil for that matter. That doesn't take away from it's creepy appearance, in all it's incarnations -

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