Okay, so I’ve come around pretty well on Watership Down, even if I still get the feeling that it waters things down from the book. The final episode of the miniseries brings it home in a compelling way.
Hazel and the rabbits of Watership Down will need to fight for their lives and their new home against General Woundwort’s forces at Efrafa. As they fortify their warren and prepare to defend it, it will take more than brute force to defeat the bigger, stronger, more numerous Efrafa warriors.
There’s quite a bit to like here. In David-and-Goliath-type battle stories, I always enjoy seeing the ways that the underdogs fight smart to take on a superior force (see: my undying love for Red Cliff,) and Hazel leads his warren in a fair amount of that. The rabbits display courage, determination, intelligence, and creativity during the fight, and no one rabbit is responsible for how it all goes down.
I also like how some of the dynamics within Efrafa itself work in Watership Down’s favor. This isn’t like the end of an Avengers movie where our heroes are battling hordes of nameless, faceless killing machines. Even though Efrafa’s warriors have committed all kinds of brutal acts, they aren’t a homogenous hive mind, and as General Woundwort’s obsession with destroying Watership Down grows deeper, not everyone is content to follow him blindly. That adds a nice tension to the proceedings.
One downside is that the atmospheric circumstances of the big confrontations, often some combination of in the rain, at night, or underground, mean it’s a little harder to see everything clearly and thus even more difficult to tell the rabbits apart by sight. By now, I’m more tuned into the different actors’ voices and can keep track of them pretty well that way, but despite watching all four episodes, I don’t know how many of the Watership Down rabbits I could easily clock by sight other than Bigwig, whose look is more distinctive. Otherwise, I’m more likely to go, “That’s Hazel/Strawberry/Fiver, right?” and listen for confirmation, and I still need to hear the voice to distinguish at all between a number of the others. The animation is pretty, but it doesn’t do the story a lot of favors.
While the final episode is exciting, what it doesn’t offer is much Peter Capaldi. Kehaar appears here, but not much, and when he is, it’s more about the action of how he’s involved in the scene rather than the dialogue he’s given. Capaldi does fine with it, obviously – there’s just not much for him to do.
And that wraps up Watership Down! Final recap.
Accent Watch
Exceedingly Scottish. I love an accent that can turn “worm” into a two-syllable word with about three R’s in it.
Recommend?
In General – I think I might. After a slow start, this miniseries grew on me, and if nothing else, it made me interested in revisiting the book and giving it a proper read.
Peter Capaldi – Not necessarily. Capaldi is entertaining as Kehaar, but he’s just not in this very much. I might recommend his first episode, “The Raid,” because it features the most of him.
Warnings
Lots of violence to animals (including torture and death,) scary images (despite the animation, this is not for kids,) and strong thematic elements.
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