X
- 2018
- TV-PG
- Netflix
- 2018
- TV-PG
- Netflix
- 2018
- TV-PG
- Netflix
- 2018
- TV-PG
- Netflix
Watership Down (2018)
Season 1 Premiere: Dec 22, 2018
76
5.3
All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 5 Critic Reviews
76
60% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
40% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 5 Critic Reviews
76
60% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
40% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It is rigorously intelligent, absolutely thrilling, and--unless the kids are about 17--definitely not for children. ... One of its virtues is its fidelity to the source material—dark, filled with dread, marked by stinging indictments of fascism, fundamentalism and cruelty. Being so true to itself, it’s utterly absorbing--once you get past the fact that the principal characters are rabbits. ... All the performances are convincing.
Despite cheap computer-animation, director Noam Murro (“300: Rise of an Empire”) and writer Tom Bidwell (“My Mad Fat Diary”) evoke a strong sense of empathy for the animals while crafting a stirring limited series built on big, frightening themes of life and death along with more humble thoughts on love, friendship, and socialism.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 42 User Ratings
5.3
43% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
24% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
33% Negative
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 42 User Ratings
5.3
43% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
24% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
33% Negative
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
I had no idea what I was getting into when I found this. I'm from brazil, so "watership down" wasn't a movie I watched as a kid. What draw my attention immediately to this was the cast of really good and talented people. The casting in comparison to the animation made it clear where they chose to spend their money, cuz the cgi is just plain awful, but dont get me wrong, whereas watership down is ugly, it can be really well acted and written. The performances are top notch,specially by boyega and McAvoy. The story is also fascinating, with am intriguing world building that got me hooked in the first 5 minutes. Alongside with all the political plot and satire, watership down is just not perfect thanks to it's bad cgi, but if it wasn't for that, it would be a perfect 10/10!
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Allowing for the sweetness in Adams' original work to come out in this modern take is part of what makes the BBC-Netflix version of Watership Down work best. The conversations and character development of the rabbits are the bricks that build the story. And while the animation is at first a downside--seemingly retro, too saturated with brown and black tones, making many of the rabbits indistinguishable from one another--that limitation allows the voice work to shine, which of course relies heavily on Adams' lovely descriptions.
Luckily, the story is so good that it shines above the shoddy animation, but the 1978 adaptation is still a better bet and the original story itself is still the best. Give this one a watch only if you can stomach the visuals and the visceral material.
Emotional but blandified adaptation. ... If the Netflix Watership Down fails its potential, it benefits from strong voice performances (Boyega is expressive as the bluff but loyal Bigwig) and a solid central story. Even this easy-listening version, which lays on the romance, jokes and limp dialogue (“They may not have wanted a war, but by Frith, that’s what they’ll get”), has moments of grandeur and the sweep of a fantasy epic.
Just really bad. I give it 4/10 only because the animation wasn't terrible, but as an adaptation of a beloved piece of literature or as a story in its own right, it's extraordinarily disappointing. As someone who loved the original book, my impression is that this was created by people who had no affection for or understanding of the source material. It's not just that the content is abridged; the core of the story is gutted because it would be difficult to adapt the introspective journey full of personal growth. Instead whole sections are added to ham-fistedly heighten drama. Characters are totally changed in the name of creating melodrama where none existed in the book. Where the book all about the journey and the day to day life of rabbits in a unique world with a distinctly non-human perspective, the series is clearly bored with the all that business of living so it chooses to add action sequences that serve no purpose and convert subtle, sensible characters into a collection of cliches. I wouldn't be so offended if they had kept the same tone or purpose of the story, but I wonder if the writers of this even read the book? It's also got to be the worst case of "tell don't show" I've ever seen. The complete absence of any visual story-telling and the brutish dialog made me cringe.
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Bad series, the biggest problem was that Boyega's character was really annoying so skipped the scenes wth him which was most of the episode.
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Production Company:
- 42
- Biscuit Filmworks
- ITV Studios Global Entertainment
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
- Brown Bag Films
- House of Cool Studios
- Prana Studios
Initial Release Date: Dec 22, 2018
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-PG
Awards
Daytime Emmy Awards
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Annie Awards
• 1 Nomination
International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA)
• 1 Nomination