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Watership Down (1999 TV series)

Watership Down is an animated fantasy children's television series, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. The second adaptation of the novel (after the 1978 film), it was produced by UK's Alltime Entertainment and Canada's Decode Entertainment in association with Martin Rosen (the director of the 1978 film), with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit from the Government of Ontario.[1]

Watership Down

Fantasy
Children's television

Richard Adams (book)

Mary Crawford
Alan Templeton

Troy Sullivan

  • "Bright Eyes" (reprise)

Mike Batt

United Kingdom
Canada

English

3

39

Simon Vaughan
Justin Bodle
Steven Denure
Neil Court

Simon Vaughan
Beth Stevenson

23 minutes

Decode Entertainment
Nepenthe Productions
Alltime Entertainment

YTV (Canada)
CITV (United Kingdom)

September 28, 1999 (1999-09-28) –
December 4, 2001 (2001-12-04)

Watership Down aired for three seasons from September 1999 to December 2001, on both YTV in Canada and CITV in the UK,[2] though the latter didn't broadcast the final season. The series stars several well-known British actors, including Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Phill Jupitus, Jane Horrocks, Dawn French, John Hurt and Richard Briers (the latter two also star in the film).


Stephen Gately performed a new arrangement of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes", which was included in the 1978 film, while Mike Batt (who wrote "Bright Eyes") and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra contributed a completely new score.[3] In 2003, composer Mike Batt was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series for his work on this series.[4] 39 episodes were produced.

Plot overview[edit]

Watership Down (with the use of the novel's basic plot) follows the lives of a group of rabbits as they leave their endangered warren in search of a safe new home. They travel across the English countryside, braving perilous danger, until they find a hill called Watership Down, where they begin a new warren. However, they are endangered by another warren, Efrafa, which is led by the authoritarian General Woundwort, and they are soon forced to defend their home and lives.


Although the series began with elements taken from the original novel, later episodes of the first series, as well as most of the second and third were almost entirely new content, with many episodes focusing solely on new characters and situations.


In addition, the third series featured a new opening sequence and somewhat altered style of animation, along with many of the original voice actors leaving, only leaving a handful of the original cast to remain. The programme became noticeably darker in tone, adding elements of mysticism and magic, and focusing on an evil new warren called Darkhaven.


Although the series was praised by younger audiences at the time of the series' air, fans of both the novel and the movie were more mixed about the series due to drastic changes from the novel (like Pipkin going from a grownup rabbit to a young rabbit and Blackberry changing from a buck to a doe) and its more child-friendly tone as compared to some of the violence of the movie.

as Campion, Captain Holly, Hickory (season 3) Raincloud, Granite

Rob Rackstraw

as Bigwig, Silverweed (season 3) Black Rabbit of Inle, Shale

Stephen Mangan

as Vervain, Bluesky, Boxwood, Darkling

David Holt

as Fiver, Flax, Feldspar

Andrew Falvey

as Blackberry, Tabitha

Sue Elliot Nichols

as Hawkbit

Lee Ross

Hazel: The main protagonist of the series. Fiver's older brother. He leads the rabbits from Sandleford and eventually becomes Chief Rabbit of Watership Down. Although Hazel is not the strongest of the Watership Down rabbits, he is one of the most intelligent of the rabbits, he is also a charismatic leader who recognizes and employs the skills of his fellow bucks to great success. He is shot while freeing the hutch rabbits at Nuthanger Farm and almost dies, but is saved by his younger brother Fiver. Although lamed by this injury, he leads the foray to Efrafa and comes up with the final, successful strategy to defeat General Woundwort. Hazel's beautiful mate is Primrose, whom he freed from Efrafa.

Fiver: Hazel's younger brother. A shy and kind small runty rabbit whose visions of the destruction of the Sandleford warren lead him to leave, along with his older brother, Hazel and several other rabbits. He appears to be more prescient than his novel counterpart and his visions come in rhymes. He often feels responsible for foreseeing terrible things or blaming himself for their outcome. He and Hazel are very close.

Bigwig: A former an officer of the Sandleford Owsla, so-called because of the large amount of hair surrounding his face, giving him the appearance of a . The largest and most powerful of the Sandleford survivors, he is often blunt and impatient for dangerous action and fighting. After nearly getting killed in a snare in episode 3, he realizes that Fiver is right more often than not. He quickly befriends Kehaar and often asks for his help on Hazel's behalf. Hazel often selects him for the most dangerous missions, such as the infiltration of Efrafa. Later, he becomes captain of Watership Down's Owsla and falls for Spartina, a doe from Darkhaven.

lionhead rabbit

Blackberry: A while a male in the original novel, in the TV series, Blackberry is a doe who is skilled with herbs and is referred to as the digging expert. As in the novel, she is the most intelligent of the rabbits, and often comes up with ingenious ideas. She is the only doe to go to Watership Down with Hazel and the others. Later in the series she falls in love with Campion. She is devastated when she thinks Campion is dead, but is rejoined with him when she is taken prisoner in Darkhaven. At the end of the series she and Campion return to Watership Down together.

Pipkin: A very young, adventurous rabbit eager to prove himself in the eyes of his bigger companions—particularly Hazel and Bigwig. He is the youngest of the Watership Down rabbits and has the gift of making friends with everyone including other animals in the Down area, to the point that when he is in trouble they will immediately join with the Watership Down rabbits to come to his rescue. Even Woundwort found he was not immune to Pipkin's charm and refused to kill him, saying that it would be like killing a part of himself. During the last season Pipkin grows up to be a responsible rabbit, even leading the "Junior Owsla".

Dandelion: Dandelion is an accomplished storyteller. He is a joker and a wise guy and provides much of the series' comedy relief. He is a good friend of Hawkbit, despite their mutual attraction to former Efrafan doe Heather (who later leaves with Moss to start a new warren) he and Hawkbit serve in Bigwig's Owsla together.

Hawkbit: He is a pessimistic, grouchy and sarcastic rabbit who always has a biting comment for every situation, but is a dependable member of the warren whenever help is needed. He has a kind of love/hate relationship with Fiver. He later becomes a good friend of the more cerebral Dandelion and during the last season, he settles down with Clover.

Holly: The former captain of the Sandleford Owsla, Holly has only a minor role and is mostly used as a background character. He formed a key part of the Watership Down defenses in the last season.

Clover: A former hutch rabbit rescued from Nuthanger Farm. She and Hawkbit settle down at the end of the series.

Primrose: Born in Redstone and a captive in Efrafa; until her rescue by the Watership Down rabbits. Primrose is very supportive of Hazel, who becomes her mate and is also a dedicated mother to her three children, Snowdrop, Mallow and Gilia, she and Campion also have a strong bond; due to her being saved by him multiple times back in Efrafa. In Efrafa she showed a rebellious and stubborn attitude toward Vervain, who bullied and tormented her at every given opportunity. Despite her deep hatred for Vervain, she, Fiver, Holly and Broom saved his life when he was caught in some wire, although she originally protested the idea of helping the rabbit "that made her life miserable". Later, she hates herself for letting him go when she finds out he formed an alliance out of fear with Woundwort. Primrose replaces the character of Hyzenthlay from the novel and film.

Blackavar: A captive in Efrafa with Primrose who was rescued by the Watership Down rabbits. Blackavar has only a minor role and is mostly used as a background character.

Strawberry: An orange rabbit who leaves Cowslip's warren after meeting Hazel and Bigwig and joins them in Watership Down. Initially lazy from his time with Cowslip, he later proves to be an accomplished digger and serves in Bigwig's Owsla.

Broom: The former captain of the Redstone Owsla. When Primrose, now free from Efrafa, returns to see her old friends Broom informs her that an unspecified illness has wiped out the entire warren but him. He joins the Watership Down rabbits at Hazel's invitation. He usually bores them with his tall tales, but does have wisdom (his knowledge about sheep helps avert a disaster) and can be relied upon in a crisis. He and Captain Holly also get along with each other.

Campion: Woundwort's most trusted subordinate. Campion sees that Woundwort's leadership is destroying Efrafa, but is torn between his feelings for the free ways of Watership Down and his loyalty to his chief rabbit. He met Blackberry and it was love at first sight, but he sacrificed himself to save his chief from a cave in. He survived; albeit horribly scarred and was taken to Darkhaven, as was Blackberry soon after, and they sealed their love in Darkhaven and escaped to Watership Down. He fought in the last battle against Woundwort. Afterwards, he and Blackberry settled down together.

Silverweed: He is a seer with mental powers similar to Fiver, in particular possessing the power to see into another rabbit's mind by touch. He is traded to Woundwort to help him seek his destiny and was taken away from the Warren of the Shining Wires to Darkhaven, but later ends up on Watership Down and becomes a good friend of the rabbits there, even sacrificing most of his youth to help save the warren from Woundwort.

Kehaar: A black-headed gull who is forced by an injured wing to take refuge on Watership Down. He is characterized by his frequent impatience, guttural accent and unusual phrasing. Eventually, after Hazel and the others befriend him, he flies over the countryside in an attempt to discover other warrens where the rabbits might find does to mate with. He discovers the Efrafan warren and after helping the rabbits he meets a gull called Gluk and flies to the city to settle down with her because she likes life in the city better.

Hannah: She is a brown mouse. Hannah is a good friend of Kehaar and has a kind of love/hate relationship with Bigwig who feels she is too small to be of any use in a fight, but her bravery more than makes up for her size. After Kehaar's departure, Hannah tries to learn magic to help her friends on the Down. Silverweed instead takes her magic into himself to save the Down. Although a mouse featured in the novel, it appeared only briefly, and spoke with a thick Italian accent.

Snowdrop: She is a white kit, and one of Hazel and Primrose's three children.

Mallow: He is a dark tan kit, and one of Hazel and Primrose's three children.

Gilia: She is a tan kit, and one of Hazel and Primrose's three children.

Soundtrack[edit]

The official soundtrack for the series was produced by Mike Batt with the aid of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He had also gathered an array of stars to provide their voices for some of the songs. As well as Stephen Gately performing Bright Eyes, Art Garfunkel who had sung Bright Eyes for the film sang When You're Losing Your Way In The Rain, Cerys Matthews from the group Catatonia performed Thank You, Stars which was used in the series as a romance theme for Hazel and Primrose and Paul Carrack from the group Mike + The Mechanics performed Winter Song, though the song wasn't used, an instrumental piece was in the Winter on Watership Down two parter. Mike himself sang for the soundtrack, performing the song The View from a Hill which oddly enough was used in the series, but only in the German version and sung by an uncredited singer, and British voice actor Gary Martin provided the narration for the story of Frith's Blessing for the original release of the CD soundtrack, though in the TV series, it was Dandelion who told the tale of Frith's Blessing. Andrew Lloyd Webber composed a song called Fields of Sun for the soundtrack. Although this song was neither used in the show nor made available on the official soundtrack, he was still credited for the song's creation during the opening credits.


The soundtrack was re-released as part of the Mike Batt Music Cube in December 2009 by Dramatico Records. However, only the orchestral pieces are on the CD and none of the recorded songs are present. The re-released soundtrack has recently become available separately from the Cube in a 2-CD set, along with the soundtrack to the film Caravans.


Currently, the music cube re-released version of the soundtrack is also available to download in Mp3 format from Amazon's UK website.[5]

Home media releases[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

In 1999 and 2000, three VHS tapes containing episodes of the first and second series were released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment - "Winter on Watership Down", released on 31 October 1999, "Journey to Watership Down", released on 31 March 2000, and "Escape from Efraia", released later on in the year. They were also released through a mail-order subscription with Reader's Digest.


By 2002, Entertainment Rights acquired the home video rights to the series in the UK and released the series through their Right Entertainment division, with Universal Pictures Video distributing. The company first released the series on a two-VHS box set on 6 May 2002, titled "The Promised Land", containing the first six episodes of Series 1, split into two tapes.


On 16 August 2004, Volume 1 "The Promised Land" and Volume 2 "The Strawberry Fayre" were released on DVD, and was followed by a re-release of the VHS volumes as separate releases on 8 November 2004. On 7 February 2005, Volume 3 "A Tale of a Mouse" was released on VHS and DVD containing Episodes 9-11 of Series 1. They were all re-released as a triple VHS/DVD set on 4 April 2005, which also saw the release of Volume 4 "The Prisoner of Efrafa" on DVD, containing Episodes 12-13 of Series 1 and Episode 1 of Series 2. The last numbered volume - Volume 5 "The Great Water", was released on 1 August 2005, and contains Episodes 2-4 of Series 2.


In October 2005, Right released a boxset containing all three seasons. This was later re-released by Universal, who also re-released the tripleset on 18 March 2013.

United States[edit]

The series was released on VHS and DVD in the United States by GoodTimes Entertainment and Reader's Digest Video.[6][7] However, despite that, there has never been any proof showing that the show aired in the US, leading to the point where it was concluded that it didn't air in the US.

Australia[edit]

In Australia, Umbrella Entertainment released the series on DVD.

Bigwig's motto for the owsla is "", the motto of the SAS. The phrase was also used as an epigraph for the first story in Tales from Watership Down.

Who Dares Wins

at IMDb

Watership Down