Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Watership Down’ On Netflix, A Miniseries Based On The Classic Book About Rabbits On The Run

In 1972, a tiny British publishing house published Watership Down, a novel by Richard Adams that had been turned down by all the major publishing houses in the UK. From that humble start, the book went on to sell 50 million copies, and was adapted into a movie and a TV series. Now, the BBC and Netflix present a CGI-animated miniseries version of the book about a group of rabbits trying to find a better life. Will it satisfy fans of the book?

WATERSHIP DOWN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Using paper-like animation, the legend of the sun god Firth is given; he made 1,000 animals that would be the enemies of the rabbit, each with a particular gift. But he also gave rabbits tails to fool pursuers and great speed to escape them.

The Gist: Two brothers, Hazel (James McAvoy) and Fiver (Nicholas Hoult), are fairly undistinguished rabbits in the Sandleford warren, except for the fact that Fiver sees visions that generally come true. One day he sees a vision of large machines driven by men destroying their warren. When he tells Hazel that they should leave, Hazel chooses to believe his little brother, and they gather a small number of rabbits to go with them to find a new home, including the chief rabbit’s guard Bigwig (John Boyega). The group is all bucks and no does, which will spell trouble down the road, for many reasons.

As they escape, Captain Holly (Freddie Fox) tries to arrest them, but Hazel convinces him to let them go. The warren’s forces do chase the group through the woods, but the group escapes when they find a human artifact — a hubcap — and use it to float down the river.

After a long journey, the group sees the destination Fiver saw in his visions: Watership Down. But when a rabbit named Cowslip (Rory Kinnear) finds the group and invites them to his warren, the hungry and tired rabbits follow. Fiver has a bad feeling about the place, but even Hazel thinks they should trust these rabbits, who get fed by scraps thrown to them by humans. At a certain point, though, the group has to run from the warren, with a doe named Strawberry (Olivia Colman) going with them.

Our Take: This BBC/Netflix production is the third adaptation of Richard Adams’ classic 1972 novel, and it’s the first one that hews close to the structure of the book, with each part of the four-part miniseries corresponding to one of the book’s four sections.

Overall, director Noam Murro and screenwriter Tom Bidwell do a nice job with the story. Some of the blood and violence is toned down from the book, but the CGI animation makes the rabbits have realistic human characteristics while still acting like rabbits. The CGI itself is quite good, with only a few sections where you see some of the digital seams showing (the brief depictions of humans, for instance, aren’t all that great).

Despite the fact that the source material is over 45 years old, the messages about home, belonging, immigration, and class differences still ring true today. Of course, there are some parts, namely when the does are “saved” by Hazel and other bucks, that feel a little out of touch with today’s society, but those issues are minor.

The voice cast is spectacular, basically a who’s who of under-40 British actors, plus veterans like Peter Capaldi, who plays a loopy seagull named Kehaar, and Ben Kingsley as General Woundwort, the vicious lead rabbit of the overcrowded Efrafa warren, who feels the new group is invading his turf. Other voices of note are Rosamund Pike, Anne-Marie Duff, Tom Wilkinson and Daniel Kaluuya. Murro directed them to act like they would in a live-action movie, not try to put on silly, cartoonish voices. The effect is a bit disarming, but overall makes the miniseries more engaging for adults, especially when you start to imagine Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, etc. as human characters.

If you’re not familiar with the book, some of the terms they use for things that humans call by other names might be confusing, but you get used to it. And while there’s action, things do drag a little bit here and there, especially when the rabbits spend long stretches talking to each other. But again, those are quibbles.

What Age Group Is This For?: While there is a minimum of blood, there still is a lot of violence between the rabbits and when the rabbits are attacked by other animals, and some death. We think the bare minimum age to watch this miniseries is 10, but more likely it’ll be more appreciated by kids 12 and over.

Parting Shot: We see see a rabbit running through the tunnels of the Efrafa warren, reporting to Woundwort that a group of rabbits have been detected. He tells the officer to “leave one alive for questioning.”

Sleeper Star: We like Kaluuya (Get Out) as Bluebell, a talkative sort who is the group’s storyteller.

Most Pilot-y Line: While the realistic depiction of the rabbits is well-done, they are sometimes not distinctive enough from each other to get a good idea of who’s talking. There are ones like Bluebell and Bigwig that look different, but other than that, it’s hard to distinguish between characters just by their voices.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Watership Down has more than enough going on to keep viewers engaged over the long holiday week. But it’s likely a better experience if you’ve never read the book.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Watership Down on Netflix