Some thoughts (WARNING: SPOILERS!)

Watership Down. Quite possibly the most frightening children's film I've ever seen. It certainly scared me as a child. Fiver's vision of the field covered in blood, Holly's flashback to the destruction of Sandleford, and Blackavar's bloody demise at the hands (er, teeth) of Woundwort in particular stand out in my mind as the stuff of nightmares. However, as I got older and became able to watch violent movies without being terribly squeamish, I found I could tolerate the horrific aspects of the story and enjoy the movie for what it really was: A boy's adventure starring a cast of rabbits and a really screwy seagull. It has some spiritual trappings, as the rabbits worship the god Frith, but it's never rubbed in our faces. Eventually I found out that it was, in fact, based on a novel written by one Richard Adams. During a visit to my dad in Chattanooga, I stopped by a Barnes & Noble and, lo and behold, they had a copy of Watership Down, so I bought it. I devoured it overnight.

One thing that really amazed me was how faithful the movie was to Adams' novel. Oh, it had some differances, the main ones being as follows: In the movie, the sole survivor of the destruction of Sandleford is Holly, while in the book it's Holly and some other rabbit whose name escapes me; in the movie, a doe (female rabbit) named Violet leaves Sandleford with Hazel and co., but is killed by a hawk before the group reaches Watership Down, while in the novel no such character exists (making me wonder just what her purpose was in the movie); in the book, when Hazel and co. leave the Warren of the Shining Wire they take with them a desserter from there, Strawberry, whereas in the film Strawberry is nowhere to be found; and finally, as noted above, in the movie Blackavar dies trying to stand up to Woundwort, whilst in the book he never confronts Woundwort and thus survives. Those differances and maybe one or two others aside, the book and the film are still remarkably similar.

Now then, with that out of the way let's move on to the TV series. I first learned about it from browsing around the web, where I found some reviews for it, most of them negative. Regardless, being a fan of both the film and Adams' novel, I was determined to see this show regardless of what other fans said - In fact, I had an instant dislike of most of these people who pompously "warned me" about it. Being something of an outcast for most of my teenage years with only one friend in high school and no social life to speak of, I instantly feel sympathy for that which is shunned by others, especially when it comes to films and TV shows. I actually like the 1976 remake of King Kong, for instance. :)

Also, my favorite characters in film and television are often the ones that either A), nobody likes, or B), are overlooked. In short, there are a lot of cases where everyone hates what I like, and I hate what everyone likes, and, more often than not, a universal disregard for something is an assurance that I will like it. But I take this feeling with a grain of salt, because I do happen to like a number of movies other people do, and there's plenty of absolute garbage out there that every single naysayer has every right to rip a new one. Anyway with that in mind, I began to look up information about the show. Another reason was because, Watership Down junkie that I am, I needed another fix after having watched the movie and read the book so much. :)

Besides its entry here on on the IMDB, and maybe one or two scathing reviews here and there found via Google, there was almost no information about the show. Until I stumbled upon Thank-U-Stars, a fan site dedicated to the TV series with more information thank you can shake a stick at. It's run by "Entei-Rah," a VERY nice fellow who I began corresponding with via E-mail, and he answered all the questions I had about the show, etc. For a while I became absolutely obsessed with tracking down episodes of the series, especially after browsing through the impressive screenshot gallery that Entei-Rah had thoughtfully assembled. Ultimately, I got my wish. I wasn't disappointed. At least, not entirely.

I think I see why the average fan of the book and film doesn't think too highly of the TV show. The first and second season, from what I've seen, can be best described as scatterbrained. Both the movie and the book open in Sandleford, where we're given a proper introduction to Hazel, his brother Fiver, tough Bigwig and all the rest, and then follows the rabbits' journey to Watership Down with a few adventures along the way like marauding rats and, of course, a visit to the Warren of the Shining Wires (I'll get more into why THAT place is so bizarre later on), and then has them settling in and coming into conflict with their hostile neighbors in Efrafa under the rule of Woundwort. The TV show does not do this. The first episode, "The Promised Land," is essentially the first half of the movie/book in about 20 minutes, minus the opening scenes in Sandleford. Yep, they bypass proper introductions for the characters and begin the series with the rabbits already en route to Watership Down, and they arrive there without much difficulty and the episode ends. Just like that. Not a very good beginning, and as I've ranted about regarding other series pilots, a TV series that gets off to a bad start doesn't usually do so hot in the long run.

The remainder of the first season is essentially a mishmash of scenes from the book, often drastically rearranged for little or no compelling reason. I.e., they visit the Warren of the Shining Wires after arriving at Watership Down, and the buildup to the appearance of the Efrafans - Holly's story about his time there and Bigwig encountering a group of them while trying to evade a fox - is jettisoned in favor of having them just sort of appear out of nowhere. The scene of Bigwig leading the fox onto the Efrafans is still there, but it comes after the Watershippers have already seen them, so the dramatic impact is severely lessened.

Now then, how about the characters? For the most part, I like the designs used for them. In the movie the rabbits' character designs were so similar it took me repeated viewsings and consultations of the book to know who was who. Not so here. The rabbits all have unique character designs. The only one I did not like was Bigwig; his lion-like mane is really stupid looking. Missing from the movie are Violet (not that she mattered to begin with), as well as Bigwig's friend Silver. Silver was in the book and the film, and a pretty funny guy. His absence from the TV series is apparently the result of the writers trying to avoid working with an overcrowded cast, at least to begin with. The biggest changes concern the characters of Blackberry and Pipkin: In the book and the film, Blackberry is a buck (male rabbit) and Pipkin, though small, is an adult and just a runt like Fiver. In the TV show, however, Blackberry is now female and Pipkin is now a little kid. Initially this irked me, but then I was actually pleasantly surprised when the writers clearly found a logical reason to justify these changes; Blackberry falls in love with Efrafa's Campion, and is a pivotal force in his redemption, especially in the third season, whilst little Pipkin is at one point caught by the Efrafans and Woundwort takes him under his wing for the dual purpose of coaxing him into revealing the location of Watership Down and, apparently, grooming him to be a possible heir (a concept I absolutely loved).

Unfortunately not all of the good guy characters are so likable. Hawkbit (a character from the novel who didn't make it into the movie) and his friend Dandelion are... oh, God... the Odious Comic Relief. :(

Now we come to the villains. Cowslip, the leader of the Warren of the Shining Wire, is pretty much the same as both his novel and film counterparts. The Efrafans are whole other matter entirely, and this is where the TV series really shines. I don't know whether it was for pacing or because they wanted the audience to have no sympathy with them at all, but in the movie the Efrafans were stock cookie cutter villains with no personality. Only Woundwort managed to be interesting, and then only because of the late Harry Andrews' voice. The only other named Efrafans we got in the film were a surprisingly vicious Campion and a really smarmy jerk named Sherbil, and they, along with all the other Efrafans except for Woundwort, all looked exactly alike. Even moreso than the Watershippers. I mean it. It was like Attack of the Clones many, many years before the fact. This is not the case in the TV series, where not only are the individual Efrafans given unique character designs, but they also have gobs of personality. We finally get to see why Woundwort is so evil and hateful, thanks to a rather well-done flashback showing his mother being killed by a weasel before his eyes when he's only a child (the flashback is made exceptionally creepy by being totally silent except for this indescribably eerie music). Campion meanwhile is given the most attention as he, despite his loyalty to Efrafa, sees that the fascist system that governs the warren is destroying it, and turns against Woundwort. There's also Vervain (a character from the book who was only mentioned in the film but never appeared, despite a mix-up in the credits), a cold, cruel, and cowardly rabbit who I'd say was the Odious Comic Relief of the bad guys if he didn't manage to be menacing on occasion.

Other differances include the fact that Blackavar isn't killed (which I'm surprised hasn't endeared more Blackavar fans to the series), and Hyzenthlay, the Efrafan doe who Hazel ends up falling in love with, is now named Primrose and we discover that she originally came from a now-abandoned warren called Redstone. Primrose naturally wants to return to Redstone. Unfortunately Redstone fell victim to a disease of some sort (the "white blindness," I believe), and it's been abandoned. Redstone then becomes an important focus for much of the series to come, especially where Woundwort and the Warren of the Shining Wire are concerned.

In the book the rabbits who live at the Warren of the Shining Wire live under constant threat of death by the so-called "shining wires," i.e., snares, that are laid out by a nearby farmer. When Hazel, Fiver, and co. stop off there en route to Watership Down, Cowslip and the others invite them to live in their warren but do not tell them of the snares, figuring the newcomers will blunder into them and die in their place, thus assuring them longer lives. This also the case in the movie (although it's never explicitly stated). The TV series, on the other hand, seems to present them as something of a cult. Due their predicament they seem to have developed a vague sort of religion that revolves around sadness and death, reflected in the creepy poems of Silverweed - Another character from the book who, here in the series, seems to act as the high priest of this demented little sect. Cowslip, meanwhile, knows it's all a bunch of bull but he keeps up the facade in order to keep the rabbits under his control.

But not every rabbit in the warren is a member of this pseudo-cult. As in the book Strawberry leaves with the Watershippers during their first visit, and later we're introduced to two new characters, Marigold and Hickory. Marigold and Hickory eventually escape with Hazel's help when they come back, along with several other rabbits who are unsatisfied with life in Cowslip's warren. These desserters then move into the vacant Redstone and start a new warren there.

There's also a, ugh, Christmas episode, which is bizarre since the rabbits worship Frith and not the Christian God, but somehow the writers managed to screw around with their religion so that they have an equivalent of our Christmas: "Frith's Eve." Oy. And speaking of Frith, one episode also centers around two rabbit con-artists named Bluesky and Raincloud who trick the Watershippers into believing they're messengers from Frith, and almost get Pipkin killed by pretending to grant him the ability to fly.

Meanwhile, the resolution of the Efrafan problem is totally differant than it was in the book and the film, both of which concluded with the Efrafans attacking Watership Down and Woundwort apparently being killed by a dog. Here, as noted above, Woundwort's second-in-command Campion agrees to become a spy for the Watershippers to help them keep Woundwort from finding their warren - His main reason is that he sees that Woundwort's method of government is ruining their warren, and his other reason is that he's fallen hard for Blackberry. When Campion's betrayal is finally revealed, he proceeds to reveal that his loyalty to Woundwort is stronger than his sense of right and wrong as he actually saves Woundwort's life from a cave-in, getting himself killed in the process - Or so it seems.

This finally brings us to season three. Unfortunately, season three was never shown in the U.S. to my knowledge, with the end result that most of the show's detractors have only the first two seasons to go on. This is a shame, because everything about the third season is, in my opinion, better. The animation, the voice acting, and the flow of the story... at least to a certain point. Season three gets off to a grand start with the destruction of Efrafa by the Watershippers and their forest animal allies and, for a few episodes, is going strong until it hits just about the middle mark. We first see that Campion has survived, albeit badly scarred, and, ashamed of his betrayal of Woundwort (the guy's got some seriously mixed-up priorities), he proceeds to become a wanderer until he's finally captured by some war-loving rabbits from a place called Darkhaven (more on them shortly). Woundwort, meanwhile, continues to be a fascinating character. Although he is thought to have died in the battle of Efrafa, he comes back with a vengeance. In a rather shocking scene, he encounters two rabbits in a swamp who end up sinking to their deaths in a bog. What's interesting is that he actually offers to help them if they agree to pledge loyalty to him. They refuse, and so he leaves them to drown.

Along with Vervain, the only Efrafan still willing to follow him, Woundwort journeys to Redstone where he manipulates Hickory into making him the leader of the warren. He and Vervain quickly begin transforming it into a clone of Efrafa in everything but name, until they hear about Silverweed from the rabbits, who is said to have psychic powers.

Ah, yes. The psychic powers. In the book and movie, Fiver's powers of premonition only really allowed him to fortell disaster, and even then the visions would come entirely unbidden. And that was the extent of his abilities. The series goes one step further: His visions still come unbidden, but they aren't limited to merely foretelling disasters, and he also has the ability to look into another rabbit's mind (although he prefers not to if he can, since he thinks it's wrong to invade someone's thoughts). He's given an evil counterpart in the form of Silverweed, whose powers are similar, and Silverweed ends up coming to work for Woundwort after Woundwort trades for the psychic priest's services by selling out the Redstone rabbits to Cowslip, who of course wants revenge against them for desserting his flock. Don't worry, though; they all get away but in the end Redstone itself is destroyed.

Now then, the psychic powers demonstrated by Fiver and Silverweed aren't really much of a problem. In fact, for the most part they're used to tremendously creepy and ominous effect. Unfortunately, it's in these same episodes that the third season begins to derail, by introducing actual magic. Hannah, a mouse who's been living on Watership Down, wants to be useful in the coming battle against Woundwort (yes, there is finally an invasion of Watership Down by Woundwort's forces), so she, uh, well... learns magic from a wise old turtle called the Hedgewizard. This is how the conflict is ultimately resolved, with Hannah's magic spell being used to destroy all of the villains (except for Silverweed, who eventually turns good). What a lousy, crummy, cop-out ending to what was actually starting to look like a good final season!!! If it were up to me I'd jettison the whole magic nonsense and preserve the ending from the book; yes, even this far into the series, it would be SO cool to have them bring the whole "There's a dog loose in the woods!!!" plot point into play.

Anyways, the Darkhaven rabbits. These guys are interesting. Darkhaven is the warren Woundwort originally came from, and his ferocity is legendary amongst the war-loving rabbits who live there; so much so that they're actually kind of like the show's second cult, in that fighting amongst one another in "the battle pit" is how they "prepare for the coming of the Dark One." (Dark One = Woundwort). The wandering Campion is actually leader of this "pack of howling fools" for a time after he defeats their original leader, named Granite, in single combat. But shortly afterwards, Woundwort, Vervain, and Silverweed arrive and wrest control from Campion, who is allowed to stay on by Woundwort because, despite his betrayal, he did save his life. Of course, this doesn't stop Campion from betraying Woundwort AGAIN to aide the good guys. Yeesh.

So there you have it, folks. The series got off to a bad start in season one, then began to pick up in season two, and was actually looking GREAT in the third season... until they just ruined everything with needless magic and a cop-out ending. What a wasted opportunity. Oh, well. I don't HAVE to watch those episodes... I can just enjoy the ones where the series was at its peak.