Watership Down

Watership Down

The Film by Martin Rosen

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and when ever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you: digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed..."

In 1974, little-known British film director Martin Rosen set about bringing to the screen one of his most beloved books, Watership Down. From the start, the natural choice was to tell the story by animation. But Rosen didn't want to use the fluffy, nonsensical, 'fakeness' of Disney-esque tales. Instead, a hugely talented cel-animation crew was put together at Nepenthe Productions, to accomplish the monumental task of converting one of the world's most celebrated books to a suitably authentic and true-to-the-text motion picture.

The story of how Watership Down came to the screen, is one of many twists and turns.

At the time, Martin Rosen had only experience of producing, and to direct something as important and ground-breaking as Watership Down seemed an impossible task.

However, Rosen set about hiring maverick American animator-supreme John Hubley, who left Disney in 1941 - with Bambi being his final film - after getting 'fed up' with the incessant, continual cutesy, artificial quality of the animals in their tales. Watership Down, seemed to him, the chance of his life to try out a new and exciting animation technique.

Hubley quickly assembled a team in a custom-built central London studio. However, all was not well in the studio. After a year of work, there was little usable animation, apart from the now-legendary 'rabbit creation-myth' opening sequence.

Rosen fired Hubley, and little is known about the disagreements or arguements that took place. Many rumours are rife, including that things got so heated, Hubley was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement and . Hubley died in 1977, after heart surgery - he would not live to see the finished film.

Watership Down was on general release in 1978, and a massive poster campaign all over England, featured the particularly haunting image of a black rabbit. The poster was used extensively in London's world-famous Underground system, and a number of passengers expressed uneasiness about the image being used in such a confined space.

Written & Compiled by Matt 'devolution' Warne.
Excerpts courtesy of ....