Animation Source Forums

I'll admit that I saw the TV series of "Watership Down" and thought it looked cute before going into seeing the movie and reading the book [books, actually; there was a sequel book written!].

Unfortunately, the US only got a couple of DVDs with some abridged specials [one about the journey to Watership Down, one about raiding Efrafa, and a Holiday special], but I found all three seasons online [yay, Youtube!] and I'm actually enjoying it so far. I've only gotten through Season 1, and it's not bad.

PROS:
- Still dark in theme but more light-hearted and colorful for kids
- Blackberry's a girl [Yes, I like fem!Blackberry, thank you. She's the smart, awesome one and she needs more love.]
- It expands the original story [I like the added info of their universe, even though I'm not sure if some locations or stories were mentioned in either the movie or the two books]
- The return of movie VAs! [John Hurt [Hazel] and Richard Briers [Fiver] actually voiced a couple of characters, unfortunately not their movie counterparts. Hurt voiced General Woundwort, while Briers voiced a new character, Captain Broom. Still, it was a nice touch!]

CONS:
- Blackberry's a girl [the WD purists probably don't like that one change, do they? I guess they did it to add a female character early on in the journey, so they changed the gender of the smart one from the movie. Yes, Blackberry was the smart one, regardless of gender.... and I like that.]
- Lots of changes [mainly with adding new characters/warrens, changing names, making it "kid-friendly", adding some other major things to characters, and so on]
- ...Not so much violence and blood [yeah, I think this is a major con, as the movie was bloody and gruesome, like life for the rabbits is supposed to be. There was still some battles, but not as much blood [if any] was spilled.

I'll add more later, I guess.

So, any other TV series fans? Who's your favorite character and why? Do you have a favorite episode, couple or scene? Be sure to put any spoilers in spoiler tags, just to be safe!

- Juuchan17

I'm a huge TV series fan, despite its obvious differences to the books/movie. My favourite characters either had to be Moss, Bigwig, Holly, Hawkbit, Campion, Vervain or Spartina. I think their expansion of the Watership world was pretty cool, but it irked me how they censored most of the gore and violence that really defined the books/movie. I understand it's targeted at younger kids, but still. Their replacement of Hyzenthlay was extremely annoying, and Primrose's character didn't really make up for that. On another note though, I do quite like the fact that they used voice actors from the film, and even though the animations and some of the voice acting was bordering on bad, the show was enjoyable, and the majority of the characters were ones I liked.

Take a look at my signature and you see, that I'm a HUGE fan of the series. Far more then the movie. To be honest, the movie is lame. OK, it's dark and brutal, but that's all. Reducing Watership Down to this wouldn't cope with the story.

Yes, the series is different from the books, but that's great. I hate film adaptions that follow strictly the book. It's boring. The series still got the spirit of Watership Down, the music is fantastic, the story continuation in the third season is amazing. OK, the magic stuff is strange, but it fits into the series and we got an awesome dark Black Rabbit of Inlé.

Watership Down and The Animals of Farthing Wood are still my favorite animated tv-series and I think, nothing will change this (as well as Balto will always be my favorite animated movie).

And my favorite character in the series is by far Campion. Especially because of his fate in episode 26.

Favorite episodes? Take a look at my website But to make it short:
1.05 - The Shadow of Efrafa
2.01 - The Prisoner of Efrafa
2.13 - The Homecoming
3.01 - The Last Battle
3.13 - The Magic

Well... Let me tell you, the series will never be the movie or book, but I still enjoyed it on a completely different level than either of them: It played more on a nostalgic, childish feel even if I would have liked more authentic battle(Headbutting, really?).

It's okay, but the animation bugged me. If you get me with someone who DOESN'T like it, I'll have a lot to complain about. It had it's good moments, too, though. I liked Spartina, though I didn't like 'Battleshipping' as I call it(Bigwig/Spartina), and it irritated me that they made Campion so wangsty. Shut up dude, you just... ugh.

I didn't like the Blackavar failure. He was awesome in the book/movie. Series-Blackavar sucks. :\ Primrose, too. I would have liked more Holly and Strawberry(I loved his s3 design too! s1/2 sucked in that field.), and hello, Bluebell? Why did they remove Bluebell, again?

I didn't like the animation, I didn't like that they skiped a lot of great characters (I totally agree with Feathervenom about what they made of Blackavar and Strawberry) and changed the story so much and I hated fillers in seasons 1-2.

Unpopular opinion time - I liked season 3 MUCH better. I liked seson 3 more because it's not a book adaptation anymore so I wasn't annoyed at the story xD Animation was better, most of designs were better (people complain a lot a bout Moss' design, but I think his design was odd in 1-2 series and he looked much better in 3rd xD) and it didn't have those annoying fillers xD