Watership Down

[Lagomorpheus]

Hi everyone! I watched Watership Down the movie yesterday. It was really really good. It brought back the novel to me (which I read in high school). I highly recommend the book to all rabbit lovers. The film is great also, but, while animated and rated only PG, does have some gory/disturbing scenes (really, this isn’t suitable for kids under 13 IMO).

Anyways, the blessing of the rabbits featured in the novel and movie really appealed to me and I made this image, printed and mounted it and placed it over my rabbit’s condo. Hope you enjoy! (this version has green lines in it by mistake since I took a screenshot for speed’s sake, I’ll upload the real version tonight when I’m home).

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Weird!! I’ve actually never read the book…why would you recommend it to rabbit lovers? What is the plotline? (you have me interested now!!!)

[JK]

I’ll have to rent that movie.  Thanks.

[MarkBun]

The plotline is that a warren of rabbits have to move because developers are destroying their old one. Only a few believe that there is danger and leave. The story is about the small band of buns finding a new place to live. The movie is somewhat gorey as they show the bunnies being buried alive in their old warren. There are a couple other small scenes but that one was the most disturbing. It has a happy ending though.

[Lagomorpheus]

Posted By Kokaneeandkahlua on 01/07/2008 9:23 AM
Weird!! I’ve actually never read the book…why would you recommend it to rabbit lovers? What is the plotline? (you have me interested now!!!)

 

Weird? Not really – It’s a literary classic and well-known film.

The plotline follows a group of rabbits on a quest to escape the foreseen doom of their warren and "is a heroic fantasy with rabbits of human intelligence but in their natural environment. They are depicted as having a culture, including a language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry and mythology. Several chapters present pieces of rabbit lore and many editions also include an appendix of Lapine vocabulary." [wiki]

Also, it contains many accurate depictions of rabbit behavior. "Adams’s description of wild rabbit behaviour was much influenced by The Private Life of the Rabbit by British naturalist Ronald Lockley…" [wiki]

Note- The Private Life of the Rabbit is a fascinating book (although I haven’t yet had a chance to read it) and is a rare, intimate look at wild rabbit society and behavior. "Lockley was apparently born with a seventh sense —of wonder—and has expended most of it on rabbits, which he has studied in every imaginable sort of enclosure, even including a real burrow with specially installed infra-red lighting and glass sides. Thus observed, the symbols of timidity are revealed as citizens in a complex social structure, full of dominant and submissive roles, populated with kings, queens and knaves. The butt of ceaseless fertility jokes turns out to be the master—or rather mistress—of birth control; when overcrowded or undernourished, the rabbit "resorbs" its embryos in utero…" [TIME]

Watership Down is highly recommended and I’ll let you know what I think when I find a copy of The Private Life of the Rabbit, which so inspired Adams in writing Watership Down.

Here’s some book and film covers to pique your interest further

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Sweet! We probably read different things in Canada in school then you guys do…Actually moving from Ontario to Alberta we even read different books for school!

I think the name guarantees that my BF will not know what is about (sort of sounds like a war movie or something) so I could get away with renting it

[LillyBear]

Watership Down is my FAVORITE book.. long before I even had rabbits.. or maybe that is what inspired me to get rabbits?? Anyhow, I love it. Never saw the movie, though.

[Tracy]

I have a nice framed picture in my computer room of “More Watership Down”…its a little girl feeding a bunch of white rabbits…I just love it

[Beka27]

i’ve only read bits of it… i’ll have to go pick that up.

[Martie]

The book I read back in the early 80’s??? it was a great book, much better than the movie, I recommend the book over the movie if you have the time to read it. I remember Bigwig, Clover, and Violet…and they called their morning and evening time of grazing..Silfay. (I think, I’m old, memory gone, lol)

[Author]

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