DAVID BIANCULLI

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WATERSHIP DOWN
December 23, 2018  | By David Bianculli

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is the third time animators have taken a stab at presenting a version of author Richard Adams’ deep, allegorical story about rabbits in the English countryside. The narrative covers everything from hero’s journey quests to a rabbit-world equivalent of Nazi domination. This new version, presented in four parts by Netflix, opens with a highly stylized visualization of the rabbit myth, then proceeds to present its rabbit heroes, and villains, in computer-animated photorealistic form. That’s an improvement, at least, upon the 1999 animated series – but not upon the 1978 animated movie, which, though it was made 40 years ago and with mostly hand-drawn animation, remains the best version of Watership Down to date. It, too, started with a highly stylized preamble – but its subsequent images were more lovely and poetic, and its voices (especially Zero Mostel as a seagull) especially charming. The voices on this new version include Ben Kingsley, James McAvoy, Peter Capaldi and Rosamund Pike, so it’s by no means a low-rent enterprise or a subpar effort – but I’d still rather steer you to the 1978 feature film, which you can stream for a few dollars on Amazon Prime Video. And which, as a bonus, features Art Garfunkel’s gorgeous rendition of “Bright Eyes.” Special warning: Not for young viewers, though you might otherwise think so.
 
 
 
 
 
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