"DO NOT WATCH PLAGUE DOGS" I've watched 'Watership Down', how bad could it possibly be? An hour later: "DO NOT WATCH PLAGUE DOGS"

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

"Watership Down! Rated PG! Check the back of your ticket for a recommended therapist...." That killed me!

I think the PG in this movie stands for Psychological Guidance...

And the animals in Zootopia thought bunnies were timid and harmless. Hah!

IIRC, Richard Adams was friends with a guy who wrote a book all about rabbit behavior and physiology, and they'd discuss those subjects many times as part of Adams' research, on top of him reading said book, of course It's honestly amazing that the guy put so much research into being accurate on a subject that most readers wouldn't care for

Rated PG, for pretty graphic.

“if they cant count to five how is his name fiver” UH fiver is the human translation of his lapine name which is hrairoo which literally means “little thousand”

Hey Krimson, remember when you warned us NOT to see The Plague Dogs? Well, I should have followed your advice. That movie makes Tim Burton look bright and happy.

No joke, when I first heard about this book in high school, I wondered, why are there rabbits in a book set at sea?

Childhood trauma builds character. I need that on a bumper sticker ASAP

Ah yes back when PG actually meant something as opposed to the fuck all regressive rating system we have today.

Im sure someone else has said this, but I'm 95% sure that Fiver's name is Fiver only in english, and only we the readers know him has Fiver. His Lapine name is Hrairoo or 'little thousand'.

John Hurt didn't die, he just regenerated.

I love how they did Cowslip’s warren. It’s all naturally drawn but very unnaturally colored. It reflects the wrong feeling of the place!

The rabbit that comes for Hazel in the end is not the Black Rabbit, but El-ahrairah himself. In the story El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit, at the end Lord Frith gives El-ahrairah new ears and mentions that he put starlight in them. At the end when the "strange buck" comes to talk to Hazel his ears glow slightly. I know these details aren't in the movie, but you have read the book! Who else would ask a rabbit like Hazel to be in his Owsla?

"John Hurt was hard to recognize in Alien". *plays a clip of John Hurt from Spaceballs*. I... see what you did there....?

funny enough i didn't get "traumatized" by the gore and violence but by the black rabbit. Everytime he is on screen I get goosebumbs because as a kid I though he was SO CREEPY. Him and the scene with the rabbits suffocating. Everything else was just dandy fine for 7 year old me.

I love Watership Down book and movie. My favorite scene from the movie is Woundwort and BigWig's fight. After holding his own against the general BigWig tells him "My captain told me to defend this tunnel". The line plays on so many levels. It's the first time Bigwig had aknowlesged Hazel's leadership supremacy, which is all important in the rabbit culture. Woundwort is astonished. It obviously never occurred to him that Bigwig was not the leader of this warren. His whole value system is based on might makes right. He is fearful, because if Bigwig can inflict this kind of damage on him, and there's another, more powerful rabbit awaiting him, he has doubts that he can win. I don't think this moment is in the book, but it plays beautifully in the movie. I think violet's death is meant to help introduce the rabbit prayer "my friend has stopped running today". A detail, perhaps, but the theme of death and fragility of life is very big in the film and the book.

BTW: the name "Fiver" is supposed to be an English translation of the Lapine name "Hrairoo", or "Little Thousand." Any number over four, for rabbits, is "hrair"... "a thousand", or "many."

My dad rented Plague Dogs from the video store for me when I was eight. He didn't know what it was, he just saw dogs. I slept on the floor with my family corgi for four nights before my mom made me stop and promised me that the dog knew that we loved him very much. I'm 27 and I still only kinda forgive him. Kinda.

Ah watership down or as it can also be called the founding of Rome with rabbits. No seriously look at it and compare it to the legend of the founding of Rome.

I think the scene with the first rabbit death was meant to emphasise that they could be killed at literally any second, even in nice or ‘narn’ places have a very clear potential of death

Have you read the original Bambi novel by Felix Salten? It can give both Plague Dogs and Watership Down a run for it's money in terms of grimdark. The book is more closer to writings of Stephen King and G.R.R. Martin than to it's Disney adaptation.

I saw this when it was released as a little girl. The Frith story really resonated with me. "And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you."

A couple things about Adam's intentions with the story. To him, this wasn't an allegory for anything beyond its face value. It really was just a beautiful story about rabbits finding a new home and settling. He used the knowledge he had about rabbit behavior, which largely came from Ronald Lockley's "The Private Life of Rabbits" to paint what I believe is a world seen scarcely even by naturalists. Of course any reader can extrapolate meaning that the author didn't intend. Such is the nature of art. Also, anyone else excited for the remake to be released on Netflix? It actually sounds kind of promising.

I first watched Watership Down when I was 4 or 5, the violence didn't really scare me but the Black Rabbit of Inle in the prologue _scarred_ me. Even 18 years later I can't watch that bit without feeling unnerved.

(KRONK CLIP) That's EXACTLY what I thought when I looked at that map when reading the book!

I actually had to stop the video this movie sounds too interesting to spoil! Edit: I'm back and it was awesome!

25+years after first reading it, I still vividly recall the attack scenes and the haunting fields of blood. This story gave me nightmares as a child but the incredible tale has remained with me and I feel such a fondness for it. Thank you for honouring the story and the author.

All you need to see of Plague Dogs is a picture of a man clutching his face while blood gush through his fingers.

I tricked my little sister to watch this awhile back. She still can't look at rabbits the same way.

Did anyone else get tears in their eyes when Richard Adams said his poem? There's something about his voice.

I miss Richard Adams and John Hurt so much. Hurt actually died 3 days after his birthday believe it or not. That's kinda depressing. I will always remember him as The War Doctor. Yea, you're looking at a Whovian and that does mean I'm from Britain (Wales for the record even though I can't speak Welsh or the do the accent). RIP

I actually love this movie because xenofiction is awesome. The blood and darkness did shake me up a bit, though. I see some parallels between the Black Rabbit and his owsla and Odin and his army of einhirjar. Bright Eyes is now my go-to death song. There are some great lines in here, and Thlayli is an awesome name!

Fiver's name is explained in the book. The rabbits have a word for any number greater than four: "hrair" meaning lots or a thousand. Fiver's name in lapine is hrairoo, meaning little thousand as he was the fifth of the litter (the first of the litter to reach hrair) and he was also the smallest.

Fiver's real name is Hrairoo. The original word "hrair" just means "more than 4". It could be translated to mean "a thousand" or "infinite" or "5". -roo is a suffix that means "small". His name could be translated as "the smallest of many". In other words, he's the runt of a large litter. Also, the side stories about El-ahrairah were my favorite part of the book! I wish he'd written a book just about El-ahrairah. I want read more stories about this legendary trickster demi-god, this Robin Hood of the rabbits.

My whole reaction to Watership Down was basically "What the fuck?"

John Hurt was the chancellor at my university, I grew up watching him in loads of my favourite movies (like you sometimes not realising it!) he was such a great man, so sad that he's passed away

So while watching this review I realized just how much this movie traumatized me when I was a young child. I don't think kids movies or shows should avoid things like death and what not but well... this particular movie fucked me up. Literally just watching the little snippets from the movie you showed in the review I was feeling nauseous like I did when I was a child, which is a real shame since now that I'm an adult I'm sure I would appreciate this movie a lot more, but I can't watch it without feeling like I need to vomit. I was one of those kids that didn't respond well to this movie and it has stuck with me through to my adulthood.

I freaking loved Richard Adams work... A master of his profession and great loss

"when I was eight" I saw the film version at about the same age, loved it and cried at the end. :''D Also for anyone going "how bad can plague dogs be?" It will reduce you to tears, more than once. Trust me.

They had the VHS cassette at my local library. I watched movies like people drink water back then, and I liked the cover. I was five or six. I loved it. Then...dead bunnies. Dead bunnies everywhere. Still love it to this day.

That cutie mark joke :D

When the news that Richard Adams passed, my sister was SO heartbroken. He was her hero, and she hoped she'd have him read her book one day...but now her dream can never come true.

PG? That's cute. In the UK, the film was rated "U" (Universal - suitable for all audiences) and has retained its original rating to this day, despite many complaints from parents of traumatised children. It's also one of my all-time favourites. I must have come close to wearing out my VHS tape as a kid, and now I have the blu ray where you can see all its glorious detail - I swear you can see every brush stroke in the backgrounds. Thanks for the review - I might go watch the film again now.

Would you ever do a review of the BBC adaptation?

You do know Richard read The Private life of Rabbits for understanding rabbit behaviour for this book, right? THAT is why he seemed like a zoologist where in reality he simply did his homework

You like hrududu, I like Efrafa. EFRAFAFAFAFA

Great review, as always. I never checked this out as a kid, but I might watch it sometime if I get the chance. Though, I admit the sudden tonal shifts in this remind me of Go Lion, or the Voltron 80s subs, from it going from fluffy one minute and extremely messed up the next...I still swear that series is like the experiment of what would happen if you merged Power Rangers, Berserk and Game of Thrones. Water Ship Down is very good, well told story and whereas Go Lion is a lot more jarring. (Still think VLD is the best Voltron because it can go dark when it needs too, but still isn't super hardcore edgy. Just being a better told story and has more fleshed out characters in general). To be fair, I think Go Lion was intended for an older audience...I think, I'm still not sure about that. Also, the South Park joke made me laugh. (Spit take) The song Bright Eyes came from this movie! Damn, would've never expected that. I love that song!

I read this in 8th grade ! Loved it! Good review man. What if you do IT, Jaws, or The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? Those could be very cool books to review I think. Great job as always, keep it up!

Battlefield Earth would be fun to tackle. While you still learning how to spell name, Krimson was being trained to review s##ty movie adaptations.

Far more traumatising and horrifying than any adult horror film.

Krimson, 9:46 "they head out of the woods, but they're not out of trouble yet."

I think that this and the Plague Dogs shaped a lot of British kid's childhoods,including mine. Seriously I first watched this movie when I was four!0w0

I remember watching this movie constantly as a child, because my aunt had recorded The Last Unicorn and Watership Down on the same VHS. So we children usually started watching The Last Unicorn but, lazy as we were, ended up watching both films. The scene where they get buried alive was *etched* into my memory. However, I still watched WD all the time because ... Idk, probably only because it was on the VHS, too. Years later, during my studies, I came across an interview with the author and started talking to my friends about Watership Down. They quickly told me they had never seen it, but started making fun of me because of how horrified I was by a "movie about rabbits". Needless to say, we watched it together shortly after and they never made fun of me again. Despite being in my twenties, I felt the movie was even more horrible than I remembered it. Bless this film. I will always remember it fondly.

I remember really enjoying this movie when I was around 6 or 7. looking back I'm surprised that I ever watched it more than once at that age.

I wonder how everyone feels about the new adaptation on Netflix.

You should read "Firebringer". A book directly inspired by Watership down written by David Clement Davies, and it's semi sequel "The Sight" and "The Sight"s direct sequel "Fell".

The story drags you away and the movie does so too it goes into great length making you excited and then the music is calming and relaxing at times making it a lot better then there is the gore it just scares you when you watch this as a kid but it’s so calming in the end scene and makes you feel happy that it all came to a good end Also Keehar Yelling PISS OFF was probably the best part :D

Listening to Richard Adams speak, all I could think was "What a precious man." Recently revisited the 1978 Watership Down film because the Netflix adaptation let me down. And here I am, going down the rabbit hole and watching a slew of reviews and analyses. haha. Good job!

12:59 Wait i got it just now Klaus Pope. Its a reference for Naoki Urasawa's Monster. Krimson i seriously love you for these references. Monster is one of my favourite stories of all time.

I saw this movie years ago and can remember parts of it. I'm more familiar with the Cartoon Series that aired in the late 90s early 2000s (I forgot the exact years) and I wonder what fans of the book thought of the cartoon series.

great review. good thing I suggested that one and you said it is on the list. thank you, KrimsonRogue.

Hooray! My debut as the new co-editor!

This was my FAVORITE movie as a kid! I still find ways to incorporate it into my art classes.

Of course the book had more detail in it . It was original and absolutely brilliant.

Any chance you will do The animals of Farthing wood? I saw some really cool cartoons in Nigeria during my childhood

Someone knows name of the song at the end? A love it and cant find it anywhere

Love ur review. I watched the movie to get a better understanding of the story and i really think there should be more movies for kids like this. Children need to know that life isn't all happiness and sunshine. Also this movie tough me that does is a female bunny and kittens is for theyer babies. Then I wanted a pet bunny after seeing a bunch of them kill eatchother in this movie XD

wonderful review!!!👍👍😂 RIP Richard Adams😢 My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today.

2016 was the Watership Down of years

I watched this at the cinema aged 4 in 1978. I was traumatised, had to be taken outside repeatedly as I was inconsolable, Violet's gone, Big Wig in a snare thinking he'd died, Hazel being shot and the ending, still effects me all those years later.

Always brings tears to my eyes.

Any chance you could do a book series vs tv series? I'm thinking about "Animals of Farthing Wood". It always reminds me of "Watership Down".

This movie taught me not to trust the movie cover. I saw this movie at Blockbuster as a kid with a beautiful scenery background with the rabbits. I tried to watch it as a kid but had to shut it off when Fiver saw the blood across the field. Now I love this movie.

I'm crying right now T_T That was beautiful, and horrifying and emotional.... um... i mean.... I never cry... i'm a tough guy, i swear :P

Thanks for that map i was actually curious which town this was based exactly.

I saw Watership Down at a young age back in the early 90s, and although it was dark, I wasn't bothered by the violence. I was confused by the plot for a long time. I thought that Fiver and Hazel were being pursued by a migrating forest full of rabbit-eating predators which grew from streams of blood. I thought that Fiver and Hazel contemporaries of El-ahrairah, and that rabbit-kind were constantly on the run from Frith's wrath. I didn't understand the purpose of Efrafa or General Woundwort then. The book filled in many details for me, and I relished the whole mythology of El-ahrairah, and how it expands upon Orwell's take of political allegory and animal fables. I like how the rabbits' brush with the various predators and dangers coincide with the origin story of El-ahrairah and how the animals who hunt rabbits came to be. It's fun for me to revisit the film and book now and then.

I watch plague dogs............I regret so many things

are you ever going to review the chronicles of narnia? pleas?

1:51 Heh, I was 3 when I first read the book/saw the film... That explains a lot....

3:15 3:50 many years later, parents still haven't learned this.

Most the late 70s, early 80s kids movies were insanely depressing and violent. The song “Bright Eyes” was really pretty but even as a small kid it was clear it was about death.

A great video Krimson. You need more subs

I also liked "Girl On A Swing" by Adams. A sort of romantic Ghost thriller. Check it out if you can fins a copy.

I used to borrow that movie all the time as a kid. My mom called it the "depressing bunny movie"

A *FAMILY* PICTURE

I love the film, as terrifying as it was. It had enough funny moments to offset the sheer horror. I never questioned the weird names. I thought it made sense to have unfamiliar names for things. Bigwig in the road scene is a personal favourite. That and the, "Piss off!" Scene.

Really enjoyed your video! Watership is my favorite book! I want to say that Violet's death may have had more to do with pushing the point that they had no females. It had...mixed results. The book handled it fine. I've always felt like Watership really NEEDED to be mini series because the tales of the rabbit prince add too much to be removed.

At 31, this is still my favorite book. I think it always will be.

I saw Watership Down & Plague Dogs as a kid, they were scary yet I still enjoyed them. Still do now.

I just came into the channel over the weekend, starting with a few other the-book-was-better reviews, and decided to see if my favorite book was reviewed. And here we are. I feel it's important to note that "Watership Down" is a British book, and they have wildly different ideas of what is okay for kids, and audiences in general. A good example is the book [and adapted BBC show] "The Animals of Farthing Woods". I got into "Watership Down" late in life, so I'm trauma-free, but some of my contemporaries [we were old enough to have seen it in theaters] were not so lucky. I remember one friend shutter at recalling the destruction of the Saddleford warren, saying how claustrophobic it was. I've come to use the prayer, "My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend has stopped running today", when I hear of a friend or loved one passing. Richard Adams once said that it wasn't a fluffy bunny story, and he was right. The life of a wild rabbit is hard and can be fraught with peril, and we are all the more richer for having gotten caught up in running with them against the thousand.

Ironic you posted this the day after my birthday when I recommended it also RIP the bunny author

I've wanted to read the actual book after seeing the graphic cartoon movie and the Netflix remake but one day I'll read the book. Same thing with Plague Dogs, I watched the movie and regret it but want to read the book which explains more than what the movie left of like the biggest question is, why call them plague dogs? That's the only thing I wanted to know. I hope to read the book right after the Watership Down book. Well, wish me luck.

Both Watership Down and The Plague Dogs made me cry. Both were so good (the films and the books)

Adams thoroughly read a book about rabbits written by someone who spent ten years of his life studying rabbits and their behaviour.

The mention of John Hurt still makes me tear up.

IM SO GLAD YOU DID THIS ONE

WTF! John Hurt died on my 26th birthday?! Sigh. May he rest in peace. He will be missed.