UKC

Looks like Martin Rosen’s graphic 1978 children's classic cartoon has been remade but somewhat sanitised with the brutality and dark themes toned down. Those on here of a certain vintage will remember being mildly traumatised  at a young age by Fiver visions, Bigwig's fight and the general precariousness of life in the country and that's before Art Garfunkel's lays it on thick with Bright Eyes.

Anyway, should they have kept the tone of the source material and original cartoon or were yesterdays kids made of sterner stuff.

That is a serious understatement. Absolutely terrifying, I think its the only film which had ever actually given me nightmares. 

I’ve heard mixed reviews but looking forward to seeing it and how close it is to the book.

(aged 6 when it came out at the cinema - it had a big impact on me)

It's still a Disney film compared to Plague Dogs

Piss Off!

Maybe it's the viewing habits / parenting that has changed, rather than the kids. 1978 Watership Down is a film you should really be watching with your children. It deals robustly with big issues, and might raise questions that need answering or may upset younger children and need to be turned off. It's not really a film to let a 7 year old watch for 1 1/2 hours by themselves.

Spoiler alert!!!

To repeat an old anecdote, I had read the Plague Dogs and enjoyed it (including Sir Peter Scott saving the day) so one Christmas I decided to treat my own form of Y8 kids to the film version I'd spotted in the video shop.

Without watching it I got them all seated and they were pretty much glued to it for the duration. In the final scene I detected a bit of distress among the audience as the dogs were struggling with the waves so I whispered loudly "It's OK kids, happy ending I promise....."

Then the dogs went under for the last time . Or disappeared and went to doggy heaven.

I loved Watership Down as a child and watched it countless times without really understanding some of the messages.  It was also the film which, regardless of the numbers of times I saw it, always gave me a great big lump in the throat at that moment, you know, with Inlé-rah.

Watched it a few times later in life and it still amazes me how ahead of its time it is environmentally.  And the lump still arrives.

The song "Bright Eyes" made me, an adult, cry then, and it still does when I hear it.

It is a remarkable novel.  The film is a lengthy paraphrase that simply does not have the time to do it justice but is still an impressive piece of animation (with some big-hitting voice overs).

To my mind, there are maybe 3 novels that bring alive the beauty of the English countryside with vivid and powerful descriptions:

Watership Down

Cider with Rosie

The Wind in the Willows

I have vague recollections of watching it as a child, and being fairly freaked out by it, but cant really remember the specifics. 

Not watched it since, but did read the novel about 6 months ago, which I thought was utterly fantastic (fairly dark but engrossing, more aimed at adults than children). 

Just watched the trailer for new one, don't like the look of the animation, but tone looks reasonably true to original. 

Are you the guy who showed it to a classroom of children, having not seen the film but having read the book where the ending is at least ambiguous enough to show some possibility of hope, and dealing with traumatised children during the climax by saying "it's ok, it's ok, they WILL get rescued", and then in the film they don't? 
One of my favourite UKC anecdotes, that one

Yes, I read it as part of our school English Lit. syllabus, and didn't really get on with the film, as I had so been engrossed by the novel. 

That'll be Tom V, higher up in the thread

Yeah not sure how I missed that whilst scrolling down! Sorry Tom V!

For the record my comment was not some weird attempt at humour, I totally missed Tom V's comment and had been genuinely remembering another time he posted this story, about 2 years ago

and The Little Grey Men by 'BB'

Perhaps they’ll remake Raymond Briggs’ “When the Wind Blows” next, and give it a cheerier tone...

Unlike Watership Down, that has left a lasting impression on me.

youtube.com/watch?v=a_hqsjZlrZY&

Christ on a bike. Still rips me apart.

Deffinatly one of if not my all time favorite book and being the owner of 4 house rabbit's that own my living room the book is pretty spot on with the intelligence of rabbits and having recently seen 3 of them turn on the 4th and tear lumps out of him just because he was ill I can appriciate the violent side of the book too. 

I will probably watch the new film but I didn't rate the original though I read the book before seeing the film and that never ends well. 

Richard Adams, the author of Watership Down said “I’ve always said that Watership Down is not a book for children. I say: it's a book, and anyone who wants to read it can read it.” 

In my opinion, the old film is a terrible interpretation of the book. Many people who have only seen the film (or maybe just remember it more clearly than the book) remember it as a harrowing/traumatic experience to watch as a child. There was a TV series released in 1999 which didn't do the book must justice either, leaving out many the more "grown up" themes of the book. Watership Down originally took so long to get published because publishers were concerned about the unusual crossover of children's/adult themes and therefore lack of a target market. When it was finally published, it became an instant best seller and went on to win multiple awards. I hope the new BBC version will stay true to the complex juxtaposition of themes in the book by appealing to all ages and not leave people with such a negative view of what Richard Adams described as "just a story about rabbits".

Same author as “The Forest of Bowland Light Railway.”?

Yes, though ~I didn't know of that one - Will have to read it now ...

I thought the Little Grey Men was beautifully told - the fact they are gnomes is completely immaterial - they might just as well be Compo Clegg and Foggy

I remember on release that our local butcher had a poster in the window :

WATERSHIP DOWN 

You’ve read the book

You’ve seen the film

Now . . . Eat the cast!

Cant remember the last time I saw rabbit in a butchers! Pretty rare these days.

Thanks - I will look it up. 

2 days ago here - I was surprised they don't usually  stock them

We were tough. No Elf and Safety police, no mobile phones/gps trackers and quality kids presenters such as Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile.

Pretty much anything by BB (aka Denys Watkins-Pitchford) - I'm currently reading Brendon Chase.

Some of Rosemary Sutcliffe's descriptive passages are highly evocative, too.