Watership Down

Watership Down (1978)

Timing: 1:28 (88 min)

7.194/10
596

7.384/10
4221

7.5/10
43000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 26

Actors and characters

Release date

1978-10-14

Country

United Kingdom

Production

Nepenthe Productions, Watership Productions

Genre

Adventure, Animation, Drama

Budget

$1 000 000

Revenue

$3 713 768

Website

Director

Martin Rosen

Actors

John Hurt, Richard Briers, Michael Graham Cox, John Bennett, Ralph Richardson, Simon Cadell, Terence Rigby, Roy Kinnear, Richard O'Callaghan, Denholm Elliott
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

John Hubley

Producer

Martin Rosen, Jake Eberts

Operator

Tony Haines

Composer

Angela Morley

Artist

Audition

Editing

Terry Rawlings
All team (89)

• The film is based on Richard Adams's fantasy novel "Watership Down" (1972).
• The animated film was based on the book of the same name by British writer Richard Adams. He originally began telling it in the evenings as short stories about rabbits to his two daughters. They insisted that they be written down and published. This process took over two years.
• Richard Adams' book was first published in 1972 by the British publisher Rex Collins. Before that, it had been rejected in turn by seven other publishers. The book quickly gained universal acclaim from literary critics and became a major bestseller. Over forty years, its total circulation worldwide exceeded 50 million copies.
• The budget of the animated film, at 2 million British pounds, was fully funded from independent sources. This provided maximum freedom of action for the director and producers.
• Initially, John Hubley was to be the director of the animated film. After his death in 1977, the project was headed by Martin Rosen, for whom the film was his directorial debut. Some of John Hubley's groundwork was preserved and included in the final version of the film.
• Several British distributors in turn refused to work with the animated film. After lengthy negotiations, the producers managed to reach an agreement with Cinema International Corporation, a distributor of foreign films for Paramount Pictures. They agreed to release the film on the condition that its producers cover all release preparation costs.
• Starting with a limited release in a handful of cinemas, the cartoon eventually ranked sixth among the highest-grossing releases of 1979 in the UK and Ireland.
• The title song from the cartoon, Bright Eyes, written by British singer and composer Mike Batt and performed by American singer Art Garfunkel, became a colossal hit in Britain. It stayed at number one in the charts for six weeks and, with 1.15 million copies, became the best-selling single of 1979 in Britain.
• Composer Mike Batt wrote several other songs for the cartoon, but none of them made it into its final soundtrack. Three of these songs were also performed by Art Garfunkel.
• In 2004, the major British magazine Total Film ranked 'The Watership Down' 47th among the best British films of all time.
• The film is based on Richard Adams' novel-fairy tale "Watership Down" (1972).