Watership Down

Watership Down (1978)

2 corrected entries

(1 vote)

Corrected entry: When Big Wig explains what happened when he lead the fox away from the rest and they heard a cry of pain, he says something about being just about to stop limping. Problem is, Hazel is the one with the injured leg, not Big Wig. In the book Big Wig does fake a limp to trick the fox, but since he's not seen doing so in the film the comment makes no sense whatsoever.

Correction: The fact Big Wig says "I just stopped limping, you know, ready to run really fast." suggests he was faking a limp even if we don't actually see it. He's already running off into the distance when the fox chases after him, so it's hard to tell either way.

Corrected entry: At the very start of the film, Fiver comes across footsteps and a smoking cigarette butt. If the smell of the recently departed man wasn't enough to keep him away from that spot (and Hazel, peacefully grazing a few feet away), then the very smelly cigarette smoke should have done the trick.

Correction: Fiver is a psychic rabbit with precognitive abilities. He senses the danger man is bringing to the warren, and this sensation (and the half-trance it evokes) is stronger than any physical distress caused by the man-made objects.

Plot hole: Perhaps the biggest plot hole in the movie is centered about the reappearance of the Owsla officer Holly. Even if the warren was destroyed right after Hazel's band had departed, Holly would not have caught up with them right before the new warren at Watership Down - even with the delay at Cowslip's warren - with the additional detour in Efrafa, considering that acquiring the amount of information he got from its organization would take more than just one or two days. In addition, Richard Adam's novel, on which this movie is based, features the location of Efrafa some distance away from the down, nowhere between it and the Sandlefort warren (Hazel's and Fiver's home). In fact, Holly went to Efrafa (along with a missionary group of Hazel's band) some time after they had settled down in the new warren.

More mistakes in Watership Down

Blackberry: Men have always hated us.
Holly: No. They just destroyed the warren because we were in their way.
Fiver: They'll never rest until they've spoiled the earth.

More quotes from Watership Down

Trivia: Occasionally the rabbits use terms which are not explained in the movie, but which are featured in Richard Adam's novel, along with their meanings. For interest, some of these are: "owsla"=a term for a selected band of rabbits responsible for both security and raiding parties (for vegetables, mostly; organization varies with the warren); "hraka"=rabbit droppings or something similarly offensive; "tharn"=mad or paralyzed with fear; "elil"=any rabbit-killing/-eating enemy; "hrududu"=generic term for motorized vehicles; "zorn" (which Holly cries out right before he joins the others near the new warren)=catastrophe; "Frith"=the sun; "Inle"=the moon, or death; "hlessi"=a wandering rabbit.

More trivia for Watership Down

Question: I'm trying to remember the song that was made famous by this film. Can anyone help me?

Answer: "Bright Eyes" written by Mike Batt and performed by Art Garfunkel.

Tailkinker

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