Television series
Watership Down
Other titles called Watership Down: the 1978 film.
A lavishly animated BBC adaptation of Richard Adams' beloved novel, following a warren of rabbits fleeing their doomed home. It's a genuine epic—part survival thriller, part political fable—that treats its small heroes with the gravity they deserve. Visually stunning and emotionally rich, it's for anyone who loves adventure that matters.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like animal fables that treat their creatures with full seriousness, where a quest through hostile country carries real political argument and the brothers' rivalry does the heavy lifting.
Skip it if you're after a cosy countryside romp, since this is a bleak, tense watch with frightening stretches and little gentleness.
What it asks of you: Two episodes, around 100 minutes in total, so it's a short commitment, but it needs patience early on while the world and its rules settle in.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Tale of Despereaux2008
A animated fable about a mouse who defies his nature to save a princess. Like Watership Down, it's a children's story that operates as genuine mythology, with beautiful animation and a score that swells your chest.
But The sentimentality can feel thick, and the pacing drags in places. Some will find it too earnest for its own good.
Zootopia2016
Anthropomorphic animals navigate a complex world where predator and prey coexist uneasily. It's clever and funny, but underneath runs the same vein of political allegory and social commentary that gives Watership Down its weight.
But Visually very busy, and the mystery plot can feel tacked on. If you're after quieter character moments, this moves too fast.
Bambi1942
The foundational text for serious animal storytelling in animation. It refuses to talk down to its audience about predation, loss, and survival. The influence on everything that followed—including Watership Down—is immense and direct.
But Pacing feels glacial by modern standards. The middle sags, and some of the character voices are dated. It can feel like homework.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Watership Down
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Plague Dogs1982
Both written by Richard Adams and adapted into animation with unflinching respect for the source material's darkness and the moral weight of small lives.
An animated film about two dogs escaping a research facility, rendered in grim, gorgeous detail. It shares Watership Down's DNA—the same author Richard Adams, the same moral seriousness about animal survival—but tonally bleaker and more uncompromising.
But This is genuinely distressing. Real cruelty, real stakes, no softening for comfort. Some viewers find it punishingly bleak rather than moving.
More like this (7)
His Dark Materials2019
Ambitious fantasy epic with a similar blend of adventure, genuine peril, and philosophical weight. The production design is extraordinary, and it refuses to simplify its moral questions for a younger audience.
But The first season stumbles with pacing. Some plotlines feel underbaked, and the CGI can be inconsistent. Trust falls on whether you buy into the world.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance2019
Stunning puppet work and meticulous world-building create a fantasy that feels tactile and lived-in. It's an underdog adventure with genuine stakes and a visual style utterly unlike anything else on television.
But Only one season before cancellation. The plot moves slowly, and if puppet animation isn't your thing, it won't convert you. Very patient filmmaking.
Natsume's Book of Friends2008
Japanese animation about a boy who can see supernatural creatures and tries to free them from a cursed book. It has Watership Down's mix of folklore, melancholy, and the strange grace of outsiders finding community.
But Each episode is largely standalone, which means no narrative momentum. It's contemplative rather than thrilling. Subtitles required.
Over the Garden Wall2014
A miniseries about two brothers lost in a mysterious forest, learning to survive and trust each other. It's gorgeously animated, darkly atmospheric, and finds the same mythic weight in small stories as Watership Down does.
But Only ten episodes, and it ends definitively—no continuation. The pacing is deliberately slow, which some will find frustrating rather than meditative.
The Lion King1994
The gold standard for animal adventure storytelling. Politics, mortality, family fracture, and redemption woven through a narrative that sings. Its influence on how we tell epic stories is absolute.
But The 2019 photorealistic remake overshadows it now for some. The original can feel familiar to the point of invisibility. Its sentimentality isn't for everyone.
Puffin Rock2015
Both find the extraordinary in the everyday rhythms of animal life, treating nature not as backdrop but as the real character.
An Irish children's series about a puffin and his friends exploring their seaside home, narrated by Chris O'Dowd in a warm, meandering voice. It sounds slight but it's pure observation—nature documentary as bedtime story, with the same quiet reverence for the wild that grounds Watership Down.
But Almost nothing happens by conventional plot standards. If you need narrative drive and conflict, this is too gentle. Deeply uncool.
Princess Mononoke1997
Both are epics about displacement and survival told from the perspective of those being erased, using the animal world to ask questions about civilization and belonging that feel urgent and unanswerable.
Miyazaki's epic about a princess bonded to forest spirits fighting human expansion. Stunningly animated, with no easy villains—only competing visions of survival and belonging. The moral complexity rivals anything in animation.
But Extremely violent, in ways that can feel sudden and jarring. Subtitled, and some plot threads remain deliberately obscure. Not a comfort film.
People
Cast
Production
- Ben PughExecutive Producer
- Eleanor MoranExecutive Producer
- Josh VarneyExecutive Producer
- Rory AitkenExecutive Producer
- Cecil KramerProducer
- Georgia DussaudProducer