on the new Watership Down

[ysobel]

Halfway through the first episode -- stopped for time only -- and it seems decent but the purist in me is screaming a bit.


For one thing, they seem to have conflated Dandelion and Bluebell. (In book, D is the storyteller, and an original member of the group, and B comes later with Captain Holly and is a jokester. In movie, the groups storyteller is Bluebell even before he's told any stories). ...there also doesn't seem to be a Pipkin.

For another, the thing with El-ahrairah and Frith is all wrong. (In book, after Frith gives gifts to the animals that become elil, El-ahrairah is trying to get away, and Frith blesses his bottom anyway, and it has a very Psalm 139 feel of Frith always being there. In movie, El-ahrairah basically says "kiss my ass", which is NOT THE SAME.)

Hmph

Comments

[killabeez]

Yeah, I decided not to stick with it, mostly because I don't love the animation style, but also because I'm too attached to the original. It's just not a source I want to be messed with, you know?

[ysobel]

Oh yes, I feel much the same way. I mean, there are some things that might translate better on screen (like, say, the long lists of various plants and vegetations and such), but it's ... one of my comfort books, kind of. And I love the audiobook version I have (sadly seems to have disappeared from audible, though at least it's still in my library) -- it's one of the things I listen to while falling asleep, when I am too awake to sleep but too sleepy to fully track a narrative, and WD is perfect because a) the narration is good, b) the story itself is fairly encapsulated into different segments, and c) I know the story well; the latter two points mean I can drift in and out and not be lost.

So yeah, I'm much too fond of it to tolerate things that feel wrong.

(Also, i just realized another thing bugging me -- the rabbits have very human facial expressions, like the way they narrow their eyes. I get that it's a good way to show emotion, but part of the point of WD is that rabbits aren't people...)

(And! Bigwig with the road! He's not supposed to flatten himself in terror under the hrududu and then pretend he's okay, he's supposed to stand next to it and be unafraid! Hmph.)

Meh. I'm vaguely curious to see how they do a few of the things, like Kehaar, but I know they will mess it up further...

[killabeez]

On the plus side, I really liked how they showed Cowslip's warren. But otherwise it didn't feel close enough to the original for me. It's funny how attached I am to certain details. The moment when I knew I wouldn't watch the rest was when they were trying to free Bigwig from the snare, and there was no Pipkin. That and the conflation of Dandelion and Bluebell were the no-gos for me. Those rabbits are important, dammit! :)