History YMMV / WatershipDown

** Frith, the Sun God and creator of the world.

* FandomRivalry: ''Watership Down'' vs. ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood''.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the Japanese dub of the Netflix adaptation of the novel, Hazel is voiced by Chikahiro Kobayashi, who later ends voicing Legosi, a wolf, in the animated adaption of ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'', who, in turn, falls in love with a rabbit girl (Haru).

* HarsherInHindsight: Though he outlived Mostel by about a decade, Denholm Elliot would pass away in 1992 due to a mix of AIDS and tuberculosis. This makes the scene where Cowslip recites the poem about death and the Black Rabbit and the character's overall sickly, thin appearance very hard to watch.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Usually, most people nowadays (especially from the Internet) first hear about the film (or maybe even worse, ''Watership Down'' [[AdaptationDisplacement as a whole]]) due to how violent it is rather than any plot details. As a result, the film has become infamous as among the absolute most violent and horrifying children’s animation works ''of all time'' and has therefore tarnished the source material’s contemporary reputation as well as everything spun from it.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Kehaar for bringing well-needed comic relief into the story.
* HarsherInHindsight: Though he outlived Mostel by about a decade, Denholm Elliot would pass away in 1992 due to a mix of AIDS and tuberculosis. This makes the scene where Cowslip recites the poem about death and the Black Rabbit and the character's overall sickly, thin appearance very hard to watch.
* NightmareFuel: Especially the flashback of when the DoomedHometown Sandelford [[spoiler: was gassed and filled in]].
* OvershadowedByControversy: Usually, most people nowadays (especially from the Internet) first hear about the film (or even worse, ''Watership Down'' [[AdaptationDisplacement as a whole]]) due to how violent it is rather than any plot details. Besides, the film has become infamous as among the most violent and horrifying children’s animation works of all time and therefore tarnishing the source material’s contemporary reputation as well as everything spun from it.

* NightmareFuel: Especially the flashback of when the DoomedHometown Sandelford [[spoiler: was gassed and filled in.]]
* OvershadowedByControversy: The few times you hear about the film (especially on the Internet) it's about how violent it is rather than any plot details, to the point where people argue that it's a straight up bad film as a result.

* HarsherInHindsight: The miniseries deviates from the novel by having Hyzenthlay become Holly's love interest instead of Hazel's mate. As Hazel and Hyzenthlay are voiced by James [=McAvoy=] and Anne Marie-Duff, respectively, one cannot help but wonder if this change was made due to their real-life divorce not long before production on the miniseries began.

** Peter Capaldi plays one of the few non-rabbit characters, just months after voicing Rabbit in ''Film/ChristopherRobin''.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the Japanese dub of the Netflix adaptation of the novel, Hazel is voiced by Chikahiro Kobayashi, who later ends voicing Legosi, a wolf, in ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'', who, in turn, falls in love with a rabbit girl (Haru).

** Most of the voice actors are spot-on, but seriously, ''Peter Capaldi'' as ''Kehaar''?

* Bowdlerize: The author tells us many [[{{Conlang}} Lapidian]] words...but not one for what rabbits...do like rabbits.

** Since it was announced, many fans of the book questioned the decision to cast Creator/JohnBoyega as Bigwig, due to him being deemed [[VocalDissonance too young and high-pitched]] for a character commonly portrayed as grizzled and experienced. In the miniseries itself, Boyega sounds as if he is trying to sound older and tougher than he actually is, [[{{Narm}} which sounds unintentionally hilarious at times]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Peter Capaldi plays one of the few non-rabbit characters, just months after voicing Rabbit in ''Film/ChristopherRobin''.

** And the two nightmare warrens are both, in different ways, attempts to beat a rabbit's harsh life as a prey animal. In one, the rabbits are protected from predators and have all the food they need--and are constantly culled by the silver wires. In the other, the rabbits successfully hide from predators ''and'' humans alike, at the cost of a horrible fascism. The lesson seems to be that if you're a rabbit, you need to just embrace the fact that everything wants you dead, and do your best with it.

* Zig-zagged with Sir Ben Kingsley as Woundwort. As talented and respected he is as an actor, and despite how well he did in playing the callous and cruel side to the character's nature, Kingsley does not bring to the voice the nasty level of viciousness and bloodlust that Harry Andrews and John Hurt famously did for their incarnations.

* HarsherInHindsight: The miniseries deviates from the novel by having Hyzenthlay become Holly's love interest instead of Hazel's mate. As Hazel and Hyzenthlay are voiced by James McAvoy and Anne Marie-Duff, respectively, one cannot help but wonder if this change was made due to their real-life divorce not long before production on the miniseries began.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The Efrafan does [[spoiler:busting out in an Irish lament to distract their captors just as Bigwig is outed as a mole.]] Being almost like a musical number, it is never brought up again and seems to only be in the film so that Music/EmileSande can contribute to the soundtrack.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The Efrafan does [[spoiler:busting out in an Irish lament to distract their captors just as Bigwig is outed as a mole.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Peter Capaldi plays one of the few non-rabbit characters, just months after Rabbit in ''Film/ChristopherRobin''.

* WTHCastingAgency: Most of the voice actors are spot-on, but seriously, ''Peter Capaldi'' as ''Kehaar''?

* ValuesDissonance: The treatment of gender roles in the book sadly hasn't aged well. Although Hyzenthlay is a reasonably developed character, the story is entirely male-centred. The crisis in the second part is driven by the fact that the rabbits need females to mate with. Naturally the TV series tries to remedy this by [[GenderFlip making Blackberry female]], expanding the role of Primrose (Hyzenthlay's {{Expy}}) and introducing a female mouse character called Hannah. Likewise the book's sequel features considerably more female presence in an attempt to avoid this.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The animators appear to have based the characters on hares, not rabbits. Rabbits have shorter legs and differently-shaped bodies than the characters who appear in the series.
* UncannyValley: The animation is terrible, and all the characters fall into this as a result.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The addition of colour, sound, and movement makes several parts of the experience even more uncomfortable to sit through than the original novel, but the target demographic remains unchanged.

* FandomRivalry: Watership Down vs. WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood.

* TearJerker: Painful tears in the film during the "Bright Eyes" sequence. Joyful tears at the end of the book, especially at Vilthuril's storytelling.

* AwesomeMusic: The score - and it's impossible to find.