Thlayli (Bigwig) had made his way up the run and was crouching immediately below. Blood had matted the great thatch of fur on his head, and one ear, half severed, hung down beside his face. His breathing was slow and heavy.
— Chapter 47 ("The Sky Suspended")
An epicLow Fantasy adventure by Richard Adams.Hazel, our protagonist, has a little brother named Fiver. Fiver has horrific — and as later events prove, accurate — visions of the destruction of their home warren at Sandleford, but Hazel can't convince their Chief to pay attention to some loony runt, so he convinces a few of his friends to join him in leaving their homes to escape. Of note are Bigwig, one of the community's Owsla (guards), and Blackberry, who is by the standards of their tribe a mechanical genius. Which is to say, he is the only cast member to even come close to understanding basic physics... like, for instance, "floating on water." Because, see, these are rabbits...Yes, rabbits. Bear with us for a moment. They're not humans in rabbit form. Caution is a way of life because death is a moment-to-moment possibility. They can't count past four because they only have four paws (Fiver, the runt of a five-kit litter, gets his name from the colloquial of the Lapine word hrair, literally meaning "a thousand"). They think hrududil (cars and other large machinery) are some type of animal.Only Blackberry, Fiver, and Hazel can really "think outside the hutch," so to speak. Hazel in particular quickly realises that survival as a tribe of hlessil (nomads) will require atypical problem-solving and teamwork, and thus becomes the de facto leader of the group, with a particular talent for bringing out the best in his followers and earning their loyalty in return.Their journey is long - for a rabbit (about five miles). And it is punctuated by times of rest, during which they regale each other with tales of their Folk Hero, the first rabbit: El-ahrairah, the Prince With a Thousand Enemies. El-ahrairah is a Trickster hero (meet us halfway between Beowulf and Bugs Bunny and you've got the idea), and the legends we hear deal with everything from the rabbit's creation myth to El-ahrairah's descent into Inle to meet the Black Rabbit. And don't think that the stories are separate from the action, because they build up an intricate belief system that rewards us with major character moments, up to and including the very end of the story.Plot Synopsis (spoilers)The novel proved so popular that, decades later, Adams wrote a set of sequel stories. Called Tales From Watership Down, the stories actually take place during the original novel, though after the resolution of the plot—that is, they expand on the warren's post-battle history that had previously just been given a brief mention in the original Epilogue. They include what became of Hyzenthlay; and additional tales such as "The Terrible Hay-making" and "The Hole In The Sky". Naturally, some fans like the book, others call Fanon Discontinuity.Also notable is the animated feature film based upon the book. It's a very well-done adaptation, and while it is no excuse at all for not reading the novel, it's well worth watching. As a matter of fact, reading the novel first enhances the film. The insanely detailed animation fits the story perfectly, and real effort is made to respect the seriousness with which the rabbits take their quest. (As an aside, it's really hard to imagine a film version working any other way; if you'd like an idea of how Narm-ful a live-action version might have been, look for The Film of the BookJonathan Livingston Seagull.) The film is also notable for its voice cast, consisting of some of the best British actors of the day, including John Hurt as Hazel, Ralph Richardson as the Threarah, Nigel Hawthorne as Campion, Richard Briers as Fiver and Zero Mostel as Kehaar.The thing is, the film is notorious in Internet culture for one simple reason: the Animation Age Ghetto affects it like almost no other movie. Certainly, DVD cover art like this doesn't help, but what gets us here at TV Tropes is that you'd think more people would have heard of the book. Parents of bunny-obsessed children, please do not subject your four-year-olds to such Nightmare Fuel as Bigwig's brush with death and his battle with General Woundwort, General Woundwort himself, the awfully long scene (scored to Bright Eyes) where Hazel is almost certainly dead and Fiver is lost without him, Blackavar's story, or Holly recounting how he barely escaped the destruction of Sandleford Warren. On the off chance you need further convincing, please note that the latter sequence, faithful to the novel, is a semi-hallucinatory depiction of cute bunnies clawing out the throats of other cute bunnies as they all slowly suffocate. Oh, this movie is really bloody too. Not For Little Kids.There is also a far more obscure television series. In the first two seasons, it primarily changes aspects of the characters and story to make it appeal better to families e.g. making Blackberry female to add more diversity to the predominantly male castspoiler
In fact, a plot point of the main book is that, when they reach Watership Down, they suddenly discover that they forgot to bring females along!
The name discrepancies make more sense when you realize that all the names are actually supposed to be Lapine, but that many of them have been "translated" into English equivalents for the reader. Pipkin's actual name is Hlao-roo.
It also helps differentiate the hutch rabbits (raised in captivity as pets) from the wild ones: Haystack and Clover versus Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang.
In the novel, Hazel encourages the other rabbits to help out non-aggressive animals, in case they ever need help, which starts with a mouse. It pays off with the mouse telling the rabbits about a good feeding place, Kehaar acting as their scout and air support, and the mouse giving them advance warning of the Efrafan attack, which likely saved the warren.
"The Fox in the Water" has El-ahrairah wandering and offering advice, which pays off when a snake he helped, who had heard of his good deeds, grants him temporary hypnotic power to defeat the foxes plaguing the warren.
Animal Talk: the rabbits talk in their own Lapine language, of course, but they can also communicate with other animals using "Hedgerow dialect", which gives other animals Funetik Aksents. Naturally, they can't understand human, at least not without extensive contact.
Angry Guard Dog: And imagine that when you're a fraction of its size.
Asskicking Equals Authority: The reason why Woundwort is the Chief Rabbit of Efrafa. (He killed the previous chief and a rival, taking the warren by force.)
Lampshaded effectively in the novel itself: Woundwort presumes this trope is in effect at Watership Down as well, and is shocked into something close to fear when at a climactic moment he learns Bigwig isn't their Chief.
Watership Down might actually be the exception to this rule. In the Sandleford Warren, the Threarah is noted for being a very dangerous fighter, and when Captain Holly arrives at Watership Down, he too assumed that Bigwig must be Chief Rabbit.
Author Avatar: The doctor who patches up Hazel at the end is meant to be Adams himself.
Beast Fable: Popularly thought to be much like Animal Farm with a theme about the dangers of appeasement and fascism. The Story Within a Story is a series of Beast Fables that teach the rabbits about death and survival.
Although if it is a fable or an allegorical tale, it is not at all anvilicious. It stands on its own as adventure xenofiction.
"There is not a day or night that a doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his chief. But there is no bargain. What is, is what must be."
Big Brother Instinct: Bigwig may start out the story on the verge of Jerkassity, but he's very protective of Pipkin right from the beginning, seemingly for no other reason than because Pipkin is the smallest of the group.
Big Brother Mentor: Hazel to Fiver, usually when he's picked on by the likes of Bigwig. Also a literal big brother, in this case.
Bolivian Army Ending: The last we see of Woundwort, he and a giant killer dog are leaping at each other's throats. The next thing we're told is that they Never Found the Body
Bring News Back: The destruction of the warren, and also the warning about Efrafa. Holly is the messenger in both cases.
Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Oddly averted, insofar as most rabbit terms for human inventions are translated, except for cigarettes and cars. We actually never learn what the rabbit word for rabbit is, but then again, perhaps there isn't one.
Their counterparts, Woundwort and Campion, invert the trope: Woundwort is all about courage, brute force, and raw strength; Campion is about intelligence, strategy, and adaptation.
The Captain: Hazel, and every warren has a Captain of Owsla.
Cassandra Truth: Fiver, at first. In fact, the quote of the first chapter in the book is Cassandra, from the play Agamemnon.
Cats Are Mean: Tab is at first no meaner than rabbitkind's other countless enemies... until her big scene, where she turns out to be a bitch even by cat standards. The fact that cats appear to be fluent in rabbit, whereas other animals must resort to a pigeon language for communication just makes the cat seem all the more sadistic.
Can you run? I think not... I think... not.
Averted in two stories in Tales from Watership Down, where the non-aggressive cats featured come off as much more sympathetic than their rabbit opponents.
Crapsaccharine World: Cowslip's warren, where the rabbits are strong, healthy, have plenty to eat, are developing the beginnings of art and music, and anyone can vanish permanently at any moment.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: Averted for the most part with El-ahrairah, as he differs from Jesus in many ways, but the comparison is inevitable.
Defector from Decadence: Strawberry. The does of Efrafa are a subversion — their elil-free warren is meant to be rabbit paradise, but instead it's an oppressive police state that is slowly killing them.
Determinator: Woundwort will not give up his pursuit of the Watership rabbits—and Bigwig will not give up his defense of them, even after taking damage that ought to kill him.
Also, during one chase scene, the good guys are saved when their pursuers are killed by a convenient train. Appropriately, they take this for an act of Frith.
Fiver's vision where he channels Rowsby Woof gives Hazel the idea of siccing the farm dog on the besieging Efrafans, and is implied to have come from El-ahrairah himself.
Deus Exit Machina: Kehaar, whose aerial support had been essential in the escape from the Efrafans and is big and aggressive enough to deter just about any rabbit except Woundwort*
heck, including Woundwort on open ground without cover
Don't Fear the Reaper: The Black Rabbit Of Inlae is only doing his appointed duty, after all.
When Hazel's turn comes, the Black Rabbit (who may or may not be Elil-hrair-rah), comes to him to invite him to join his Owsla. He seems more like an old friend than the embodiment of death
That was El-ahrairah, not the Black Rabbit at all - the clue is that Hazel recognises him by his ears, which were 'shining with a faint, silver light'. At the end of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé, Frith gave the Prince a new set of ears...with 'a little starlight in them'.
For those wondering, Cowslip's warren is situated next to a farm, whose owner has been leaving food out to keep the rabbits there while setting traps for them, giving him a steady food source. This has led to many strange habits for the rabbits, including a taboo against wondering about the location of any rabbit, thus putting the concept of the traps out of their heads.
Evil Genius: Woundwort had an advisor named Snowdrop who pretty much designed Efrafa and the marks system by himself.
Fantasy Pantheon: The rabbits have a fairly standard pantheon of gods - Frith the creator and sun god, his lieutenant Prince Rainbow (who seems to represent humanity), the Black Rabbit of Inlé as a god of death, and El-ahrairah, the heroic prince of rabbits. It's implied that other animals have their own patrons in the vein of El-ahrairah as well.
And at the end, Woundwort is added as the rabbit version of the bogeyman.
Feathered Fiend: Averted by Kehaar, who is aggressive and disagreeable but is an important ally of the protagonists. Played straight by various other predatory birds, such as hawks and crows.
Fictionary: One of the most celebrated in literature. You'll be thinking in rabbit language for days afterward.
Fragile Speedster: Dandelion. And every rabbit in the book, to an extent, but Dandelion in particular.
Fleeting Demographic Rule: Literally in-universe, due to rabbits' short lifespan. The main events of the novel are the stuff of legend some five years later, and humans are portrayed as driving cars and smoking cigarettes in the mythic past.
Dandelion: "We go by the will of the Black Rabbit of Inle' and only by his will... he will avenge any rabbit who may chance to be destroyed without the consent of himself."
Head In The Sand Management: The old Chief Rabbit, played straight. He insists on ignoring Fiver's warnings that the warren is in danger. In fairness to him, the rabbits do lampshade the logistical nightmare of the whole warren up-and-leaving above ground, concluding it might be safer to stay down and try to dodge whatever's coming where they can't be seen. Unfortunately, what they don't anticipate (because they've never met it before) is the humans' use of poison gas.
Heroic BSOD: In Lapine, it's called tharn - the state of mind where a rabbit simply breaks and watches blankly as one of The Thousand approaches to take his life.
Honorifics: The Lapine language has its own, though only two are mentioned; -roo is an affectionate diminutive, and -rah means "king" or "lord" (usually used to refer to chief rabbits).
Humans Are Bastards: A bit of a mixed bag; the rabbits, especially the few refugees from Sandleford, naturally do think humans are bastards, but the human reader can easily sympathise with their POV (see, again, Everything Trying to Kill You). On the other hand, the first story in Tales isn't nearly as subtle.
This is subverted at the end of the novel when a little girl from the farm rescues the wounded Hazel and takes him to a doctor, and later sets him free. This somewhat changes Hazel's opinions of humans. The construction workers shooting the rabbits from Sandleford as they try to escape, though, definitely is playing this trope straight.
Humans Are Cthulhu: Subverted... maybe. They're generally regarded as just one more of the elil, but some of their stories treat them as elil above the other elil, which is also borne out by Cowslip's warren. Still, Hazel does get an excellent demonstration that we aren't Always Chaotic Evil.
Intellectual Animal: they're about as intellectual as you can get and still be wild animals with an IQ of hrair.
Note that Woundwort is a kind of flower, like Cowslip. (Since woundwort is a healing herb, the name also has a note of irony.)
Never Found the Body: Of General Woundwort. Efrafans are convinced that he didn't die, but went away to find a more worthy warren. Eventually, he becomes a legendary bogeyman figure in the rabbit mythology: "Such was Woundwort's monument, and perhaps it would not have displeased him." This is even justified, because he took on a dog.
Never Say "Die": In-universe example: among the rabbits, a dead rabbit is one who has "stopped running." Which emphasizes the rabbit world-view nicely.
No Pronunciation Guide: Partially averted. There's a Fictionary, but Adams says names like Thethuthinnang and Thlayli are to be pronounced with a "wuf-fluffy" sound. The pronunciation guide only tells the reader which syllable is stressed (el-a-HRAI-rah, THE-thu-thin-nang).
Not Quite Dead: Bigwig, after his battle with Woundwort. Also, Hazel, after being shot.
Only You Can Repopulate My Race: A major plot driver for the second half of the story. The group didn't think (or weren't able) to bring any does with them, so they need to find some or the new warren is doomed.
Pardon My Klingon: "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!" English: "Eat shit, you king of stink!"
"Embleer Frith", which translates literally to "Stinking God", and is an oath roughly equivalent to "Goddammit".
Rascally Rabbit: El-ahrairah, the rabbits' own mythological/folkloric trickster figure. During their journey the rabbits tell several tales of El-ahrairah's trickster abilities.
Reasonable Authority Figure: 'The Threarah', the Chief Rabbit of the Sandleford warren, appears to be the classic Obstructive Bureaucrat when he dismisses Fiver's warning out of hand. Holly later reveals that his reasoning was actually quite logical — most prophets are frauds, and even if they're genuine the warren would have lost more rabbits from a mass evacuation than from a flood or hunters. Tragically, the oncoming disaster is more massive than the Threarah can imagine or Fiver can explain coherently.
One of the biggest examples is the geography. Every little detail noted in the book was present in the location's real life counterpart.
Also, the Author himself notes at the beginning of the book that he had done a lot of research, using naturalist Ronald Lockley's book The Private Life of the Rabbit as a basis for a lot of rabbit behavior, instincts, needs, etc. found in the novel.
Translation Convention: Rather elaborate, as Adams makes extensive use of terms that rabbits care about that have no English language equivalent; see Animal Talk.
The Trickster: El-ahrairah, the rabbits' cultural hero.
True Companions: The eight main rabbits' relationships are based on Adams' WWII unit buddies.
Truth in Television: People more familiar with cuddly cartoons than wild rabbits are surprised how viciously they can and do attack each other, due to their extreme territoriality. Adams researched most of his protagonists' behaviors in The Private Life of the Rabbit, by naturalist Ronald Lockley.
Unusual Animal Alliance: The rabbits enlist the aid of field mice and — more significantly — the seagull Kehaar to protect their warren.
Wicked Cultured: The doomed rabbits of Cowslip's warren have gotten into poetry, rudimentary cave art, and other human-like mannerisms. And in every dramatization Cowslip speaks with a posh accent.
Xenofiction: Often the go-to example for explaining the genre.
You Are Number Six: Fiver, both in Lapine and in translation. A rare case of this trope not being used for dehumanization. Or perhaps, derabbitization.
You Can't Fight Fate: If you're a rabbit and Fiver says he has a bad feeling about something, not listening to him is basically suicide.
You Shall Not Pass: Quoth Bigwig: "My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run and until he says otherwise I shall stay here."
Novel
Action Doe: In Tales, Flyairth, the former Chief Rabbit of Thinial, tackles a (small) dog to save Hazel. Inspired by her example, Hyzenthlay becomes co-Chief Rabbit with Hazel, and her first major task is rescuing a wounded doe, as detailed in the story "Hyzenthlay in Action".
And Man Grew Proud: By the end of the novel, the events in the first part are passing into the rabbit canon of legends. It's easy to imagine the story of the Sandleford Warren's destruction going the same way.
Art Shift: The chapter named "Dea Ex Machina" shifts to the POV of the nearby farm family and thus uses a very different style than the rest of the book, in that human concepts of class and ethnicity suddenly come into play. Most of the dialogue (except the visiting doctor's) is written in a heavy Funetik Aksent.
Bavarian Fire Drill: A favorite trick of El-ahrairah. Holly and his companions do something similar to escape from Efrafa.
Berserk Button: Never, ever ask Cowslip where anyone went.
That alone will only cause him to dodge the question; it's reminding him why he does so that provokes a more violent response. Same goes for the rest of his warren.
Book Ends: The first and last phrases of the book.
Catchphrase: Woundwort's main assurance to his officers who get spooked by different elil is to simply say they "aren't dangerous." He says this multiple times throughout the novel, such as "Stoats aren't dangerous," or "birds aren't dangerous." It goes to show just how badass the general is since he has the muscle to back up what he says. These wind up being the last words we hear from him.
Chekhov's Gun: At a certain point the author bothers to inform the reader that a certain dog, guarding the farm in which some rabbits are held in captivity, is tied with a rope, rather than a chain, so there won't be any rattling which could wake up the farmer. Said dog and the rope it's tied to will become quite relevant later on.
At the end of The Story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé, Lord Frith gives the Prince a new set of ears with 'a little starlight in them'. At the end of the novel, when Hazel dies of old age, a rabbit with faintly shining ears asks him to join his Owsla...
Chekhov's Skill: Hazel even notes that the "board floating on water" trick might come in handy later.
The Four Elements: Silverweed's poem, which has verses about wind, streams, leaves falling to earth, and Frith (the sun). Too bad all four verses are really about death. The small excerpt below was used in the film for highly effective creepiness:
Where are you going, steam? Far, far away... Take me with you, stream. Take me with you on your dark journey.
Elephant in the Living Room: Everyone in Cowslip's warren knows about the snares, but they pretend they don't.
Epigraphs: Quotes from other epic novels, plays, and poems at the start of every chapter. The first one, naturally:
Chorus: Why do you cry out thus, unless at some vision of horror?
Evil Counterpart: Silverweed is the prophet and poet of Cowslip's warren.
Famed in Story: By the end of the book, enough stories are being told about Hazel that he can't even remember which ones are true any more (though admittedly, his encroaching age doesn't help). Meanwhile, Woundwort has become Shrouded in Myth as a superpowered bogeyman with a touch of King in the Mountain mixed in.
Foreshadowing: While Bigwig is facing off with the General, he can hear one of the does in the burrow behind distracting the others with a story, "The Fox in the Water" in which El-ahrairah pretends to tells a fox his future.
"Swift hounds on the scent, and my enemy fleeing for his life."
Fragile Speedster: Well, all rabbits are. But Dandelion is singled out as the fastest of the rabbits in the book and uses his speed on several occasions.
Freudian Excuse: Holly and Silver observe, on separate occasions, that Efrafa's greatest fear is men and that Woundwort felt safer fighting than running. Woundwort's father was killed by a farmer and his mother and siblings were killed running from the farmer and a weasel.
Funetik Aksent: Kehaar the gull. In the novel this is clearly the result of his having to fall back on a sort of interspecies pidgin to communicate with rabbits (Peeg vater!). Given his species of gull, it's quite likely this was meant to resemble a German accent.
Mind you, his accent is clearly different from other animals speaking Hedgerow—mice sound a bit stereotypical-Italian for some reason, and the rabbits when speaking Hedgerow have no Funetik Aksent, they just use a more limited vocabulary and grammar.
Any Human in the book gets heavily phonetic British accents, with the exception of the (presumably better-educated) doctor.
Hell Is That Noise (In-Universe): The Efrafans are freaked out by the sound of sound of Fiver howling like Rowsby Woof.
I Was Just Passing Through: In the story "Hyzenthlay in Action", Bigwig objects to newly-appointed Chief Rabbit Hyzenthlay going off on her own to look for some missing does; she pulls rank on him and does so anyway. The next day, he goes out for a stroll and just happens to run into Hyzenthlay and the wounded doe she stayed behind to protect.
Never Say "Die": Cowslip's warren. They do a lot of talking around the subject, though.
Pardon My Klingon: In one notable example, an entire sentence is left untranslated ("Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!") Careful attention to the Fictionary explains why...
For those who want the Cliffs Notes version, that's "Eat shit, you stinking prince!"
Given what the oft-mentioned but never explained "chewing pellets" means, this insult is somewhat puzzling. However, "chewing pellets" can be reasonably assumed to mean the necessity for rabbits to eat cecotrophs or "cecals" from the anus, due to a double-digestive system. This substance is not poop, and needs to be eaten. The dry little poops you might see in fields are real poop and should not be eaten - i.e. "shit."
Plucky Comic Relief: Bluebell, as an intentional tension-breaker, and for the heck of it.
Proud Warrior Race: It is Woundwort's goal to make rabbits into a Proud Warrior Race. One Efrafan prisoner says that it was a nice change from running from The Thousand and that Woundwort deserved at least that much credit.
Punch Clock Villain: Campion, Woundwort's second in command. He even shows some lenience with the protagonists, trying to reason with them rather than attack on sight.
Refuge in Audacity: In "The Trial of El-ahrairah," the rabbit hero discredits a witness by leading him on a journey so bizarre that no one believes him when he testifies against El-ahrairah.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: After a frightening night journey some of the rabbits credit Hazel with their safe arrival and enthusiastically declare him Chief Rabbit. Bigwig responds sarcastically that he'll call Hazel "Chief Rabbit" the day he stops fighting! Later on when Hazel is truly accepted as their Chief Rabbit, Bigwig is the only one who doesn't address him correctly (as "Hazel-Rah") until his "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner to the Efrafans ("My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run, and until he says otherwise I shall do so"). After his unexpected survival Bigwig suddenly starts using the correct title, as well as announcing that he's giving up fighting for good.
Shout Out: Adams' narration references Br'er Rabbit from the Uncle Remus tales and comments that the origin of those fables were the adventures of El-ahrairah, which eventually trickled into the story telling of humans.
Shown Their Work: Understated, but definitely present (in a good way) with the book's geography; essentially every location (down to individual trees and hedgerows) really exists and is accurately described as of the time of writing.
Spell My Name with a "The": It's noted that the leader of the Sandleford Warren is almost always referred to as the Thererah ("The Lord Rowan Tree"), either because he's just that awesome or simply because there happened to be only a single rowan tree near the warren.
The Storyteller: Dandelion is noted as a gifted storyteller, among the rabbits. Bluebell also tells one to keep some of the rabbits calm in a climactic scene.
Speedwell, too, tells a story in Tales From Watership Down. However, his...style is vastly different from Dandelion's.
Unspoken Plan Guarantee: We don't get to hear the details of Hazel's plan to release the dog until it's well underway. And a good thing too.
Also applies to El-ahrairah's plans.
White Bunny: Silver is the only white rabbit in the story, while the others are more commonly colored. He agreed to leave with Hazel's group largely because the other young bucks in the Owsla kept making fun of his fur.
Note that he is not the cute albino type of white rabbit that magicians pull out of hats, though. He's grey, rather than pure white; he's a rare, pale and desaturated, colour variant of the normal wild rabbit.
Worthy Opponent: Campion, Woundwort's Captain of Owsla in the original.
Bigwig wishes to convince Campion to defect along with the other Efrafa runaways, since he would rather not fight a rabbit he holds in such high regard. Even Hazel feels a grudging respect for Campion despite them only meeting once, hastily.
Film
Action Doe: Hyzenthlay plays a visible role in Holly's and Blackavar's escape attempts, and is one of the runners who lure the dog to the Down.
Adaptation Distillation: It's only 90 minutes, a tearjerker, and on many best-of-animation lists.
Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Many of the rabbits are colors like light blue and pale yellow, so the audience can tell them apart more easily, and so that they fit in with names like "Silver."
Arc Words / Book Ends: "All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you they will kill you... but first they must catch you."
Art Shift: The opening myth of El-Ahrairah was animated in the Aboriginesque style of the late John Hubley, the legendary founder of Limited Animation. The main film is ultra-detailed naturalistic animation... and then you have the rabbits' horrific visions and recollections, animated by Martin Rosen in a similarly abstract style, but with gradual transitions from the real.
Award Bait Song: "Bright Eyes" was a chart-topper performed by Art Garfunkel. The music, lyrics, and scene in which it is featured make it a Tear Jerker.
Compressed Adaptation: The animated movie had to streamline quite a bit of the story, otherwise it'd be hours long.
As well as including an otherwise-unavailable (at least at the time) commentary, the Australian DVD release, uniquely, provided a reversible cover, allowing one to choose between the child-friendly or dark versions.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Kehaar. Piss off!!! At several points, rabbits use words from their author-created language to curse: Embleer Frith and Silflay hraka would not have cut it in English, for example.
Good Colors, Evil Colors: Film only, and they have a fun way of subverting the Red Eyes, Take Warning subtrope. All the heroes have red eyes - they're rabbits after all. And we get so used to this over the course of the film that the minute we see the Efrafan rabbits' blue eyes, we sense something sinister about them.
Though to be fair, the eye colour is strictly limited to the rabbits' origins, and not their positions in the story. As seen by e.g. Blackavar and Hyzenthlay, who are blue-eyed Efrafans but the protagonist's allies. Alternately, Captain Holly and the late chief rabbit of Sandleford Warren, red-eyed, yet menacing antagonists (at least at first).
Little “No”: Fiver's reaction to being told about what happened to Hazel it so simply, quietly and calmly state "Hazel's not dead". He's right, of course, being a seer he could probably sense his brother was still alive
Oh Hraka: The looks on the Efrafans' faces when the dog comes charging onto the down with its first victim dangling bloodily from its jaws. The one that almost got away, especially.
Pragmatic Adaptation: Forgivable in the movie, less so in the subsequent TV series.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Fiver goes into a trance, claims to be dying, repeats "There's a dog loose in the wood" a few times... and that's the last we see of him in the film.
Adaptation Expansion: The series at its best did allow for some interesting stories that are true to the original book while reflecting modern attitudes. For example, there is the main plot of episode 2 where Hazel notes that it's unfair that Blackberry, the only doe, has to do all the burrow digging, the traditional task of her sex, and he and Fiver have to find a way to make the other bucks do their bit.
Art Shift: The characters were redesigned for season three. Some changes were barely noticeable, others were drastic. Bigwig, in particular, looks like he's been Locked into Strangeness... which would make sense since he did just get out of a fight with Woundwort, but nobody says anything about it.
Ascended Extra: Hannah, Hawkbit, Silverweed, and Campion. Though they dumped several other extras.
Beware the Nice Ones: In the final few episodes, Hazel fights against Efrafa and Darkhaven. In the final episode he even goes toe-to-toe with Woundwort.
Brother Chuck: Blackavar was a minor character for the first season, a rarely seen background character for the second season, and disappeared altogether for the third season. And Captain Holly just vanished 2 episodes after his first appearance, though he would sometimes reappear in much later episodes.
Bowdlerization: El-ahrairah was changed to "Elarah", though this one is justified by a bunch of kids probably not being able to pronounce "El-ahrairah."
Canon Foreigner: Captain Broom, all of the Darkhaven rabbits. Other characters, like Primrose and Captain Moss, are perhaps adapted versions of previously existing characters.
Cerebus Syndrome: After the show runs out of source material from the novel at the end of season 2, the tone of the show... changed a bit. It got much more violent and upped the drama quotient, as well as making some downright strange decisions such as giving some characters the ability to control each other's minds and introducing magic.
Disneyfication: The TV series changes aspects of the characters and story (gender flipping Blackberry and aging Pipkin down for younger audiences, for example). In effect, it radically changes or waters down the original story's drama and conflict.
I Owe You My Life: After being healed by Blackberry, Granite shows her and Campion a way out of Darkhaven (it doesn't work). However, he stays loyal to Woundwort, even when he gets saved by Campion en route to Watership Down.
Leitmotif: Woundwort's theme, which seems to be played everywhere it's even remotely applicable.
Lighter and Softer: Not only do all the major characters survive, it's also in little things like how Fiver is actually allowed to smile in a sustained manner.
Noisy Nature: Most of the predators growl or screech all the time while on screen. Woundwort also gets very unrabbity growling noises when he's annoyed.
Pet the Dog: Woundwort, especially apparent in his treatment of Pipkin.
Viewers Are Morons: Primrose and Hyzenthlay are essentially the same character, so one can't help but assume they changed her name to make it easier to pronounce/remember... As with some other Lapine terms and names.
Animal Jingoism: As seen through rabbit eyes, most of the rest of the animal kingdom is either stupid or evil or both. Slightly subverted in that dogs are presented as mindless, slobbery brutes, while cats - bitchy as they may be - are allowed to speak their mind intelligently.
Ascended To Carnivorism: In the creation story, all animal species start out as grass-eating herbivores, some of which get transformed into carnivores by Frith to keep rabbits' numbers in check.
Call Back: The new El-ahrairah story Vilthuril tells her kits at the end of the book (and Hyzenthlay at the end of the movie), indicating that the Watership warren's adventures have already passed into legend.
Chess with Death: El-ahrairah attempts to maneuver the Black Rabbit into accepting his life in exchange for those of the rabbits in his warren - once in a game of bob-stones (the lapine equivalent of liar's dice) and then in a storytelling competition. El-Ahrairah loses both times.
Creation Myth: Involves the sun-god Frith blessing each animal with its sapient characteristics; by the time he gets to El-ahrairah, the rabbit prince, fearing those who've been given the instinct to hunt his kind, has dived into a hole with only his bottom sticking out...so Frith blesses his bottom, giving him huge back feet to run away with, and a white cottontail to signal danger.
A Dog Named Dog: A hedgehog character named Yona shows up a few times; "yona" is Lapine for "hedgehog".
Dude, Where's My Respect?: The not-too-bright dog Rowsby Woof suffers this when he's tricked into 'saving' his master by causing such a ruckus he's scolded and tied up.
Enemy Mine: The point of "The Story of King Fur-Rocius."
Folk Hero: El-ahrairah aka (First) Rabbit and "Prince with a Thousand Enemies"
Food Chains: El-ahrairah knows that eating the Black Rabbit's food will make his secret thoughts transparent.
The Grim Reaper: The Black Rabbit of Inlé, evidently the lapine version of Hades.
Everybody Hates Hades: Though how worthy or not of the hatred (mostly thanks to him being the representation of death) depends on the context (he ain't evil in the movie, for instance).
Even in the book, it's made clear in the story that he's necessary, and bears no particular malice towards rabbits.
'But he is our protector, too. Anyone who has seen a gamekeeper's gibbet knows the vengeance the Black Rabbit can perform upon elil who think they can do what they will.'
"Hatred" is not really an accurate description of the rabbits' feelings towards him. They certainly don't like him, but it's more a matter of extreme fear than anything else — as one would expect with him being a personification of death. If you draw a line from the Discworld Death through the Good Omens Death and extrapolate it to the point where there is almost no humour remaining, you pretty much end up with the Black Rabbit — terrifying but not evil, and the rabbits react to him as such.
Guile Hero: El-ahrairah, and every other rabbit in his footsteps.
Heroic Sacrifice: How El-ahrairah tried to save his people in The Black Rabbit of Inlé. Failed, however. He ends up getting what he wants from the Black Rabbit simply for his persistence in remaining alive and thus disturbing the place of the dead beyond bearing.
Hrair-Gambit Pileup: El-ahrairah's schemes often work by playing his several enemies against one another. Noticeable especially in "Rowsby Woof and the Fairy Wogdog," "The Trial of El-ahrairah," and "The King's Lettuce."
Joker Jury: Composed entirely of elil - predators - in The Trial of El-ahrairah. Neatly subverted when El-ahrairah uses the predators' contempt for rabbits to convince them his accuser is crazy. Though this is to a certain extent a Batman Gambit by El-ahrairah, who knew in advance how important it was to discredit Hufsa, and set things up accordingly.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: "The Story of the Great Marsh"/"The Story of the Terrible Hay-Making" in Tales. El-ahrairah leads a warren across the marsh to keep them from being wiped out... and once they get to the other side, the rabbits make such a nuisance of themselves to humans that they get wiped out.
Shrouded in Myth: Half the rabbit folktales are half-remembered legends of forgotten rabbit chiefs, now associated with El-ahrairah.
Stranger in a Familiar Land: El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle, finally returning from their adventures after meeting the Black Rabbit of Inle, find that most of their generation is dead and the young rabbits who make up the warren have little respect for them.
To Hell and Back: El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle. Echoed a bit in the Tales story of "The Sense of Smell."
Too Dumb to Live: In keeping with the lapine theme of using your wits to evade your enemies, many of the El-ahrairah myths that appear in the sequel are cautionary tales involving rabbits/warrens like this. The warren in The Terrible Hay-Making is an excellent example. Those rabbits were also assholes anyway.
Tuckerization: "Rowsby Woof" was also the name of a real-life composer and instructor at the Royal Academy of Music.
You Don't Want to Catch This: A standard tactic of El-ahrairah in these stories, when trying to avoid a more powerful enemy.
Funnily enough, when El-ahrairah attempted to actually catch a fatal disease himself (The White Blindness, also known as Myxomatosis, a real-life disease that kills rabbits), he failed to do so.
As an aside, only Dinotopia has gotten even close to using as many Animal Tropes as this novel.
doesn't help, but what gets us here at TV Tropes is that you'd think more people would have heard of the book. Parents of bunny-obsessed children, please do not subject your four-year-olds to such Nightmare Fuel as Bigwig's brush with death and his battle with General Woundwort, General Woundwort himself, the awfully long scene (scored to Bright Eyes) where Hazel is almost certainly dead and Fiver is lost without him, Blackavar's story, or Holly recounting how he barely escaped the destruction of Sandleford Warren. On the off chance you need further convincing, please note that the latter sequence, faithful to the novel, is a semi-hallucinatory depiction of cute bunnies clawing out the throats of other cute bunnies as they all slowly suffocate. Oh, this movie is really bloody too. Not For Little Kids.There is also a far more obscure television series. In the first two seasons, it primarily changes aspects of the characters and story to make it appeal better to families e.g. making Blackberry female to add more diversity to the predominantly male castspoiler. Despite this, has some redeeming qualities, but that changes at the start of season three, perhaps in an attempt to make it Darker and Edgier. Some people enjoy even that, though.
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