Your introduction to WD

[Azerane]

I'm just wondering what the circumstances were that lead people to either see or read WD the first time.

For me, I believe I was around 10 years old and was helping babysit some younger kids with my older sister, and we thought that an animated movie about rabbits seemed like a good idea to put on while we were there. We were wrong, lol.

I remember liking the movie though, and I believe the following Easter I borrowed it from the video store again and watched it and absolutely fell in love with it. I believe it was a couple of years later before I read the book and absolutely adored that too with all the extra folklore and character development etc.

[Blackavar]

I actually came across the book first of all. I was on Amazon looking for books about rabbits purely for educational purposes when I stumbled upon WD (it was a suggested reading). After reading the blurb online I decided to buy it, and read it cover to cover within a week. I feel in love with the story, and knew my girlfriend at the time would as well, so I bought a second copy of the book as a gift for the year of the Rabbit (2011).

However, it was a huge surprise for her because I proposed to her inside the front cover1

shortly after this we bought the movie, and then the TV series and have loved both very much. And now I am here.

My Fiancé would say I am probably a little obsessed with rabbits... but every time she says that I just stamp my feet and hop away! lol

[Azerane]

I would have liked to have read the book before I saw the movie, but having said that, maybe I wouldn't have liked the movie if that were the case. It doesn't really matter since I love both anyway. I think it's really sweet that you proposed to your fiancee inside the cover of the book, very creative.

Apr 4, 2012 13:54:21 GMT 9.5 Blackavar said:

My Fiancé would say I am probably a little obsessed with rabbits... but every time she says that I just stamp my feet and hop away! lol

lol! My fiance knows that I'm obsessed with birds, and in fact, one of my friends has started calling me avian girl. Haha. Thankfully, my fiance is happy to let me indulge myself in my birding adventures.

[clan]

Hah, I remember it well actually. I was off school for days, sick as a dog, aged about 11 and the Television was giving me a headache.

My Mother gave me her battered copy and I couldn't put it down. I watched the film on VHS as soon as possible after that. Then when I was in my teens I was hooked on the whole franchise.

[Azerane]

Ahh yes, nothing like an illness to get in some good reading time Daytime tv quickly gets old.

As people who read the book first, what is your opinion of how well the characters were transferred across to the film?

[Hlaoinle]

I was always kind of a geek reader, always had my nose in a book. My English teacher noticed this in middle school and suggested that I read Watership Down, and even lent it to me. It was in her little tier of books in the corner of her office. I also remember after I was finished, she lent me Tales From Watership Down. After this, I told the story to some kids I was babysitting and remember drawing them pictures of Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig. I have read it several times since.

As for the movie, I'm not sure I connected the two for a long time. I remember seeing it when I was pretty young, I remembered it was very dark. I saw it in the video store all the time, I sought it out because of the cover picture, but remembered the uneasy feeling that watching it had given me rather than the story. When I was older and read the novel, I connected them when I went back in the video store. I watched it again and thought it was ok, but nothing like the book I had come to love.