Watership Down as Eco-Epic Animation

Abstract Richard Adams’s best-selling novel from 1972, Watership Down, the tale of a group of rabbits’ quest to find a new home, was brought vividly to life as an animated film in 1978. Adams was influenced by classical sources: he quotes Aeschylus’s Agamemnon and references Odysseus, while describing his novel as an “epic.” He also highlights the heedless damage humans cause the environment, as witnessed by the rabbits. This chapter argues that environmental concerns and allusions to the ancient past are blended in the animated film, which should be seen as an early example of eco-epic animation. Comparison is made between the rabbit leader Hazel and Odysseus, and key scenes in the film, particularly stylized dream-like sequences, highlight both its epic nature and the devastating destruction caused by humans. Finally, the film is compared to two more recent eco-epic animations, Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke.