# Watership Down **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2001, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736 "2001-08-23T16:10:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736/21 "2001-08-24T04:35:52Z")
Oh, people forgot to mention _Traveller_, which is the story of the Civil War seen through the eyes of General Lee’s horse and _The Outlandish Knight_, a multi-generational tale set in the time of Anne Bolyan (or however its spelled). Enjoyed the first, never finished the second. _Girl in the Swing_ was also made into one of the most God awful, wretched movies I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing. I watched it because it was based off of the Richard Adams novel, but man did it suck rocks. There’s also an animated version of _The Plague Dogs_ which was wonderfully done, lushly animated and stayed very true to the novel (truer than the animated version of WD did, anyway). Sadly, it’s out of print and Charter Entertainment Ltd failed to renew their license on it so it will never been re-released. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736/22 "2001-08-28T02:38:15Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by yabob \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jinx \* > …and I though “Girl in a Swing” WAS boring. \*\* First, you gotta date someone as odd as the female character in “Girl In A Swing”…to really appreciate it! Although, I don’t think Richard Adams knew there IS such a personality-type. - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736/23 "2001-08-28T02:43:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jophiel \* > **Oh, people forgot to mention _Traveller_, which is the story of the Civil War seen through the eyes of General Lee’s horse and _The Outlandish Knight_, a multi-generational tale set in the time of Anne Bolyan…** Oh, yeah! How could I forget? “Traveller” is awesome - and appealing to a wide adult audience. If “Watership Down” didn’t introduce the unwashed masses to Richard Adams unique style, “Traveller” will win them all over! With a Civil War theme, the Civil War buffs will enjoy this one! - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736/24 "2001-08-28T02:45:56Z")
Of course, I know of some English teachers who’d take a religious look at Watership Down with Fiver as sort of a Christ figure, right? (Although, I think it was BigWig who dies, right?) Eh, that doesn’t spoil the ending…you gotta read it all! Eh, what’s up, doc? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736/25 "2001-08-28T03:21:48Z")
Like Fiver, I feel somewhat obligated to post to this thread. I did a paper on Watership Down in High School. To the best of my recollection, no one was claiming it was based on any other particular story. As others have already pointed out, it simply looked at a very familiar world in a new way…which is what I think is the real strength of the book. The movie version is a little different from the book, but really not bad, you should give it a chance if you haven’t already seen it. No, Bigwig doesn’t die. And according to all the sources I have seen, rabbits (or the European Wild Rabbit, which is what we are talking about here) originated in Spain, not the Middle East. Interestingly, their colonization of Britain came after they were (semi?)domesticated on the European mainland, so all the rabbits in Britain, including the ones in W.D., would be descended from escapees from captivity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watership-down/77736.md?page=1)