Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21186 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-17
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 14

Customer Reviews

The entire series in one box!
We Watership Down (TV Series) fans have been praying to Frith above for the whole series to be released, however what was to come was a major shock to us all!
All 39 episodes (all 3 series) on 14 DVD's, who could have believed that it would be released as a box set.
Despite a continuity error with Episode 25 (Bigwig's Way) and it being given a different name, the rest of the series is here in the proper order.
This box set is a first since it has all 13 episodes from series 3 which has never been seen in the UK, untill now, however the animation style is different between Series 1 and 2 and Series 3, also after the first 26 episodes many of the voice actors left, meaning there is major cast changes for series 3, however some of the voice actors (Stephan Mangan, Andrew Falvey, Rob Rackstraw, David Holt, Lee Ross, Sue Elliot Nicholls and Richard Briers) remained.
The series also gets darker by series 3 but has a terrific ending (which I'll keep to myself).
Plus there is the beautiful music by British songwriter and composer Mike Batt (who did the music for The Wombles and ITV's sucsessfull animated series The Dream Stone) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is superb, with the theme 'Bright Eyes' sung by Stephen Gately from Boyzone whom also plays 'Blackavar' for 3 episodes.
Despite the story being slightily different from Richard Adam's orginial novel (with the story being totally different towards the end of the series), this is a great British animated show. Worth every penny in my opinion.

BRILLIANT
The main reason why I really like the box set of Watership Down is simply because it contains all 3 seasons. I never got to see season 3. My favourite episode is episode 26, 'The Homecoming', one of the rare episodes with proper fighting in it. The only problem is episode 25 should have been called 'Bigwig's Way' but in the Box Set it is called 'Dandelion's Big Story' - simply because this was going to be the original episode tale but it was changed - and it is in the wrong place. But that can easily be ignored as the story is still the same.
A must-buy product, containing the entire Watership Down TV Series. I enjoyed it.

5 stars...BUT...
I think little needs to be said about this series and its story. To sum it up in a few words: it's enchanting; nostalgic, with some parts of it truer to the book than the film was; clever; perfectly presented, with good voice actors; and touching, especially when Campion is introduced into the plot. The characters are all unique and, by the third series, have complex personalities and emotions, some of which can only be fully understood by an adult audience; while this series is primarily aimed at kids, the characters bring enough depth to the plot to draw in an older audience too. The story takes an entirely new turn, different to anything mentioned in the book, in the third series, but is just as clever.

While the show does have many more strengths, I feel the other reviews on this site capture them well (so read those to find out more about why you SHOULD buy this seires). I would like to identify what were, in my opinion, flaws: the changes in the third series. Had I known about these before buying the box-set, I may have been able to enjoy them a little more. So, to all potential buyers, here are the major differences to ponder over.

The story's nice, and the characters are much the same (personality wise) but the animation truly changed. Pipkin, Blackberry, Primrose, and Fiver, four of the main characters, appear to be from an older, rougher version of the show; think The Simpsons in the 1980s compared to The Simpsons now. Dandilion also lacks his black markings, making it harder to distinguish him from the minor characters, and Blackavar has either been changed to resemble Captain Broom or has been thrown out of the plot altogether, I couldn't quite figure that one out. The colours of Bigwig have also been - almost - entirely inverted, and the rabbits from Cowslip's warren have changed colour. Hannah's voice is sadly very different too. I didn't like the new voice which distracted me; every time she came on screen I was waiting for her to leave again. =/ Woundwort has also changed colour but now simply looks more rough around the edges, as he is meant to be. Sadly, the change in the animation made the show a little less enchanting, but no less worthwhile.