Anybody remember 'Watership Down'?

[trof]

Weird animated movie about rabbits on TCM now.

[Ptah]

1. I read that book to my children in the mid-eighties.

I didn't know there is a movie.

[frogmarch]

2. I read the book, but

I didn't see the movie.

I loved the book, and so did all three of my kids, who were in 4th, 6th, and 9th grades at the time.

[sarge43]

3. Have the DVD

One of my favorites.

[Laffy Kat]

4. Loved the book and movie.

I read the book to my boys, too. My oldest has re-read it so many times my only copy is dog-eared. We still use some of the rabbit parlance in our conversations.

[PufPuf23]

5. I never saw the movie but really liked the book.

Rabbits.

[IrishEyes]

6. I watched it when I was six.

My mom rented it and then went in the other room to do some work. She didn't know anything about it. She just thought it was a cartoon like any other. I remember crying a lot while watching that awful film. It made me really sad.

[oldandhappy]

7. book was great

I used it in a class at a small college. Some kids got it, some did not.

[applegrove]

8. Loved the book in grade 7. Never saw the movie.

[sakabatou]

9. I barely remember it

[uriel1972]

10. Bright eyes, Burning like fire....

Rabbits killing rabbits, good clean fun...

[IcyPeas]

11. wonderful book (that almost never got published). 11 Facts About Watership Down:

3. WATERSHIP DOWN BEGAN AS A WAY FOR ADAMS TO ENTERTAIN HIS DAUGHTERS …

Adams told BBC in 2007 that the story started on a long car ride: He and his two daughters were going to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Judi Dench in a production of Twelfth Night. His elder daughter demanded a story to pass the time. "This called for spontaneity, it had to, and I just began off the top of my head: 'Once upon a time there were two rabbits, called eh, let me see, Hazel and Fiver, and I'm going to tell you about some of their adventures,'” he explained. “What followed was really the essence of Watership Down.” The story continued over the next few months during the morning school run; Adams told The Telegraph in 2014 that he’d go to bed forming the narrative in his mind, ready to tell the girls the next morning. In a way, the continually-forming story was Adams’ attempt to be a constant, steady presence in his daughters’ lives: “I’ve got a thing about that. Parents ought to spend a lot of time in their children’s company. A lot of them don’t, you know.”

The girls demanded that he write down the ensuing story, although it took 18 months for him to actually put pen to paper.

6. THE RABBITS WERE MODELED AFTER WWII OFFICERS ...

Lieutenant Richard Adams commanded C Platoon in 250 Company’s Seaborn Echelon, and, as he wrote in his autobiography, he based Watership Down and the stories in it around the men of the 250 Airborne Light Company RASC—specifically, on their role in the battle of Arnhem. The battle, fought over nine days in September 1944 in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Driel, and Wolfheze, resulted in devastating losses for the Allied forces, including in Adams’ company. Adams says that two characters were directly drawn from life. Hazel was inspired by Adams’ commanding officer, Major John Gifford, a man he described as “brave in the most self-effacing way” and an “excellent organizer” who rarely raised his voice, adding, “Everything about him was quiet, crisp and unassuming.” Gifford survived the war; Captain Desmond “Paddy” Kavanagh, on whom warrior Bigwig was modeled, did not. Daring, debonair Kavanagh was, Adams wrote, “afraid of nothing,” a “sensationalist,” and “by nature entirely the public’s image of a parachute officer.” He was killed in action outside Oosterbeek while providing covering fire for his platoon, at just 25 years old.

As for Adams, he said in 2014 that he identifies more with Fiver: “Rather timid and not much of a fighter … but able to contribute something in the way of intuitive knowledge.”

the rest here:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/63054/11-fascinating-facts-about-watership-down