Discussion of the Advantages

of Animation as a form of

Visual Narrative compared to

Live Action Films, with

Reference to Watership

Down

Mark Kilkelly

2009

Introduction

From the time Winsor McCay first turned the hand drawn line from a simple

camera trick into an art form at the time when film was first created, animation had since

became a favoured form of entertainment by many filmmakers and film-goers worldwide.

The illusion of stylised realism and narrative that could be achieved through such a

persistence of vision is what popularised the art of animation into the sophisticated

industry that it is today, and more importantly this industry‟s foundation on and

association on some of the greatest draughtsmen known is the reason why it continues to

maintain its popularity throughout the generations. However, being an artistic and an

often time-consuming process it may leave one to wonder why a filmmaker would rather

use the hand-drawn line over the film‟s sister medium of live action. So why exactly

would a film maker opt for characters acted out by a pencil line rather than having real

people do it themselves?

Some would assume it is because of the way that it provides an escape medium

for ones own mind to forget about reality and allow their imaginations to go wild. Being

made by a team of artists and draughtsmen, the backgrounds and characters created and

designed from the imagination can indeed entertain in ways that live action may not be

able to by using methods such as squash and stretch movements, exaggerated posing,

silly expressions and even fantastical colours. Backgrounds and environments can even

be created without building any props or sets, but more importantly animation can invoke

thoughts and feelings through worlds that may not be accessed without a pencil. This is

especially true in Disney films which have always been aimed at children as well as

adults and because of the popularity of Disney films dominating the industry animation is

often seen by many as a means of helping their children go to sleep and grow up seeing

the world as a beautiful place where everybody that‟s good and innocent will be rewarded

in the end. However, this only educates a child through a myth which would probably

have a child growing up with a naive outlook on the world.

Supposing somebody was to mention the word „countryside‟ and suddenly you

can think of all the positive things about it such as cattle grazing, birds singing, clear

streams and even trees growing with plenty of leaves. This idealised version of the

countryside would be rather different from reality as when you actually go out into the

country side then chances are you could see magpies attacking lambs, rivers with garbage

dumped into it with algae growing and even trees withering and dying from the chemicals

that farmers would use. This would deconstruct the myth of the countryside that a child

would be raised to believe in. However, philosophically speaking everybody is

influenced not only by their environment but also by what they grow up seeing in reality

so it would be true in saying that a child wouldn‟t be done any favours in being shown

films that had a rather grim outlook on the world. Still, that doesn‟t mean that they

should only be reared being taught about only the one face of the real world. It seemed

that with mainstream animation focusing on repeating idealised myths about the world

even into the industry‟s troubles in the 1960s and 70s that everybody would forever be

brought up learning about nature‟s glorious side and never seeing its troubled side, such

as the problems and hardships that people and animals go through in life while growing

up.

Thank God, then, that we have Martin Rosen‟s animated adaption of Watership

Down.

Watership Down

Director: Martin Rosen

Year: 1978

Country: United Kingdom

Watership Down is an English animated adaption of Richard Adams‟

novelisation of the same name. It tells the story of a band of rabbits who leave their

warren after one member has predicted an omen which was about to destroy their home.

A small group of them go on a quest into the English countryside in order to set up a new

home. However, they face challenges from the world around them be it enemy rabbits,

natural predators, humans or even from nature itself.

When Rosen met Richard Adams he expressed his desire to make a film based on

his book. However, at first Rosen didn‟t know how to approach it. He considered using

live action rabbits for a while before thinking about using puppets. Ultimately it was

suggested to him to use classical hand drawn animation. So why did he decide to use this

medium in the end? What advantages are shown that may not have been achieved

through a live action film at a time when computer animation and CGI effects were

virtually unheard of?

It allowed him to universalise the story and keep to its dark tone:

Although Martin Rosen took the liberty of altering some features in the plot to

help it flow better he stuck very closely to the novel‟s dark and somewhat disturbing

subject matter. I found that he handled it quiet well and told a story in the perspective of

rabbits that focuses on a darker and perhaps accurate experience of a group of rabbits

who in reality would have to survive in the world where everything seems to be an

enemy.

This film therefore deconstructs the countryside myth that was explained earlier.

Often we view rabbits as being peaceful and gentle when in reality they can be quiet

aggressive towards intruders and protective of their home so rather than allowing you to

pet them they most likely would bite or scratch you instead. And although fellow rabbits

in a warren would play with one another at times they will instantly become aggressive

towards intruding rabbits and fight them off. This shows the other side of nature that so

many other animated films before this haven‟t dared go as underneath the cute

appearance of rabbits there lies an ugly face to the outside world.

However, the greatest danger they can face is the world outside of their warren

where foxes, badgers, hawks, cats and other wild animals would come to kill them upon

the first chance they get. The worst predator to the rabbits that may have been suggested

to the audience may be humans. Fiver stated about us “They will never rest until they

have spoiled the earth”, but regardless of this statement we would find it very hard to

disagree with him.

The perspective shots used in the film are mostly at eye level with rabbits to help

us identify with them but it was the flash back image to the warren being destroyed by

diggers and machinery that invokes the thought of how we use technology and harmful

chemicals to help ruin nature and kill innocent animals that haven‟t done us harm. This

really makes the audience feel like a part of the story as they are represented as enemies

to them so our minds would have to respond to what the director is saying whether its

guilt or anger.

It allowed him to humanise the characters personally as well as visually:

In terms of giving the characters human characteristics I tried to imagine what

aspects may have made it unique to animation. In live action film this may not be

impossible as you could easily have animals standing still with their mouths moving and

having human voices dubbed over, but what is unique about Watership Down is how the

characters were slightly anthropomorphised for expression and individualism. Martin

Rosen had stated that it was his desire to make each one of the rabbits sound and look as

distinctive as possible. Although you‟d rarely see the white of the eyes of the rabbits

Rosen played with this on Fiver to suit his very nervous, innocent and yet paranoid

personality. This helps the viewer‟s eye identify him as the youngest out of the rest of

the warren who appear to be more mature in appearance. Another advantage of hand

drawn animation here is that the animators were able to lip-sync with the recorded

dialogue to make the speaking rabbits look more convincing. This was the time where

computer animation was almost completely unheard of so using live-action with CGI to

achieve this type of effect was out of the question.

Rosen was also able to give some of the other characters distinctive features such

as scars like General Woundsworth‟s left eye and Bigwig‟s hair. The enemy warren that

the group conflicts with even have blue eyelids to separate the two parties. If it were live

action then that would mean that each rabbit would have to go through painstaking make-

up each morning everyday but another advantage of animation here is that it allowed the

animators to keep continuity of features overtime as in make-up features might change

from scene to scene.

What‟s also human about the characters in this film is their sophisticated way of

thinking. They often speak and act like gentlemen and even have a sense of art, culture

and religion just like us. Also just like us it showed how rabbits will fight one another

whether it‟s for control or survival. This might even make the audience think that even

though humans have done their share of damage, rabbits are indeed unlike us in this

sense.

It allowed him to make the characters do what he wanted:

Being based on a novel about rabbits being troubled by their environments and

even facing conflict from predators and enemy rabbits Rosen would have had some

trouble training a group of live rabbits to do everything he wanted perfectly. He also

would have had trouble with the scenes where they battle one another when it comes to

legal issues and animal activist groups! That‟s where the hand drawn line really carries

this film through production. Instead of having trainers going through the bother of

getting rabbits to do everything flawlessly (which would have been almost impossible for

some scenes) it only made sense to have a group of artists move the anthropomorphised

animals across a background without real rabbits being harmed.

It also would have been difficult for trainers to make sure that the predator

creatures wouldn‟t actually harm or kill the rabbits but it‟s easy for the animators to

control posing and even timing to make sure they attack when Rosen wanted them to.

When the rabbits did fight each other the scenes were very graphic and gory so forcing

rabbits to fight one another not only would have been immoral but it‟s also illegal. It is

perfectly legal to make a group of cartoon rabbits fight each other, however.

It allowed flexibility in visual style:

The film opened up with a visual style that resembled to the more abstract art and

culture of the aboriginal people of Australia. Their tales often told about their ideas about

how the world began, and with the opening introducing the back story to the rabbit‟s

religion and beliefs which seem to also resemble the tales told by such tribes, thus this

style suits the opening perfectly.

It explained how the god-like entity known as Frith created the world and made

all the animals similar to one another, but after being annoyed at the arrogance of El-

Aharairah (prince of rabbits) he made the predators and enemies to the rabbits so El-

Aharairah would know that he is not above anything. However, Frith also blessed him so

his people could survive in the world and so the moral of the plotline was established;

“All the world will be your enemy, prince with a thousand enemies. And when

they catch you they will kill you. But first they must catch you digger, listener, runner.

Be cunning and full of tricks and your people will never be destroyed”.

The visual narrative then switched a more realistic looking style but even though

the timeline was changed the storyline‟s meaning of survival was carried into this

transition of worlds. One thing that was carried from the crudely animated opening into

the realistic present world was a use of abstract shapes in the backgrounds and

foregrounds, particularly in the dreamlike scenes which occur occasionally throughout

the film. The main examples would include Fiver‟s premonition of the warren being

destroyed when he sees the field covered in blood and the trees transforming into sinister

haunting shapes. The other when Fiver searches for Hazel after he has been shot and his

visions of the Black Rabbit lead him through another dreamlike sequence to where he is

hiding. In the end when Hazel died and went to live with the Black Rabbit in the next

world it slowly transited into the visual style of the opening bringing the viewer to full

circle.

I found that the way the alternating styles were used worked well in the film as

each style had its own thing going for itself and was almost self-explanatory. If the

animated opening were to be transited into live-action it wouldn‟t have that same effect

or believability. Since the abstract style of the opening sequence was used to suggest the

beginning of the world in an idealised folklore manner it wouldn‟t make sense to have it

change into reality with live action rabbits but more importantly it would result in two

completely different worlds colliding with one another. As for the silhouette objects that

can be seen in the foreground and background in some scenes, particularly the spooky

ones, it still wouldn‟t be as effective if it were used in live action because these kind of

shapes shown in the film would be difficult to find outside, and even if they were to set

up props and try and make them into silhouettes in live action it would be difficult to

make it look convincing to the audience and as I‟ve said before it would result in two

different worlds colliding with one another.

Conclusion

As I‟ve said before animation was often used as a means to teach children about

idealised concepts on life and the world around us so it is always interesting to see an

independent film maker break away from a particular trend. Before Watership Down

there was Ralph Bakshi‟s Fritz the Cat (1973) which not only became the first X rated

animated film in history but also became the highest grossing independent film of all

time. The reason for this was that Ralph Bakshi had gotten sick of what he described as

„Disney‟s bullshit‟ where you need the Nine Old Men and the highest quality animation

possible to make a good animated film, and so he searched for what animation had never

done. Even though the subject matter of a lot of his films were just as questionable as

they were controversial he still explored new territories that so few people had dared to

go, or even think of.

I don‟t know if Martin Rosen was following Bakshi‟s example but it certainly

seems to be relevant to the fact that during a time when Disney had gone into financial

trouble and less animation was being made, a handful of directors were willing to take the

opportunity to explore new grounds in animation. Being as disturbing and sometimes

even frightening as it is, Watership Down is still a masterpiece in animation history

because of the fact that it‟s not designed to put a child to sleep with fantasies but rather to

use fantasies to wake them up and keep them awake thinking about how different rabbits

are compared to how their parents will teach them.

The main reason why so much animation is aimed at children is because they are

the most easily influenced people in the world. Everybody is born with an empty head so

what they grow up seeing is what they will grow up believing. Films about optimism and

positive outcomes such as Bambi or something can help bring them up a healthy mind

but seeing nothing but such films at a young age can only mean that they will think that

the whole world is pretty with nothing to be scared of. Seeing films with a more grim

and sinister narrative running through it would quickly be denounced as being

„inappropriate‟ for the young mind but why shouldn‟t they be brought up knowing that

everybody has their unfair share of hardship and misery before they could feel safe and

secure? Animation has long been proven to be a powerful tool in getting into the minds

of children, much more easily then a live action picture could, so if a child could be

brought up seeing both sides of the world through animation then how more truly

objective, wise and less naive they would become as they get older.

Bibliography & Filmography

Books:

Jerry Beck - (2005) - The Animated Movie Guide - Chicago Review Press,

Chicago, USA

Bruno Edera - 1977 - Full Length Animated Feature Films - Focal Press, London,

United Kingdom.

Internet sites:

“The History of Animation: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Studio System

in the Production of an Art Form” - (1999) – Digital Media FX - Available: URL

(http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/animationhistory.html)

VHS/DVD:

Watership Down – 1978 – Martin Rosen – Watership Productions – UK