I loved the first episode, though I credit part of that to the memorable scenes early in the book so you get a little of everything. It felt well-paced. Special mention to the El-ahrairah tale as a puppet play, that was amazing for its style, especially seeing "all the world will be your enemy" represented as a cycling set of predator faces with a whirlwind of claws spinning around.
It took about 10 minutes before I got used to the visuals and animation, the closeup rabbit faces helped and I started enjoying it more when I could detect facial expressions. There were still a couple instances of dead-looking eyes, but overall it was pretty good. The voices sound similar enough to those from the movie which helped me accept the characters and to know who's who, because I can't tell apart the rabbits to save my life. Hawkbit and Bluebell look the same to me, I can't tell apart Hazel and Fiver unless they're in the same scene, and 90% of the time I can't identify Blackberry even when I'm looking at him. I quickly warmed up to Bluebell with his snarky replies and his attempts to kiss Blackberry. Bigwig seems to be good in every adaptation since his rough personality's so entertaining, I'm glad he looks more alive than he did in screenshots. I really appreciate the brief moments we see Hazel express emotion, like lamenting he's not a leader, or getting angry at Fiver and shoving him to the ground (shocked me a little to see that use of force). The two characters I liked most were Cowslip and Strawberry, Cowslip for his hilariously bizarre introduction dancing around and the cute way he rests his paws while standing up, and Strawberry for her rapid-fire excited chatter.
Both of Fiver's visions were great. The first one was quiet but unsettling, seeing the dying and panicking rabbits frozen in time as the camera slowly panned around them, then being assaulted by loud sounds of machinery. The second one had flashes where the tree roots in Cowslip's Warren looked like bones, like spinal columns, that creeped me out a little since I don't recall the other adaptations showing that so literally. Maybe this miniseries is less traumatizing, but these visions seemed scarier to me than earlier versions.
My favorite scene was the snare scene, which I felt was better than the other versions. Bigwig's pained gasps for air were hard to listen to, and I was shocked to see the blood on Fiver's mouth as he was chewing through the peg (that must HURT). When it showed Hazel's quivering lips as he thought Bigwig was dead, that's what got me to cry.
There were a few things I didn't care for. It doesn't bother explaining any of the Lapine words that are sprinkled in. Maybe some can be deduced from context, but there's not much of that to go on, and they alternate between the Lapine and English words anyway. I think the Lapine names are used like affectionate nicknames (it's at least cute to hear "Thlayli" and "Hrairoo"), but I didn't get the impression they were used for that purpose so they have no significance to me. We didn't hear all of Bluebell's story about El-ahrairah in Cowslip's Warren, so there's parts of their culture we're missing out on, and I never got the sense Bluebell was their respected storyteller (or a good one at all -- the first time he brought it up I thought he was bragging). I don't see why the word "corva" had to be invented to describe crows, and it really seems off that there's no blood in that crow fight scene. This show has no problem showing blood or death. I can understand not showing a death on-screen, and not showing rampant blood like the movie, but at least acknowledge the crows died from bites/scratches and not from being slapped senseless.
Topic: 1: The Journey (Read 2224 times)