Watership Down<\/a> is, famously, one of the most emotionally scarring films for younger viewers ever made and, according to a number of Telegraph readers, one of the very best, too. Yet, Martin Rosen\u2019s harrowing 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams\u2019s tale did not appear on my recent list of the 50 greatest animated features ever made<\/a> \u2013 an omission which some readers found baffling or scandalous.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is Watership Down?\u201d wondered Angela Hartland. \u201cTo not have Coco(!), Watership Down or Ratatouille is unforgivable,\u201d wrote Joseph Squire. \u201cWhere\u2019s The Plague Dogs? Watership Down? Animal Farm? Sheesh\u2026\u201d asked Stephen Scott. \u201cW A T E R S H I P D O W N\u201d boomed M Moolenaar, in the voice of Sylvester Stallone yelling at Adrian at the end of Rocky II (or at least that\u2019s how I read it).<\/p>\n Nostalgic affection was not enough to convince me that Watership Down deserved a place in the pantheon of greatest animations – PA<\/p>\n Truth be told, W A T E R S H\u2026sorry, Watership Down<\/a>, was one of the last films I whittled out of my final selection, along with the gorgeously knobbly 1983 Cosgrove-Hall adaptation of Kenneth Grahame\u2019s The Wind in the Willows and 1986\u2019s When the Wind Blows, from Raymond Briggs\u2019s beloved post-apocalyptic graphic novel. The rationale behind dropping all three was the same: while I had not revisited any in their entirety since childhood, the parts I did rewatch didn\u2019t persuade me that my nostalgic affection for (and, in two cases, terror of) them then was quite sufficient to secure them a place. (I had The Jungle Book at 27, as opposed to any higher, for the same reason. Great memories; also heavily rose-tinted.)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, with The Wrong Trousers, Song of the Sea, Chicken Run, Fantastic Mr Fox and Yellow Submarine all in the top 50, British and Irish animations already made up ten percent of the list: next to the two giants of world animation, America and Japan, we were already punching above our comparatively slight weight.<\/p>\n Then again, two other films whose absence was also lamented by readers I did end up cutting after rewatching in full. One was the Halas and Batchelor Animal Farm<\/a> (1954), which felt less imposing now than it had when screened from a VHS on my school English department\u2019s audiovisual trolley in 1993. The other was Up, the opening act of which I agree is up there with Pixar\u2019s very finest work \u2013 though the remainder, being merely very decent, is (for me) not quite strong enough to earn the film a place in my pantheon.<\/p>\n Upon re-watching, Halas and Batchelor\u2019s Animal Farm left a less imposing impression than I remembered 32 years ago – BBC\/The Halas & Batchelor Collection<\/p>\n Whither Fritz the Cat? My omission of Ralph Bakshi\u2019s landmark 1972 counter-culture toon \u2013 the first animation to receive an X rating in the US, and still certified 18 by the BBFC today \u2013 was also the cause of a surprising degree of dismay. Surprising to me, anyway, as Bakshi\u2019s lewd and crude style has fallen out of fashion somewhat in the past 15 years; I\u2019m delighted to see it is still cherished.<\/p>\n But the trouble with ranking Bakshi, and other mature-skewing animation auteurs such as Belleville Rendezvous director Sylvain Chomet, Bill Plympton and the Brothers Quay, is that their oeuvres are considerably more than the sum of their sometimes imperfect parts. It\u2019s hard to argue that a single Bakshi film is more impressive than Moana (for instance) even while recognising the singularity of his voice and vision \u2013 but I dare say both Fritz and the triplets of Belleville would have been welcomed into my top 75.<\/p>\n As for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I ruled it out on the grounds that it is a live-action hybrid; including it would have theoretically opened the door to other modern-day chimeras such as Avatar. Flesh and blood and pen and ink (and mouse and pixel) aren\u2019t as separate as they used to be. Had it qualified, though, Roger Rabbit would certainly have made my top 10.<\/p>\n I disqualified Who Framed Roger Rabbit as it is a live-action hybrid \u2013 otherwise it would have made the top 10 – Allstar\/Cinetext\/Warner Bros<\/p>\n Despite, or rather because of, our differences of opinion, this sort of feedback is a critic\u2019s dream: I crave readers who share my passion for film, and have as many pet causes to champion as I do. (To the bold handful who would have had me choose even more Studio Ghibli<\/a> titles, I salute you.)<\/p>\n What I found a little more perplexing were the cries of horror over my omission of one of the Minions films, or the original Shrek. Yes, those were commercial behemoths which altered the course of their medium considerably more than, say, The Wrong Trousers ever did. But popularity and influence don\u2019t always equate with greatness, and if enormous audiences love those blockbusters \u2013 and they do, quite reasonably so \u2013 that feels like a right and adequate sort of recognition. There\u2019s not much more a critic can add.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
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