God bless eBay! You can find things you never even knew existed! The Watership Down Film Picture Book is my new favorite eBay find. The book is exactly as the title implies: incredibly beautiful stills from the 1978 animated movie "with blocking text by Richard Adams" (author of the heroic fantasy novel of the same name.)

Richard Adams sums up differences between film and novel in the preface:

"A film is not a book. They are two distinct forms of art; and people who, when asked whether they have read a particular book, reply 'No, but I saw the film,' might really just as sensibly answer, 'No, but I had breakfast this morning.'"
Truer words were never spoken. As a HUGE Watership Down fan, I have read the book and seen the movie multiple times. Both art forms are wonderful and engrossing. The Watership Down Film Picture Book is not so much a mixture of the two, but really a book with substance enough to stand alone.

Although Richard Adams' words appear in The Watership Down Film Picture Book, they cannot even come close to the enchanting descriptions in his original novel. Watership Down is an epic novel, with a captivating portrayal of a group of rabbits' search for a safe new home. It would have been impossible to put the entire novel into the movie, or into The Watership Down Film Picture Book for that matter. Keeping that in mind, I of course loved this book! Given such a fantastic novel, and such an enchanting movie, how could this picture book be anything less than excellent?!

If you ever have opportunity and can find this book, you should definitely check it out (after of course, reading the original Watership Down and watching the film.) I can see myself taking this book off my shelf and reading it over and over again. I am so happy I found it! ( )