Watership Down science fiction writer and conservative social commentator writing in the "National Review", declared that the novel was "pleasant enough, but it has about the same intellectual firepower as Dumbo." He pilloried it further: ""Watership Down" is an adventure story, no more than that: rather a swashbuckling crude one to boot. There are virtuous rabbits and bad rabbits: if that’s allegory, "Bonanza" is an allegory." John Rowe Townsend notes that the book quickly achieved such a high popularity despite the fact that it "came out at a high price and in an unattractive jacket from a publisher who had hardly been
Nicholas Hoult surface, that futility-of-war idea". He recalled the filming experience in the Jordanian military bases practising clearing procedures: “we put on these masks, get given these guns, are put inside this pitch-black house ... try and hunt down these bad guys hiding inside. You’re in all the gear ... the adrenaline starts pumping". Released on Netflix in April 2017, the film garnered mixed reviews. Hoult will appear in the British-Irish-American animated television mini-series adaptation of Richard Adams' 1972 novel "Watership Down"; the mini-series is directed by Noam Murro and adapted by Tom Bidwell. He voiced one of the lead characters, Fiver.