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
Martin Rosen (director) "Watership Down" but took over as director after John Hubley died. He also wrote the screenplay for it. This was the first of two novels by Richard Adams he adapted. In 1982 he also produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for another animated feature based on an Adams novel, "The Plague Dogs" (1982). Rosen produced "Smooth Talk" (1986), which won the Sundance Grand Prize. His last film as director was "Stacking" (1987). His last project as producer was the animated ""Watership Down" TV series in 1999. Rosen has also worked in theater production. He was the originating producer of Michael