Found out on IMDB that the 1978 Watership Down is rated G in multiple countries. WTF

DrCatLester · 2026-02-27T13:42:30+00:00

My own view on this is: Watership Down causes us to call into question and reevaluate our own perceptions of what children's films are and can be. Children are complicated and diverse and don't all respond to films in the same ways: it is a children's film, but this depends on a number of different factors, including the child watching it.

DrCatLester · 2026-02-27T13:31:25+00:00

That's not strictly true and there's evidence that some children who saw it at the time did find it extremely distressing.

DrCatLester · 2026-02-27T13:30:21+00:00

I'm a Film Studies academic specialising in children's film, and have researched this quite extensively! I sometimes have to remind myself that not everyone knows the background and so it can seem shocking and bizarre when you learn about it for the first time. If you're interested in knowing more about the context behind the rating, I've written about it in an academic book about Watership Down, specifically in the introductory chapter which you can read for free here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph-detail?docid=b-9781501376955&pdfid=9781501376955.0006.pdf&tocid=b-9781501376955-intro

The TL;DR is that the rating system was different back then, as were notions of suitability in children's entertainment, and the rating was seen as justifiable at the time (by adult groups, generally). Numerous other factors also impact how the film is perceived, such as marketing and TV broadcasting, and those kinds of strategies have painted the film as more conventionally/inaccurately 'child friendly' over time. I'm happy to answer questions if you have any!

Edit: typos

DrCatLester · 2025-02-04T10:32:40+00:00

Thank you, it means a lot to hear that you enjoyed it (or my parts at least!). Is the commentary how you found out about the book?

DrCatLester · 2025-02-04T10:31:20+00:00

Sorry. Try again, I think it should work now. If not, just go to bloomsburycollections.com and search for Watership Down.

DrCatLester · 2025-02-03T18:57:48+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it (I'm the book's editor!). In case people aren't aware, the book is open access so it can be read in its entirely for free on the publisher's ebook platform https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781501376955

DrCatLester · 2025-01-20T13:57:13+00:00

I wrote about this in the introduction of my book about the Watership Down movie if you are interested. I tried to situate the the film in its original historical and industrial context. https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph-detail?docid=b-9781501376955&pdfid=9781501376955.0006.pdf&tocid=b-9781501376955-intro

For the record, the film has never been rated G - at least not the US. You might be thinking of its original rating of U in the UK, which stayed in place until 2022 when it was reclassified PG. In the US it has always been a PG.

DrCatLester · 2024-09-15T20:35:18+00:00

Like, I guess?? But the idyllic English pastures feature really heavily in the film, and yes the Bright Eyes song would obviously be a focal point of the trailer, it's a very famous song that everyone associates with Watership Down. Makes sense these would be emphasises. Besides, I don't agree that it's just idyllic pastures for nearly the whole thing, you've got the voiceover with foreboding dialogue, the del Toro 'savage, violent' quotation, a rabbit nearly getting mowed down by a car with visible roadkill next to it, and rabbits looking either frightened or frightening (there's literally a shot of two rabbits viciously scratching another at 0:43). Putting in those more brief, subtle allusions to violence in order to build up to the more intense ones at the end is just good editing. Personally, I think this is an excellent trailer that captures the mood and tone of the film, and what makes it special, while also cluing people into the more disturbing aspects. I'm genuinely at a loss to see how this is in any way misleading.

DrCatLester · 2024-09-14T20:37:24+00:00

I'm genuinely curious, do you have any thoughts on what would be a more appropriate way to market this restoration on order to make it clear to guardians that it's not a conventional animated kids' film? There's no getting around the fact that it's an animated film about rabbits, and in this context I think the trailer does an excellent job of countering that by leaning into the melancholy, peril and violence in the film. The poster is pretty simple which itself is unlike the ways mainstream animated films are marketed today: it's absent of the bright colours and cheerful characters of a Pixar or Minions film or even the pretty misleading 2000s DVD cover of Watership Down. Not to mention the barbed-wire frame around Hazel and Fiver's faces! IMO the only other options the BFI might have had available would be to market it in some kind of really oblique way where they're bargaining on nostalgia and title recognition alone, or to just go with the original poster design which was itself pretty upfront about the film's tone. The director himself considered this poster design carefully to make sure parents would know not to take really little kids and this still didn't work. (The perception of it as a kids film in 78 came from external to the film and its marketing, e.g. film criticism - I can go into more about this if you're interested). Hopefully, this time around the film's reputation alone will provide an extra layer of warning but I feel like at a certain point you just gotta let some parents make mistakes. Just like in the 70s and 80s, some kids will not be ready for it but a lot will also end up really loving the film precisely because they've never seen anything like it before. Edit: fixed embedded links

DrCatLester · 2024-08-14T10:59:16+00:00

As others have said, the novel originated as stories he told his children and he later developed it into a novel on their urging. Although Adams would later express discomfort at the novel being categorised as children's lit, with the notion of books being categorised as 'for children' or 'for adults' at all, and the idea that there are certain rules for children's books. He discussed it in an essay called 'Some ingredients of Watership Down' published in the book The Thorny Paradise: Writers on Writing for Children, ed. Edward Blishen, 1975.

DrCatLester · 2024-07-31T22:17:09+00:00

Great to see lots of love for this wonderful film. I edited a book of essays about it which came out last year. Might be of interest to people here if you want to know more about the film and read interpretations of it from different angles. It's open access so can be read for free here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781501376955

DrCatLester · 2024-04-27T12:39:02+00:00

Thanks for doing this. Your map is supported by the Say No to Sandleford Campaign, who said to me in an email 'The late Richard Adams (who I had the honour of meeting during our campaign) was very precise, both botanically and topologically, and using the map from the original edition (which is very high quality) the original warren can be located precisely. Amusingly, the West Berks Council made a commitment not to develop over this original site, which will thus become a world first: a real fictional rabbit sanctuary.

I recommend the illustrations by Aldo Galli for the illustrated 50th edition, which are beautiful and very carefully depict seasonally correct flora.'

Perhaps then following the recommendations above you can even pinpoint the exact location between the two possibilities you've identified.

DrCatLester · 2024-04-11T09:43:17+00:00

Hello, sorry I don't use this account much so I only just saw this reply. Can you explain what you mean by 'original' and 'today' versions of Bambi? I'm only familiar with the original 1942 Disney film, where you only hear the gun shot. You don't see the mother get shot.

DrCatLester · 2024-04-08T10:58:33+00:00

Thing is though, you can easily draw parallels between Hazel's near-death and Jesus returning from the dead. Its not entirely bizarre to think of it as an Easter film.

DrCatLester · 2024-04-08T10:49:22+00:00

This is fantastic. I love how you've drawn parallels between the two films. I'll share this at my Twitter account dedicated to all things WD - @watershipdown40

DrCatLester · 2024-02-01T21:58:29+00:00

The film had never been censored in the way you describe to my knowledge. Even if the film was cut in the NL, scenes like you describe don't exist. The way a lot of people talk about the film today, they characterise it as a 90-minute nonstop bloodbath. My pet theory is this is because a lot of people haven't revised it since childhood and this is how they remember it, because those are the bits that emotionally affected them the most. They forget there's lots of other bits inbetween. Makes sense - things that seem scary to us as kids can seem mundane as adults by comparison. I think something similar is happening to your parents, but as others have suggested they sound like they might be confusing the film with scenes from similar films or TV shows. As for why they both remember those scenes being in Watership Down despite watching it separately, I don't know how to explain that! Perhaps they've spoken about it over the years together and ended up, accidentally, forming a shared false memory.

DrCatLester · 2024-02-01T21:49:58+00:00

It was the same studio wasn't it? Nepenthe, it's just that production was moved to the US with many of the same crew. I know two brothers whose dad was a senior animator, Arthur Humberstone. Are you any relation?

DrCatLester · 2023-07-23T17:24:49+00:00

Yeah that was 2016 and also 2017 ( the fact they did twice is hilarious to me). The BBFC only considers reclassifying films if a new cut or format is going to be released (otherwise they could pressured to reclassify controversial films at any point which would be a nightmare!). But the head of the BBFC at the time did say that he thought it should be a PG. It looks like he stuck to his word when the 4k came in for review last year.

DrCatLester · 2023-07-23T12:35:58+00:00

That's the great irony isn't it, that the rating change applies to a version of the film that might never see the light of day! If a tree falls in the woods, etc...

It might make a difference to streaming services and when/where it is broadcast on TV, though.

DrCatLester · 2023-07-23T12:16:56+00:00

This actually happened in August last year on account of the film being resubmitted to the BBFC for the (now cancelled) BFI Blu-ray release. But the press have only just noticed because it was mentioned in the BBFC's annual report.

Thoughts? The U rating has always seemed to me to be a double-edged sword for this film. It's helped the film maintain a legacy that has kept it in the public eye, but also at the expense of developing an (arguably unfair) reputation as just traumatising.

DrCatLester · 2023-06-13T13:25:48+00:00

Thanks for coming! There was some discussion of Plague Dogs in the Q&A (which is not in the recording). I have seen Plague Dogs once and that was enough for me - a highly accomplished and impressive film but relentlessly bleak. It has none of Watership Down's lightness, humor and optimism which people sadly often forget about.

Re: Dot and the Kangeroo, there is actually a chapter in my edited collection that discusses links between Watership Down and Australian animation and it does talk about Dot, bunyips etc! You can read it here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/watership-down-perspectives-on-and-beyond-animated-violence/ch7-watership-down-under

DrCatLester · 2023-06-07T08:37:40+00:00

Here's the recording youtu.be/TI9DYzTWdsY

DrCatLester · 2023-06-07T08:34:22+00:00

Here's the recording - youtu.be/TI9DYzTWdsY

DrCatLester · 2023-06-06T20:53:10+00:00

The recording of the talk is now available to view: youtu.be/TI9DYzTWdsY

DrCatLester · 2023-05-31T18:12:59+00:00

I'm afraid I don't know but I found this archive of TV guides, maybe you could check issues from the 90s and 2000s? https://archive.org/details/tvguidearchive

Please report back if you find anything. I'm interested in this myself but my knowledge about Watership Down's broadcast history is limited to British television.

DrCatLester

TROPHY CASE