had the same with manga Uzumaki and Animatrix, fall of mankind part 2. Since then I saw much more gruesome, gory and worse things... yet those "mild horrors" still haunt me
This story was written by a british paratrooper that survived the Bridge Too Far debacle at Arnhem. He said him and his mates felt like little rabbits trying to survive and it inspired him to write this novel. Some of that harsh war reality definitely comes through with these sorts of scenes and the comradery, leadership and self sacrifice the rabbits exhibit in tough situations
To OP. Why doesn't anybody *fact check* before they tell an "amazing story" they've heard from somebody who heard it from somebody?? A simple Google check or Wiki well tell you this:"In July 1940, Adams was called up to join the British Army. He was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps and was selected for the Airborne Company, where he worked as a brigade liaison. He served in Palestine, Europe, and East Asia but saw no direct action against either the Germans or the Japanese." *saw no direct action against either the Germans or the Japanese.* Then where does the story that he participated in Operation Market Garden come from? On Straitstimes you can read this:"He enlisted in the British army as a supply officer and reportedly spent time in Palestine, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, India and Singapore, although he never saw combat." *never saw combat* "his story was written by a british paratrooper" (your words) Richard Adams served in the Royal Army Service Corps. What are they tasked with? The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was the unit responsible for keeping the British Army supplied with provisions. The exceptions were weaponry and ammunition, which were supplied by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. They (RASC) worked with the supply of food, water, fuel and domestic materials such as clothing, furniture and stationery. Well that sure is some work for a "paratrooper". Considering that the British paratroopers were cut-off at Arnhem and no reinforcements or relief ever managed to reach them I wonder how the Royal Army Service Corps got there (sarcasm). Especially since all roads were clogged up. The writer also said that the land in Watership Down is based on the place he grew up in as a child.
@@beaniecapprints Ya your right, it was made up for his kids but he also said that they felt like rabbits during the war and that it helped inspired the stories he made up. "In his autobiography, The Day Gone By, Adams wrote that he based Watership Down and the stories in it on his experiences during Operation Market Garden, the Battle of Arnhem, in 1944. The character of Hazel, the leader of the group of rabbits, was modelled on Adams's commanding officer, Major John Gifford. He gave the warrior Bigwig the personality of Captain Desmond Kavanagh, who is buried at the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands."
@who? me? Cmon, everyone knows the only good movies Hollywood makes are book based, and that's if they're accurate. You can't diss that, unless you're a sour loser.
Say what you want about the General, but he was the only rabbit to not hesitate to fight the dog. That’s a badass rabbit especially when three just got thrown around like rag dolls.
@@LordWyatt I know, I just rephrase what the General says himself. Saying "Dogs aren't dangerous", while seeing his fellow bunnies bitten to death, flying through the air bleeding, proved to me how psychotic he was. He did not hesitate to fight, because he was crazy, delusional and had megalomania. Not brave or badass.
7:32 "Though he boldly fought the dog in the end, the moment when Woundwort first laid eyes upon the beast, he froze. For that fleeting moment, at the bottom of his cold heart, *he was afraid* ..."
my grandmother buyed this vhs, test watched it and forbid me from watching it when i was 7. she saved me from horrible trauma. im watching these scenes for the first time now with 22years. god bless her.
My dad did the same with Fantasia. Though I did get to watch it once, but he never let me watch it again and I didn’t know why until I saw it at school in fourth or fifth grade and there was the Rite of Spring scene where a Stegosaurus (my favorite dinosaur when I was four or five) got torn up by an Allosaurus. I must’ve suppressed that memory out of trauma. I wasn’t even really into dinosaurs anymore and it still had me crying.
It’s actually a really beautiful film about the struggle for a better life and the perils of nature. But yeah, if you only watch the rough scenes you will wonder what the hell you are watching 🤣
It was 1978. Scared the shit out of me back then, and still looks scary now in 2022. Of course, no other movie scared me more than 1983's “The Day After."
I bet parents were like oh cute bunny rabbits this is going to be a awesome movie for my kids and when they see the movie as a family they are shocked of the creepy and disturbing images and the violence and blood
My teachers had us watch this in an abandoned classroom in 2nd grade lol. They must've thought that since the movie had rabbits on the cover it was child friendly. I remember the room was completely silent for the entire run time. Like a car accident you can't look away from. To this day, I've heard no one in my class ever talk about that day. It must've traumatized them as much as it did me. Between this and The Seventh Brother, my childhood was strangely filled with the concept of brutally murdered rabbits
The seventh brother! What a nostalgic movie for me and what about the random trippy scene with the song about evil? It was always just a memory and couldn't figure out the name till last year
Like so many, my parents let me and my siblings watch this on afternoon television because it seemed like an innocent cartoon first. I remember feeling true panic watching the scenes compiled here. True panic and fear. Stayed with me for quite some time.
I first watched this when I was like 5. Could never see rabbits in the open wild the same after that. It made me think something is going to go wrong lol
To be fair a lot does go wrong with wild rabbits. The ones by me either are fighting to the death, getting hit by cars, or eaten by any other animal around
@@seoulful1997 yeah when you look at everything around them rabbits get eaten by absolutely everything, to make a short list: foxes,weasels,buzzards, sparrow hawks, Badgers, Humans,stoats, eagles the.list goes on. (God this was the short list)
Holy shit, I'm only just now noticing after all these years that at 7:33, for just an INSTANT, woundwort saw the dog and his eyes got big and he had a look of pure horror on his face. And not even 2 seconds after he was all talk about how "dogs aren't dangerous". He ate those words, probably knew it, but can't even fathom being wrong, so he dove straight in anyway.
the movie scarred a lot of children, but what made the movie really hit home was the fact how it taught so many kids the way of life. it’s really a beauty to see this because the movie disregarded the concept of pampering down the movie for a child audience, and instead trying to teach them something.
@@littleboy1273 If there are children are young enough to be subjected to war and violence, the kids are old enough to learn the victim's perspective of things. Your kids are already exposed to war propaganda and anti immigrant rhetoric online.
I first watched this when I was about 4. Definitely scarred me for life, but I adore it to this day. It might be one of my favourite films, in fact. (Tbh, for a while I thought I dreamt the whole film, cause no-one I knew - aside from my family - seemed to know about it)
That was why my parents owned the DVD of the movie, and hardly watched it, so when I was quarantined with them in COVID lockdown, I took the DVD in the middle of the night before I went to bed, and I destroyed the DVD into quarters and threw it away in my bedroom, and they didn’t do anything about why the DVD was gone!
"Filled in the burrows... Couldn't get out... Then we heard a hissing sound... the air turned bad. The runs blocked with dead bodies..." Yeah that sends chills down my body. That's horrifying stuff.
I have never felt so much claustrophobia in a movie before, some will say 127 hours or As Above So Below did it for them. But this this scene of the rabbits being buried alive is just so fucking horrifying, definitely not a kids movie.
I haven’t seen the whole movie, so I can’t judge the plot, but I find the extreme gore of these scenes (the blood, the horrific eyes, the insistance on super-slow close-ups of abhorrent faces and features) simply distasteful and unnecessary. I don’t think a good storyteller needs to be so explicitly obnoxious to generate fear. Clearly not a film for kids, IMO.
@@jay_vng - You'd need to see the whole movie for things to make sense. This video explicitly takes the most violent and disturbing scenes out of context. I think to give things their full context (and in fairness I didn't read about this until later) it's important to mention that this was the mid-to-late '70s... The book was not necessarily aimed at children, but the eventual audience for the book was mostly what we'd call "Young Adult" today. Back then, there wasn't really that distinction. To sanitise the tone and violence of the book for the movie would have been a major disservice to the source material. While the BBFC did classify the movie as "U" (Suitable for all), the poster used to advertise it showed Bigwig in silhouette with the snare around his neck - that did not indicate suitability for younger children!
@@destinymcintire2188 - In the book, Captain Holly witnesses everything from above ground. He knows what happened inside because a couple of Sandleford rabbits manage to escape (IIRC) via a partially-blocked run missed by the men - one of whom later dies from a delayed reaction to the poison gas.
This affected me more as an adult than as a child. I don't think I was able to 'compute' the horrific and sinister things done in this and just focused on the skin deep story of the rabbits trying to find a new home.
As a kid, I was so traumatised by the first scene that I don't ever remember watching this the whole way through. Mum however has said Ive definitely watched it right through numerous times lol
it was a disturbing and melancholic movie, but somehow i watched it a lot as a kid, i liked to draw the rabbits and i kinda think i learned lots of empathy
i watched this alot as a kid and i dont remember much except for the start of the scene with the sun animation i never remember it being like this that well
This has a very similar feel to the animated version of Lord of the rings, i wonder if the same artists and musicians were involved with both movies since they were both made around a similar time. And the voice of the rabbit sounds like the same voice for Aragorn. Edit, Just googled it, i was right. John Hurt was the same voice actor for both Hazel and Aragorn.
I have a feeling that scene was meant to represent the gas chambers used in Nazi concentration camps. Where the Jewish people were killed in the worst ways.
The worst thing about it is that the film somehow got a U rating by the BBFC. In America, that's the equivalent of rated G. *G!!!* Watership Down should not be rated G! I would have given it a PG, or at worst a PG-13. I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say whoever ran the BBFC at the time just wanted to go home in a hurry that day, so he/she slapped a U rating on it and called it a day, and now we all have to suffer for it.
Yep...and because it was rated a U I watched it when I was 3 or 4 years old and had nightmares for years. I only got over my fear of rabbits when I was 12 or 13 because of the trauma from this movie 🥲
To be fair, Film Rating was different back in the 70s. A lot of cowboy movies were rated G at the time despite having guns and death everywhere and PG-13 wasn't a thing yet and wouldn't be until Temple of Doom came out.
I remember going to stay with some friends when I was about 10. They lived in a massive country house and in the garden were wild rabbits that was all open area. This cartoon came into my mind straight away and “Buried” really disturbed me. My friends never did anything to the rabbits, but listening to the sounds of the scene over and over in my head was just something I can’t put into words.
I remember watching this as a kid, and renting it and the series version several times from the library (way back before streaming services). It didn't occur until I saw it again as a teen how messed up it really was for a young kid to watch. I think growing up treating our pets at home made me a bit immune to all the animal gore lol, maybe that and the Warriors books. I'm reading the book for the first time rn!
I saw this, wizards, fire and ice and lord of the rings 1978 with my eleven and fifteen year old brothers when I was five 35 years ago and were early exposures to adult animation even Simpsons shorts on fox
@@Johnlindsey289 I am around the same age, but I never saw animated lord of the rings. Instead, my parents thought "the Dark Chrystal" would be a fun movie to watch as a 7 year old... I could only calm down by watching Watership down after that... 😭
@@Johnlindsey289 I am a bit of a Fantasy/Sci-fi geek too. Love the dark chrystal too, but ngl... the whole sucking out life essence thing scared the s#it out of me as a kid.
my mum and dad let me watch this when i was around 10, i was born in 2005, and this shit scarred me for the past 6 years - i am 16 now. i want to watch it again, but dont at the same time
Thank you. Trying to explain how simultaneously terrifying and entrancing this movie was as a kid just isn't possible. My sister's and I watched it all the time, by choice, as little kids 😅
I used to watch this all the time on HBO when I was 8 years old. I actually had mild anxiety issues because of it. It touched so many emotions that I went on to read the book. Years later, as I began to learn about the Holocaust, this movie suddenly came to mind. It was a surreal moment because I realized the point of the story that had escaped me in my younger years.
Remember someone who really loved this movie saying "watership down isn't a violent movie, the violence is just a part of it, don't compare it to graphic media". So i came to watch what everyone was hyping up as so traumatic. Even as an adult who loves this genre of movie, and much darker horror than that, i have to say... i really can't blame anyone for just thinking of it as the violent rabbit movie. i HAVE seen much worse, but the way the blood is animated, the artistic representations of the rabbits' horrors, i mean... jesus christ? it may only be 7 minutes, less if you don't found the field scene, but what IS there is still way more graphic than what you'd normally see, even in your Scary kids movies like NIHM. and the score turns what might have just been a sad or tense moment in a nature documentary into something outright horrifying. at the same time, i definitely wanna see the whole thing now.
There's a very disturbing scene from the movie I saw in the theater when I was 4 and it's not in this video... where we see rabbits in the burrow, and it's spiraling, and they're getting torn to shreds with blood everywhere, it was traumatizing as a kid and I Cannot find that deleted scene anywhere.
I've seen that scene years back on British television in the 80's. But I don't know if it's been cut out of the dvd release. The scene was in the VHS release though before dvd was even around.
I first watched this around age 7. I remember loving it and being terrified by all these scenes at the same time. Hearing the song Bright Eyes makes me cry. Watching the end of this cartoon makes me cry. I LOVE Hazel so much. Watching the Netflix series also makes me cry (at the end). I strongly recommend the book. It's so much better than the films. I also cried when I listened to the book on audio.
Yes! I've thought this since forever. Very little REAL violence or blood in films disturbs me, but when it's animated, I can't stomach it for some reason. It's so jarring.
As a dad now I'm amazed I was allowed to watch this as a kid and not be scarred, but I remember it being brutal and disturbing. My kid would have nightmares if she watched this now compared to the sugarpuff stuff they have now. I mean I get animal brutality but. Thank fuck this isn't on!
This film gave me such nightmares as child! Along with The Witches (especially the parts where the boys get turned into mice) and a film called Pinocchio and The Emperor of the Night which came out in 1987 and is meant to be a sequel to the first story. Only it was made by a different company than Disney and it has a horrific scene where Pinocchio is slowly turned back into a puppet by being forced to dance by a creepy puppet master. Pinocchio is even begging for it stop during the whole thing too, really messed me up when I was little 😰
Never seen this movie before. But I have known about it for a long time but never actually watched the movie or any clips until recently. And now I realize it’s much more disturbing with the actual audio. And the music is just so haunting to listen to.
This is no Peter Rabbit film. It feels like a horror film. Watership Down I'd say serves as the darkest film in animation I have and will ever know. Still, even all the fears won't stop me from loving the characters. Fiver I say is the most important character because he foresaw a terrible fate that was going to happen to their warren. Without him, his brother Hazel and a few others would have died. Of course the same can't be said for what happened to the rest of them back at the warren. Being buried was the scariest scene I have ever seen. Rabbits trapped underground in a clustered panic. It's a fate I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. Woundwort is a scary bunny. Honestly the film tells us we can underestimate rabbits. They can fight. They must fight to live and thrive. Bigwig is my favorite rabbit. He's not just strong, he don't take shit from Woundwort and fought as hard as he could against this monster.
I still remember how scarred I was for years after watching this film as a kid - heck, and whenever I went to sleep with bedroom's door open, I almost always imagined Woundwort's shadow against the wall outside of the bedroom - that I even wanted to erase Watership Down from my life the best I could. Now I have come to better terms with my traumas to some extent.
I feel like those creepy and disturbing scenes the music it actually feels like a horror movie like it or child’s play and other movies I think this movie should have gotten a PG-13 for violence and action some scary and disturbing images blood and one use of strong language
For some weird reason, this movie didn't scare me that much as a kid. But my sibling was so traumatized, she had a nightmare of rabbits eating each other and swore to distance herself from Watership Down for the rest of her life
My teacher in elementary school played this movie for us. I can't remember why or what he showed us this movie for but i watch it now and realize how much the world has changed
I remember that the Black Rabbit was the first thing for me... After I watched this movie as a kid for the first time I still saw it jumping on the walls of my bedroom....
This movie scarred me for life and now, through the power of technology, I can relive my childhood trauma almost 30 years later
Awww Childhood trauma, it’s good for the soul. Just kidding. This shit was fucked up.
Same here
Same same
trauma is good it forces you to come to terms with the realities we normally avoid
Why did you watch this when you were a kid, cause this is definitely not a kids movie
As an adult, I realise we are always drawn back to the things that disturbed as children.
Just like THE BATMAN
Yeah… disturbed…
Fact 😅
@@stryker0ae 😂
had the same with manga Uzumaki and Animatrix, fall of mankind part 2. Since then I saw much more gruesome, gory and worse things... yet those "mild horrors" still haunt me
This story was written by a british paratrooper that survived the Bridge Too Far debacle at Arnhem. He said him and his mates felt like little rabbits trying to survive and it inspired him to write this novel. Some of that harsh war reality definitely comes through with these sorts of scenes and the comradery, leadership and self sacrifice the rabbits exhibit in tough situations
The story I heard was that he made up this story on the fly telling it to his daughters on a long road trip. He’s literally come out and said that
To OP.
Why doesn't anybody *fact check* before they tell an "amazing story" they've heard from somebody who heard it from somebody??
A simple Google check or Wiki well tell you this:"In July 1940, Adams was called up to join the British Army. He was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps and was selected for the Airborne Company, where he worked as a brigade liaison. He served in Palestine, Europe, and East Asia but saw no direct action against either the Germans or the Japanese."
*saw no direct action against either the Germans or the Japanese.*
Then where does the story that he participated in Operation Market Garden come from?
On Straitstimes you can read this:"He enlisted in the British army as a supply officer and reportedly spent time in Palestine, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, India and Singapore, although he never saw combat."
*never saw combat*
"his story was written by a british paratrooper" (your words)
Richard Adams served in the Royal Army Service Corps. What are they tasked with? The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was the unit responsible for keeping the British Army supplied with provisions. The exceptions were weaponry and ammunition, which were supplied by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. They (RASC) worked with the supply of food, water, fuel and domestic materials such as clothing, furniture and stationery.
Well that sure is some work for a "paratrooper".
Considering that the British paratroopers were cut-off at Arnhem and no reinforcements or relief ever managed to reach them I wonder how the Royal Army Service Corps got there (sarcasm). Especially since all roads were clogged up.
The writer also said that the land in Watership Down is based on the place he grew up in as a child.
@@beaniecapprintsI suspect his life experiences of war helped up conquring the horrors up . Like Tolkien and Lewis Carrol
@@beaniecapprints Ya your right, it was made up for his kids but he also said that they felt like rabbits during the war and that it helped inspired the stories he made up. "In his autobiography, The Day Gone By, Adams wrote that he based Watership Down and the stories in it on his experiences during Operation Market Garden, the Battle of Arnhem, in 1944. The character of Hazel, the leader of the group of rabbits, was modelled on Adams's commanding officer, Major John Gifford. He gave the warrior Bigwig the personality of Captain Desmond Kavanagh, who is buried at the Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands."
So I guess, in a weird way, this is a war film.
Funny how my parents would let me watch this but not the Hunger Games
@Yuuut do not hack it’s snowwwwwwwwww hell yes
@who? me? Cmon, everyone knows the only good movies Hollywood makes are book based, and that's if they're accurate. You can't diss that, unless you're a sour loser.
Yes same here lol
Its animation so its ok for kids to watch
@@luckylightling6611 what are you, the joke police?
Honestly, the most disturbing scenes for me was Buried, skirmish and the dog scenes. That actually scared me
Buried takes the cake for me. Shit fucked me up as a kid
@@TacSav253 being buried alive is the worst way to go! The most slow and painful death ever
@@Pink_pr1ncess I would say burning to death is worse. It's unimaginable agony.
Lol scared by a cartoon about rabbits
Buried was the most frightening for me. It's just felt so unnerving. It's something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.
Say what you want about the General, but he was the only rabbit to not hesitate to fight the dog. That’s a badass rabbit especially when three just got thrown around like rag dolls.
"Dogs are not dangerous" 🤣
@@cmo5173 even chihuahuas are dangerous to Bunnies
@@LordWyatt I know, I just rephrase what the General says himself. Saying "Dogs aren't dangerous", while seeing his fellow bunnies bitten to death, flying through the air bleeding, proved to me how psychotic he was. He did not hesitate to fight, because he was crazy, delusional and had megalomania. Not brave or badass.
@@cmo5173 well said, fair enough
@@cmo5173 Love how you are roasting a rabbit 😂
I think Snare was the scariest scene. His friends desperately trying to help him and him slowly choking and bleeding out 😥
7:32 "Though he boldly fought the dog in the end, the moment when Woundwort first laid eyes upon the beast, he froze. For that fleeting moment, at the bottom of his cold heart, *he was afraid* ..."
crazy man. literal horror. I watched this alone in a dark attic at 7 in 2002 and now look at me
@@3headedsnake388 You're still living in the dark attic? Crazy man 😰
my grandmother buyed this vhs, test watched it and forbid me from watching it when i was 7. she saved me from horrible trauma. im watching these scenes for the first time now with 22years. god bless her.
My dad did the same with Fantasia. Though I did get to watch it once, but he never let me watch it again and I didn’t know why until I saw it at school in fourth or fifth grade and there was the Rite of Spring scene where a Stegosaurus (my favorite dinosaur when I was four or five) got torn up by an Allosaurus. I must’ve suppressed that memory out of trauma. I wasn’t even really into dinosaurs anymore and it still had me crying.
ren & stimpy show: we are the most disturbing kids cartoon ever
watership down: hold my beer
Honestly, Watership down is just heavy, but some scenes from Ren & Stimpy are so gross they make you want to puke
Implying these are for kids, neither of those clearly were never intended for kids, but they are animation so of course they are "intended" for kids.
ren and stimpy is more disturbing imo
It’s not a kids movie. The book wasn’t for kids either. The only adaptation that’s kid friendly is the 1999 series
@@SeasonalGFilmsit was rated U though
It’s actually a really beautiful film about the struggle for a better life and the perils of nature. But yeah, if you only watch the rough scenes you will wonder what the hell you are watching 🤣
My mate killed them self after watching this. I didnt even know he was struggling
@@bradador1 you telling the truth?
It was 1978. Scared the shit out of me back then, and still looks scary now in 2022. Of course, no other movie scared me more than 1983's “The Day After."
@Aran Houlihan better for kids than most Disney movies
I bet parents were like oh cute bunny rabbits this is going to be a awesome movie for my kids and when they see the movie as a family they are shocked of the creepy and disturbing images and the violence and blood
My teachers had us watch this in an abandoned classroom in 2nd grade lol. They must've thought that since the movie had rabbits on the cover it was child friendly. I remember the room was completely silent for the entire run time. Like a car accident you can't look away from. To this day, I've heard no one in my class ever talk about that day. It must've traumatized them as much as it did me.
Between this and The Seventh Brother, my childhood was strangely filled with the concept of brutally murdered rabbits
I am a bit confused. If you are at school guided by a teacher then the classroom isn’t abandoned. It’s just a classroom.
That One Goth Kid must have enjoyed it though...
@@orangeapples Abandoned, no, but unsupervised.
The seventh brother! What a nostalgic movie for me and what about the random trippy scene with the song about evil? It was always just a memory and couldn't figure out the name till last year
yeah, we were forced to watch a movie about Sophie Scholl and her last days in captivity. It was BEFORE anyone of us knew what happend in WWII.
Ah yes, the Happy Tree Friends of the 70s
"They just destroyed our warren because we're in their way." big mood
“They’ll never rest until they’ve spoiled the Earth.” Also a big mood.
Like so many, my parents let me and my siblings watch this on afternoon television because it seemed like an innocent cartoon first. I remember feeling true panic watching the scenes compiled here. True panic and fear. Stayed with me for quite some time.
I first watched this when I was like 5. Could never see rabbits in the open wild the same after that. It made me think something is going to go wrong lol
🤣🤣🤣
Same .,. Had PTSD and nightmares from this one
To be fair a lot does go wrong with wild rabbits. The ones by me either are fighting to the death, getting hit by cars, or eaten by any other animal around
@@karmasutra4774 sorry bro
@@seoulful1997 yeah when you look at everything around them rabbits get eaten by absolutely everything, to make a short list: foxes,weasels,buzzards, sparrow hawks, Badgers, Humans,stoats, eagles the.list goes on.
(God this was the short list)
25 years later and the scene of the warren being filled in still sends shivers up my spine.
“Dogs aren’t dangerous!” Famous last words.
Holy shit, I'm only just now noticing after all these years that at 7:33, for just an INSTANT, woundwort saw the dog and his eyes got big and he had a look of pure horror on his face. And not even 2 seconds after he was all talk about how "dogs aren't dangerous". He ate those words, probably knew it, but can't even fathom being wrong, so he dove straight in anyway.
omg that's insane! you're right!
That's magnificent directing
Omg you’re so right
As soon as they say the generals body was never found made me laugh
yeah with that abrupt cutoff💀
Mistakes were made
the movie scarred a lot of children, but what made the movie really hit home was the fact how it taught so many kids the way of life. it’s really a beauty to see this because the movie disregarded the concept of pampering down the movie for a child audience, and instead trying to teach them something.
Too much is too much. It's a bit worse than bleeping the word. F. Americans.
Subtext and imagery is way too fucked up for a kids movie. Sorry bud
I get your point but terrorising children isn’t the way to teach them how death and nature works, go watch david attenborough or something
@@littleboy1273 If there are children are young enough to be subjected to war and violence, the kids are old enough to learn the victim's perspective of things. Your kids are already exposed to war propaganda and anti immigrant rhetoric online.
It might have helped that this story wasn't meant for children in the first place. But I might be wrong
The cinematography of these scenes are so perfectly well done to show you how scary it can be
I first watched this when I was about 4. Definitely scarred me for life, but I adore it to this day. It might be one of my favourite films, in fact.
(Tbh, for a while I thought I dreamt the whole film, cause no-one I knew - aside from my family - seemed to know about it)
The correct answer is when your childhood is destroyed after managing to watch the entire film.
my parents rented this thinking it was going to be a cute film about bunnies. they also rented plague dogs. interesting childhood.
@@professorpenne9962 Oof…
That was why my parents owned the DVD of the movie, and hardly watched it, so when I was quarantined with them in COVID lockdown, I took the DVD in the middle of the night before I went to bed, and I destroyed the DVD into quarters and threw it away in my bedroom, and they didn’t do anything about why the DVD was gone!
@@professorpenne9962 whoopsies
They'll never rest until they've spoiled the Earth
Oh, That's what I said.
That played as soon as I saw this comment
Oop
Captain Holly's commentary combined with the ghoulish scene really is haunting, isn't it?
"Filled in the burrows... Couldn't get out... Then we heard a hissing sound... the air turned bad. The runs blocked with dead bodies..." Yeah that sends chills down my body. That's horrifying stuff.
I have never felt so much claustrophobia in a movie before, some will say 127 hours or As Above So Below did it for them. But this this scene of the rabbits being buried alive is just so fucking horrifying, definitely not a kids movie.
I haven’t seen the whole movie, so I can’t judge the plot, but I find the extreme gore of these scenes (the blood, the horrific eyes, the insistance on super-slow close-ups of abhorrent faces and features) simply distasteful and unnecessary. I don’t think a good storyteller needs to be so explicitly obnoxious to generate fear. Clearly not a film for kids, IMO.
@@jay_vng - You'd need to see the whole movie for things to make sense. This video explicitly takes the most violent and disturbing scenes out of context.
I think to give things their full context (and in fairness I didn't read about this until later) it's important to mention that this was the mid-to-late '70s... The book was not necessarily aimed at children, but the eventual audience for the book was mostly what we'd call "Young Adult" today. Back then, there wasn't really that distinction.
To sanitise the tone and violence of the book for the movie would have been a major disservice to the source material. While the BBFC did classify the movie as "U" (Suitable for all), the poster used to advertise it showed Bigwig in silhouette with the snare around his neck - that did not indicate suitability for younger children!
Buried alive and then gassed. A very terrible way to go out. Makes me wonder how Holly managed to escape that fate at all.
@@destinymcintire2188 - In the book, Captain Holly witnesses everything from above ground. He knows what happened inside because a couple of Sandleford rabbits manage to escape (IIRC) via a partially-blocked run missed by the men - one of whom later dies from a delayed reaction to the poison gas.
@@turricanedtc3764 Oh. That makes sense. Thanks for the info! :D I never had the chance to read the book so I always wondered that.
This affected me more as an adult than as a child. I don't think I was able to 'compute' the horrific and sinister things done in this and just focused on the skin deep story of the rabbits trying to find a new home.
6:20 I like how the dog just stopped to pee next to a power line tower
Eso demuestra que el perro solo jugaba XD
As a kid, I was so traumatised by the first scene that I don't ever remember watching this the whole way through. Mum however has said Ive definitely watched it right through numerous times lol
I hate it. I still hate it. HATE it. I was 5 years old when I saw this and I distinctly remember the terror of the "filled in the burrows" scene. Why?
Bigwig standing tall at the end is one of the most heroic things done in any children's story
it was a disturbing and melancholic movie, but somehow i watched it a lot as a kid, i liked to draw the rabbits and i kinda think i learned lots of empathy
i watched this alot as a kid and i dont remember much except for the start of the scene with the sun animation i never remember it being like this that well
I still can’t watch this film 😂😂 I’m 22
It traumatised me as a kid
This has a very similar feel to the animated version of Lord of the rings, i wonder if the same artists and musicians were involved with both movies since they were both made around a similar time. And the voice of the rabbit sounds like the same voice for Aragorn.
Edit, Just googled it, i was right. John Hurt was the same voice actor for both Hazel and Aragorn.
Yes.. the fight scenes in that one also gave me nightmares like this one did…
Different studio
6:03 "I'm gonna crack a rib when I get home..."
ah yes *for all ages* you sure this isn’t a adult movie
It is PG, but also because PG-13 didn’t exist yet until 1984
@@RB01.10 what about r rated?
@@bloxidy8752 The R rating has been around pretty much since the beginning
Considering it’s a story the author originally told his little girls before bed, yeah, I’m pretty sure.
It’s no different than Heavy Metal, Fire and Ice, Wizards, Fantastic planet, Spine of night, Batman mask of the phantasm, Ninja Scroll etc
“DOGS ARENT DANGEROUS!”
Infamous last words
The most disturbing part for me is when they first meet the Cannibal rabbits. Seemed like they were cultists
My dad took me to see this when I was 5 in 1978. He regretted that decision .. I had nightmares for weeks after we saw it.
This movie gave me nightmares as a kid even the dog scene
Same
That buried scene is why I’m now speaking out against the gassing of innocent animals that’s still going on!
I have a feeling that scene was meant to represent the gas chambers used in Nazi concentration camps. Where the Jewish people were killed in the worst ways.
The soundtrack had a lot to do with the trauma...very dramatic. Very HORRIBLE blood scenes tho!
The worst thing about it is that the film somehow got a U rating by the BBFC. In America, that's the equivalent of rated G. *G!!!* Watership Down should not be rated G! I would have given it a PG, or at worst a PG-13. I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say whoever ran the BBFC at the time just wanted to go home in a hurry that day, so he/she slapped a U rating on it and called it a day, and now we all have to suffer for it.
Pretty much
Or because it's an animated film and they thought that it was a cute film about bunnies
Yep...and because it was rated a U I watched it when I was 3 or 4 years old and had nightmares for years. I only got over my fear of rabbits when I was 12 or 13 because of the trauma from this movie 🥲
@@user-qy5yk4lk9z good you're back
To be fair, Film Rating was different back in the 70s. A lot of cowboy movies were rated G at the time despite having guns and death everywhere and PG-13 wasn't a thing yet and wouldn't be until Temple of Doom came out.
You forgot the scene where hazzle gets shot
This retraumatizes me. Horrifying as a child to see these scenes but somehow I still liked the movie at the same time lol
I remember going to stay with some friends when I was about 10. They lived in a massive country house and in the garden were wild rabbits that was all open area. This cartoon came into my mind straight away and “Buried” really disturbed me. My friends never did anything to the rabbits, but listening to the sounds of the scene over and over in my head was just something I can’t put into words.
I remember watching this as a kid, and renting it and the series version several times from the library (way back before streaming services). It didn't occur until I saw it again as a teen how messed up it really was for a young kid to watch. I think growing up treating our pets at home made me a bit immune to all the animal gore lol, maybe that and the Warriors books. I'm reading the book for the first time rn!
Im also reading watership down for the first time currently. Its been really good so far, and after finishing im gonna rewatch the movie😅
3:50 honesty this is more disturbing than the dog part
How the actual fuck did this movie get the British equivalent of a G-rating?!?
It is PG in the US, but also because PG-13 wasn’t around yet
I’ve always been into horror stuff and this is no exception
😂😂😂😂 horror this is not horror its about wild rabbits moving Warren's because humans destroy their home
the one about the dead bunnies blocking exits traumatized me as a small child but i forgot what movie it was but i finally found it
One of the many reasons 80s kids are messed up
I saw this, wizards, fire and ice and lord of the rings 1978 with my eleven and fifteen year old brothers when I was five 35 years ago and were early exposures to adult animation even Simpsons shorts on fox
@@Johnlindsey289 I am around the same age, but I never saw animated lord of the rings. Instead, my parents thought "the Dark Chrystal" would be a fun movie to watch as a 7 year old... I could only calm down by watching Watership down after that... 😭
@@cmo5173
Love Dark Crystal too since 4 and been one of my favorite fantasy movies and one of the things that made me a Sci-fi/fantasy geek since
@@Johnlindsey289 I am a bit of a Fantasy/Sci-fi geek too. Love the dark chrystal too, but ngl... the whole sucking out life essence thing scared the s#it out of me as a kid.
my mum and dad let me watch this when i was around 10, i was born in 2005, and this shit scarred me for the past 6 years - i am 16 now. i want to watch it again, but dont at the same time
Thank you. Trying to explain how simultaneously terrifying and entrancing this movie was as a kid just isn't possible. My sister's and I watched it all the time, by choice, as little kids 😅
I used to have nightmares about rabbits chasing me.... now I see where they came from 😅
I remember watching an animation meme of this movie, five years later it comes back into my head. And so I finally watch it, I now have nightmares.
I used to watch this all the time on HBO when I was 8 years old. I actually had mild anxiety issues because of it. It touched so many emotions that I went on to read the book.
Years later, as I began to learn about the Holocaust, this movie suddenly came to mind. It was a surreal moment because I realized the point of the story that had escaped me in my younger years.
What disturbs me is that this movie was for kids…
whenever you think it is a children's flick, it immediately becomes psychedelic
My mind still boggles how this was rated a 'U'.
the last one deserves a *laugh track*
Remember someone who really loved this movie saying "watership down isn't a violent movie, the violence is just a part of it, don't compare it to graphic media". So i came to watch what everyone was hyping up as so traumatic.
Even as an adult who loves this genre of movie, and much darker horror than that, i have to say... i really can't blame anyone for just thinking of it as the violent rabbit movie. i HAVE seen much worse, but the way the blood is animated, the artistic representations of the rabbits' horrors, i mean... jesus christ? it may only be 7 minutes, less if you don't found the field scene, but what IS there is still way more graphic than what you'd normally see, even in your Scary kids movies like NIHM. and the score turns what might have just been a sad or tense moment in a nature documentary into something outright horrifying.
at the same time, i definitely wanna see the whole thing now.
Its a genuinely beautiful movie. Give it a chance
The background water colour art is beautiful.
There's a very disturbing scene from the movie I saw in the theater when I was 4 and it's not in this video... where we see rabbits in the burrow, and it's spiraling, and they're getting torn to shreds with blood everywhere, it was traumatizing as a kid and I Cannot find that deleted scene anywhere.
I've seen that scene years back on British television in the 80's.
But I don't know if it's been cut out of the dvd release.
The scene was in the VHS release though before dvd was even around.
I first watched this around age 7. I remember loving it and being terrified by all these scenes at the same time. Hearing the song Bright Eyes makes me cry. Watching the end of this cartoon makes me cry. I LOVE Hazel so much. Watching the Netflix series also makes me cry (at the end). I strongly recommend the book. It's so much better than the films. I also cried when I listened to the book on audio.
What is it about bloody cartoons that make me physically sick every time I watch them?
Especially when animals are involved.
Same. I don’t wince when I see real human blood, but when I see animal or animated blood I feel sick.
Yes! I've thought this since forever. Very little REAL violence or blood in films disturbs me, but when it's animated, I can't stomach it for some reason. It's so jarring.
How do you feel about Heavy Metal, Fire and Ice, Wizards, Spawn TAS, DC animation and Japanese animation stuff like Fist of the North Star?
Don’t watch Happy tree friends
As a dad now I'm amazed I was allowed to watch this as a kid and not be scarred, but I remember it being brutal and disturbing. My kid would have nightmares if she watched this now compared to the sugarpuff stuff they have now. I mean I get animal brutality but. Thank fuck this isn't on!
What parent would let a child watch this????
Unfortunately mine did and we all regretted it
Mine
I saw this, wizards and fire and ice back in 87 at five and I saw Heavy Metal, American pop, Hey good looking and Vampire Hunter D
Bro I thought this was a kids movie 💀
Yeah an 80’s kids movie. They were a different breed entirely back then.
This film gave me such nightmares as child! Along with The Witches (especially the parts where the boys get turned into mice) and a film called Pinocchio and The Emperor of the Night which came out in 1987 and is meant to be a sequel to the first story. Only it was made by a different company than Disney and it has a horrific scene where Pinocchio is slowly turned back into a puppet by being forced to dance by a creepy puppet master. Pinocchio is even begging for it stop during the whole thing too, really messed me up when I was little 😰
3:48 this scene THIS FUCKING SCENE WAS THE NIGHTMARE OF MY CHILDHOOD
Same man. Gave me nightmares for weeks and just hearing the music that plays during this scene freaks me out. Some traumas you never outgrow.
@@destinymcintire2188 fr
To this day I still can't watch that scene 😖
Never seen this movie before. But I have known about it for a long time but never actually watched the movie or any clips until recently. And now I realize it’s much more disturbing with the actual audio. And the music is just so haunting to listen to.
Moment of silence for the parents who thought this was a kid's show
Jesus fookong Christ this is just pure nightmare fuel...
I know right 😃
Its like from The Matrix, when they made the anthill reference. Humans don’t hate them just don’t really care bc they’re in the way
This film gave me nightmares as a kid
I didn’t know children horror movies were a thing 😂
Atleast old cartoons didn't think we were vegetables as kids
I can't believe this move is rated PG!
It was released before PG-13 was created.
@@RB01.10 When PG actually meant something
@@RB01.10
Red Dawn was first PG-13 movie
General Woundwort is the most terrifying villain ever.
This is no Peter Rabbit film. It feels like a horror film. Watership Down I'd say serves as the darkest film in animation I have and will ever know. Still, even all the fears won't stop me from loving the characters. Fiver I say is the most important character because he foresaw a terrible fate that was going to happen to their warren. Without him, his brother Hazel and a few others would have died. Of course the same can't be said for what happened to the rest of them back at the warren. Being buried was the scariest scene I have ever seen. Rabbits trapped underground in a clustered panic. It's a fate I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.
Woundwort is a scary bunny. Honestly the film tells us we can underestimate rabbits. They can fight. They must fight to live and thrive.
Bigwig is my favorite rabbit. He's not just strong, he don't take shit from Woundwort and fought as hard as he could against this monster.
7:39 Plottwist he actually won, snapped the dogs neck, buried his body and went into hiding
I still remember how scarred I was for years after watching this film as a kid - heck, and whenever I went to sleep with bedroom's door open, I almost always imagined Woundwort's shadow against the wall outside of the bedroom - that I even wanted to erase Watership Down from my life the best I could. Now I have come to better terms with my traumas to some extent.
Vicious little brutes,aren’t they?
No, it's humans, they're evil
I feel like those creepy and disturbing scenes the music it actually feels like a horror movie like it or child’s play and other movies I think this movie should have gotten a PG-13 for violence and action some scary and disturbing images blood and one use of strong language
Funny you should say that.
The reason it’s PG is because it was released in 1978. Before the PG-13 came about (not until 1984).
Red dawn was first pg13
Fun fact: Chisa in the dangaronpa anime watched this
💀 no wonder.
Amazing how they kept the violent scenes accurate yet the characters are condensed besides Bigwig and maybe keeha
Can't believe i used to watch this when i was 4yrs old.
"You know, for kids!"
- bald guy
Who's here after the new PG rating?
For some weird reason, this movie didn't scare me that much as a kid. But my sibling was so traumatized, she had a nightmare of rabbits eating each other and swore to distance herself from Watership Down for the rest of her life
This movie was heart ripping
It never made a porfit because of this
My teacher in elementary school played this movie for us. I can't remember why or what he showed us this movie for but i watch it now and realize how much the world has changed
Боюсь представить что бы они сняли, если бы делали этот мультфильм не для детской, а для взрослой аудитории
Buried was the most disturbing gor me
Remember that this is meant for CHILDREN
PG-13 didn’t exist yet though
I remember that the Black Rabbit was the first thing for me... After I watched this movie as a kid for the first time I still saw it jumping on the walls of my bedroom....
Me: 😨 *shivering, curled up on the floor*
Goku: What’s wrong with you?
Vegeta: He was watching that rabbit movie.
Me: The horror…