Watership Down: disturbing children’s film finally loses its U rating
The 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams’s novel no longer feels ‘suitable for all’

“For 45 years, it has menaced our children, bringing unbridled horror and trauma into countless young lives,” said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. “But at last, good sense has prevailed” – and “Watership Down” has been regraded from a U to a PG. In its latest annual report, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) notes that the 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams’s novel no longer feels “suitable for all”.
Normally, I might brand a decision like this as tiresome wokery, said Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail. Not this time. “Watership Down” is “possibly the most disturbing children’s film ever made”. Surreal and full of foreboding, it lures in young viewers with twee images of cartoon rabbits – then “unleashes gory violence laden with satanic overtones”. All of which is accompanied by Art Garfunkel’s song “Bright Eyes”, the “saccharine sweetness” of its tune disguising the deep morbidity of its lyrics. With lines inviting us to follow “the river of death downstream”, Art is referring to rabbits being buried alive and tearing each other’s throats out with their teeth. “He was top of the UK charts for six weeks with that. What were we thinking?”
But where will the BBFC stop now, asked Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Will it rethink the death of Bambi’s mother, and Kaa’s “creepy eyes” in “The Jungle Book”? Who knows, said Robbie Collin, but we can only hope that “one day, the bloodcurdling ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ will receive the 18 certificate it deserves”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) recipe
The Week Recommends German dish is fresh, creamy and an ideal summer meal
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"