Watership Down (1978) Traumatizes America’s Children

This animated rabbit movie ran on PBS at a time when “animated movie” meant “Disney” and PBS meant “Mr. Rogers”, so parents made a bunch of unwarranted assumptions about a movie that is a lot closer to “The Shining” than you’d think. There were a couple of scenes involving torrents of blood, death itself hopping around in rabbit form, generally more than your average six year old in 1980 could just take on the chin. If you know ten Americans of a certain age, you know one who had a year of “Watership Down” nightmares.