Watership Down (film) the US box office, earning only US$3 million against a budget of $4 million. The British Board of Film Classification have been criticized for declaring Watership Down as a U rating, which is intended for anyone at least 4 years of age. The film was released to theatres in the UK before the PG rating was created in the UK, but had never been rerated after the PG rating came. The fact that the film is an animation about rabbits makes many unaware parents mistake the film for being a typical child-friendly film, arguing that the frequency of gore, death,
Watership Down (film) rendered in a narrated simple cartoon fashion, the animation style changes to a detailed, naturalistic one. There are concessions to render the animals anthropomorphic only to suggest that they have human voices and minds, some facial expressions for emotion, and paw gestures. The animation backgrounds are watercolors. Only one of the predators, the farm cat Tab, is given a few lines, the rest remaining mute. The backgrounds and locations, especially Efrafa and the nearby railway, are based on the diagrams and maps in Richard Adams's original novel. Most of the locations in the movie either exist or were based on