And it ran right into a bad parenting problem, especially when VCRs entered the home. Lazy parents looking for some “me time” would say “oh it’s about bunnies” put it in, plop the kid in front of the TV and go do whatever then the movie gets to the splashes of blood bunnies tearing each other apart part and there’s screams from the living room and nightmares for weeks. You can do the same story and not make it quite as scary, and maybe tone up the packaging so people don’t assume it’s sweat and innocent.
“Watership Down” and “The Wild Geese” came out about the same time in 1978. I was at Ft. Huachuca, AZ, at the time and a couple of us went to see “The Wild Geese” knowing it was about mercenaries in Africa. A couple of marines chided my friend and I about ‘going to see a nature movie about birds.’ The said they were going to see “Watership Down” because it was about people escaping from a sinking ship, or so they thought. Afterwards, we asked them how there movie was and they said “It was about a bunch of (word deleted) bunnies.”