In spite of its numerous qualities, discussions of Watership Down (Rosen, 1978) tend to focus on its scenes of graphic violence. Often characterized as traumatizing for its bloody realism and injury detail, the film’s cultural legacy is inextricable from the impact of such scenes on child viewers. The vitriol inscribed in complaints against the film’s violence attests to the general lack of similar displays in popular animated films. In this respect, Watership Down automatically offers a useful case study for thinking about the ethics of animated violence. However, that the film offers radically different kinds and styles of violence in its short runtime – from the mythical, folkloric prologue sequence to the on-screen deaths of several main characters – provides room for reflection on the very process and production of cel animation. In particular, where the ethics of enacting violence against animals in a live-action film might be considered less ambiguous, the situation in animation is not as clear and defined. Focusing on the opening sequence, it is the objective of this chapter to elucidate what Watership Down brings to the discussion of animated violence and to the ethics of ‘drawing blood.’
