The Americans took Pocahontos and turned it into a marketable love story.
They took Beauty and the Beast - a story about imprisonment, confinement, and Stockholm Syndrome - and turned it into one of the highest grossing animated films of all time.
The Brits took a bunch of cute cuddly rabbits and turned them into bloody killers with the bad guys sounding like Germans.
Yup. No wonder the British Olympic mascots look like ugly one eyed boogers.
Dude, don't lump this Yank into that mess you described. I love this book, indeed it is one of my all-time favorites, and I read it for the first time shortly before the film was shown on HBO -- way back in the very early eighties when I was a very young kid.
And this Yank loved the film as it was -- I still consider it brilliant. Harsh? Yes. Awesome and mesmerizing? Yes. Heartbreaking? Yes. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of Fiver searching for the wounded Hazel, Bigwig in the snare, and especially when Hazel recognizes that he is talking to the Black Rabbit himself. The film handled that scene beautifully.
"It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?" Blade Runner (1982)
The book it was adapted from never had that sort of cute cuddly rabbits, it was a accurate representation of the characters from the book and the situations from the book, IMO.
By the sounds of it, we 'Brits' must have just have taken the book's plot and not watered it down for the sake of the film.
It's all about expectations isn't it?
Americans expect children to be deeply traumatized by anything they get to see that even resembles pain or blood or death. The result of course is a nation of scared to death adults running around with guns and shooting at everything that moves.
The European mentality has always been much more respectful towards the child as a human being, who deserves to be taught about life in all its aspects, the light and the dark alike. Naturally, we turned out to be much less paranoid in later life, and don't feel the need to kill quite so many of our fellow human beings.
There, see how easy it is to paint a dumb stereotype?
Now go watch some dumb american sitcom where daddy will kiss it all better and teach you a valuable life lesson at the end.
"Because you see, Kelly, we all get angry with our friends sometimes. Sometimes even mommy and daddy don't get along. But the important thing is that you always remember to love each other. And to thank Jesus Christ in prayer for all our blessings. And now I'm going to slide on this banana peel."
"Oh Dad! You silly!"
Laughtrack, credits roll. Switch to the next show with exactly the same plotlines, and the special christmas episode in which Danny will slide over a santa hat on top of a banana peel. The wide spectrum of american family entertainment...
The Americans took Pocahontos and turned it into a marketable love story.
They took Beauty and the Beast - a story about imprisonment, confinement, and Stockholm Syndrome - and turned it into one of the highest grossing animated films of all time.
The Brits took a bunch of cute cuddly rabbits and turned them into bloody killers with the bad guys sounding like Germans.
The Brits neutered the Grimm Bros. Whatever point you're driving at falls short.
shareI'm a Brit and I aint interested in Watership Down and not because I hate rabbits because actually I used to have one as a pet (they are sweet loveable creatures) but because I find this film OTT. There are plenty of animations/ cartoons that are not your typical cutesy American-style and they are specifically marketed to teenage/ adult audiences but this one has a universal certificate, which means it is supposedly suitable for all ages but it clearly is too gory and rude for young children. I guess with most Americans they need that happy ending but I'm OK with how The Snowman and The Snowman & The Snow Dog ended (although it would've been nice if both times the Snowman had lived) just because I understood the harsh reality of what they were trying to convey. Even though I don't care for all the blood in WD I can see how it is an integral part of story-telling but I do have a problem with how it's labelled as a kids movie. I also have an issue with people who say things like: "Lame parents stop complaining about it being broadcasted during the day" because I don't think they should be telling people how to raise their children. WD is an inappropriate movie to be screened during hours when young children could be watching. People who tell those parents who complain about that issue usually have that "let your kids run wild" attitude. OK fine if you see WD as good family fun then good for you but I really have a problem with small children watching this as it's far too violent for them and what about the swearing? Do you notice many kids/ teens whose parents are too loose usually end up on the wrong side of the tracks? I'm not saying seeing something scary as a child will turn you into a psycho or something but come on whatever happened to common sense parenting? Hippy parents who think they're cool exposing their children to all sorts of crap at a young age desensitizes them. Is that really a good thing?
share