I went into this film expecting some kind of bloodbath based on its reputation online, but I was kind of surprised to instead find a pretty mild, mature-feeling movie with an honest depiction of nature and an ultimately hopeful message about the perseverance of life. Not that I should have been surprised having read the book, but if you know anything about this adaptation it’s probably that it’s “the traumatizing rabbit movie”. And sure, I wouldn’t show it to very young children, but the violence is pretty limited and always feels purposeful. I guess since it’s an animated animal film, the shock of Cartoon Animals Bleeding supersedes everything for many people. However I found it fairly easy to watch overall (give or take Holly’s description of suffocating rabbits).

The mythos of the rabbits in this world, which centers fear and cunning and the fight for survival, has always been a highlight for me in the story whether book or movie because it so clearly stems from and reinforces the base survival instincts of rabbits. It just makes so much sense and feels so integrated with the way the rabbits live in the world, unlike something like Warrior Cats which treats all its characters like stand-ins for humans. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either approach, I like both, but I find the naturalistic one very refreshing since I don't encounter it as often.

I love that this story does not sugarcoat nor dramatize nature. When the balance does get tipped in either direction, the rabbits pick up on it as wrong: as they journey they encounter other warrens who live according to different perspectives, whether by giving up the fight for survival entirely and accepting death in exchange for comfort as in Cowslip’s case, or by letting the fight consume them to the point that they no longer value their fear, like Woundwort. In both cases, these rabbits are rejecting a spiritually important part of their nature, costing them and their warrens dearly. It speaks to me in some way. Which is kind of funny because I basically have the Cowslip mentality in real life, but maybe that's exactly why. I could go on but honestly I love the novel and my enjoyment of this film is probably inflated a bit just because I’m able to fill in many gaps on my own. There's not much here that's movie-specific that I have strong feelings about other than being sad that Bluebell didn't make the cut. I also really like the voice acting. The way the rabbits speak feels very natural, which is fitting, though I also feel like that was sort of the way voice acting was back when this movie came out. Man can we bring this style of voice acting back please...

Anyways I always cry at the end of this story. This movie has proved to be a good watch for me when I feel like I'm drowning in hopelessness.