I am going to quickly rant here:
The producers which import anime or adapted books have frequently censored things which does not really deserve to be censored. Most is just an excuse for creative changes.
I can think of many:
Gatchaman: was first adapted into Battle of the Planets. While they added a beautiful and suspenseful sound track to it, they also did many other unnecessary changes. And while it was violent, and many people died in the film, it really is not that serious. And I really doubt that because it has war violence in the film, it is not approving wars nor violence.
Lolo The Penguin: So it had a few seconds of shooting penguins and bleeding and drowning in the water. This only happened with four penguins including the leader and 3 random back ground characters. It happened so quickly that you have to pause to count them. And a leopard seal is killed by an orca. However, the characters and sound track and even script was changed entirely in the first american and canadian releases.
Ralph Bakshi's films: such as Wizards, where a two legged horse (mutated because of radiation) its eye shot out with an arrow, entirely on screen. From my understanding Wizards is a PG film.
Another, Fritz The Cat is X rated. Although I think its intention was to be X rated.
I think many people insisted that animation must be kid-friendly. In fact, pre-school friendly. I don't believe in hiding the truth. For example, The book adaptations produced by Chuck Jones are just fine. They aren't preschool friendly, and they don't stray from the original book.
In the next example, I am going to tell you about some other book adaptation that did not stray from the book either. (Although I wonder why either book or movie was ever made to begin with.)
When I was researching Dot and The Kangaroo and then I found a link to somebody's blog "five kid friendly films that are too scary for kids" (or something) which listed Watership Down. First time I heard of it.
Thinking it was criticized for being "too violent" just like anything else is, (even Looney Tunes & Tom and Jerry) I decided to see if I could watch a clip. When I did:
I have watched all of these that I mentioned above, even some X Rated films. But I just could not watch the rest. I am not interested in finding a DVD or whatever. Watership Down seems to make the X rated films seem G rated.
So now if I wasn't furious about the poor treatment of the anime dubs, I certainly am now.
It is also interesting that the same year Watership Down was turned into a film was the same year Battle of The Planets was made. That is just wrong.
Am I correct that Watership Down is a film targeted for kids, adapted from a book also targeted for kids?
Others say they studied the book (and film!) in school?
You cannot possibly say that Gatchaman or Lolo contains more violence (and blood, specifically) than Watership Down.
I know that a film is different from television, especially one intended to be a "Saturday Morning Cartoon". and I know that The U.S.A. adapting an Anime is not the same thing as The U.K. adapting a book, but I am still furious. Especially if for some reason I did not want to watch it. It is the first time I did not want to watch the whole thing. AND it was rated PG?! Even if it was a film, I don't think that it should be PG?!
I guess I am the only person that disagrees with Watership Down.
If it is true that Watership Down is meant for kids, I am surprised such a thing exists.
Can somebody provide more examples "Kid Friendly" yet extremely violent films?
Is The Plague Dogs another one?
I am going to include a badly designed poll.