Watership Down (1978) review

Animated adaptation of Richard Adams' novel about a rabbit named Fiver (voiced by John Hurt) who has a vision of destruction and leads his fellow bunny followers to the title location, a supposed utopia - along the way, they have to contend with many enemies, including a dog, a cat and General Woundwort (Harry Andrews) who may or may not be Stalin.  A lot has been read into it - is it about Christianity? Communism? Fascism? Ecological disaster(s)? - because Adams leaves it kind of open for viewer interpretation, but all I'm seeing here are frightened similar-looking creatures scared of everything and some functional (if unimpressive) animation: Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegorical masterpiece that's both efficient and unforgettable, while this is more of a wishy-washy (and downbeat) attempt at replicating that.  They say it's not for children because of the violence ... which is odd, because we were shown this in my 8th grade Catholic school (I probably spent the time drawing in the back of my notebook).