This version if I recall retains the horror aspect? What worries me is when they change the ending for some disturbing kind of happy ever after, the kind I can't imagine. Like what they did to the Little Mermaid. Next they'll be making a version of the Happy Prince (Hans Christian Anderson) where he remains a gold statue and keeps his jewels.
Did the Watership Down remake get sanitized? I never watched it, having been part of a generation of Australians who all got taken as school children to see it and scarred for life. It was just assumed animations are for kids. It must have been hell for the teachers, dealing with a class of traumatized 6 year olds in a cinema.
Yes it was completely more like the the book, the new animated remake. It was beautiful but far less brutal. Easier for the younger child, certainly. As a fan of the book since a child, I also found the original movie very intense and wasn't keen to revisit it.