Review of The Plague Dogs (1982) by Kenneth B — 10 May 2012

Martin Rosen's second animated film is a powerful piece of work, which is based on Richard Adams novel of the same name. The Plague Dogs is perhaps one of the grittiest films of its kind that I have seen, comparable to films like Barefoot Gen. This is a hearfelt account of the hardships of two dogs who escape from an animal testing lab and have to do all they can to survive live in the Lake District wilderness. The perceived haven of the real world that they envisioned soon turns out to be anything like Rowf and Snitter had hoped. However the friendship that is established through out the film between the two dogs and a rogue fox whom they meet, is touching and at times heartbreaking. To delve much further into the story would be to spoil certain aspects of the film, so that shall be left down to the viewer to discover.

Suffice to say, the main strength of Plague Dogs is paradoxically the reason the film has found itself in obscurity. Exactly how do you make a commercial success of an animation of this nature? The films strength is the bravery with which Rosen tackles the story. Much like his treatment of Watership Down, he doesn't dilute the vigour of the source material, to do so would be to insult the messages within the story. The result is a largely downbeat film that isn't suitable for, nor is it likely to interest younger children.

My DVD of Plague Dogs includes the edited 80 minute version and the original uncut UK theatrical release which is roughly 100 minutes. It's worth mentioning that the original version is in poor shape, it hasn't been restored at all, in fact it's not in much better condition than the old video tape that I used to have. It's a shame that this film that has been neglected over the past 30 years continues to receive such shoddy treatment. Perhaps they still just don't know how to market a film about anthropomorphic dogs, which is also about vivisection, is as lo-fi as any animation film that I have seen, contains strong language (albeit infrequent) and a constant underlying brutality. Yet underneath it all there is a film about loyalty, friendship and hope. Perhaps this is a case of Shawshank without the Redemption and lets face it, people in general don't take well to films that don't have a pay off, some kind of reward for their hard work.

That said, anyone with a heart that isn't made of stone will get the appeal of this wonderful film if only they knew about it. Criminally snubbed by the mainstream, this what animation really should be. Profoundly moving, it's just a shame that it's fearless storytelling style didn't garner greater attention.