The Plague Dogs *** (1982, voices of John Hurt, Christopher Benjamin, James Bolam) – Classic Movie Review 11,780

Writer/ producer/ director Martin Rosen’s 1982 British-American animated adventure feature The Plague Dogs is a committed, pro-animal rights adult cartoon version of Richard Adams’s 1977 novel about a couple of canines named Rowf (Christopher Benjamin) and Snitter (John Hurt), who flee from an experimental centre research laboratory in Britain and are hunted in case they pose a virus threat to the population.

The Plague Dogs is from the producer-director of the animated movie Watership Down (1978), though it is not as obviously popular as that film, another adaptation of a novel by Adams. Indeed, The Plague Dogs was a headache for Goldcrest Films, who invested £900,000 in it but earned only £308,000, for a loss of £595,000. Jake Eberts of Goldcrest blamed the film’s unhappy ending, unlike the book, and distribution problems.

There are slight pacing and length problems (at 103 minutes), but the drawing and voices are hunky-dory.

Though the film highlights the cruelty of vivisection and animal research, Rosen said it is an adventure rather than an anti-vivisection film.

Voices: John Hurt, James Bolam, Christopher Benjamin, Judy Geeson, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Nigel Hawthorne, Warren Mitchell, Bernard Hepton, Brian Stirner, John Bennett, John Franklyn-Robbins, Bill Maynard, Malcolm Terris, Penelope Lee, Geoffrey Matthews, Philip Locke, Brian Spink, Tony Church, Anthony Valentine, William Lucas, Dandy Nichols, Patrick Stewart, Rosemary Leach and Percy Edwards.

The theme song ‘Time and Tide’ is composed and sung by Alan Price.

The film was animated in Britain and San Francisco between 1979 and 1982. British animators Arthur Humberstone, Alan Simpson, George Jackson and Colin White came from the Watership Down unit. The US crew includes Brad Bird, Phil Robinson and Retta Scott.

In 1977 Jake Eberts and David Puttnam founded independent film production company Goldcrest Films, and acted as president and CEO. His first venture was Watership Down.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,780

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Snitter (John Hurt).