smallgang – Band Blog

I just happened upon this film while scrolling through films on the Lovefilm website the other day and confess to have never heard of it before, although as it’s by the same team who made Watership Down (and adapted from another Richard Adams novel), I’m guessing that at least some of my generation may have seen this while growing up at some point on Sunday TV and been mildly traumatised by the experience. Yes, for those who found the animated Watership Down to be just not tragic, bleak or weird enough, The Plague Dogs is the film for you.
The film begins in a research facility where animal experimentation is rife, with the first scene showing Labrador Rowf (one of the two main characters, voiced by Christopher Benjamin) being forcibly drowned, as scientists measure his stamina levels. He’s then taken back to his cage, where his neighbour, smooth terrier Snitter (the other main character, voiced by John Hurt) is introduced. An act of serendipity results in Rowf’s cage door being left unlocked by one of the scientists, and with some canine cunning, they both manage to escape from the facility and into the wilds of the Lake District, where it becomes apparent the facility is based. Having been imprisoned here for a considerable time, Snitter is the only one who remembers that some humans are ‘masters’, and will look after them rather than subject them to acts of cruelty as the scientists (or ‘whitecoats’) do. And so, they set out to find such comfort once more, despite being unfamiliar with the wild terrain.
Struggling at first to adapt to the wildness, they soon meet a canny fox, brilliantly named ‘The Tod’, who trains them in the ways of sheep-hunting and chicken-stealing. Inevitably, this soon causes concern amongst the local farmers, and the situation escalates (as exposited mainly through heard-but-not-seen conversations) until the research facility becomes implicated and police and politicians start to become involved. It is revealed that research was being carried out with the bubonic plague (though not on the dogs), which further adds to the vilification of Snitter and Rowf, and the hunt for them intensifies…
Although a bit rougher around the edges than Watership, The Plague Dogs is still a brilliantly dark British animation, and it similarly benefits from the cream of British actors bringing the characters to (wild) life. John Hurt is particularly outstanding as Snitter, who, as a result of an experimental brain operation, increasingly struggles to tell fantasy from reality. This results in some fantastically surreal dialogue as Snitter attempts to come to terms with the situation at hand. Admittedly, one or two of the events that occur seem a little stretched (the human body count is remarkably high considering) but I feel this only adds to the enjoyably idiosyncratic nature of the story. Additionally, for those comic book lovers out there, I would be surprised if this wasn’t a substantial influence on Grant Morrison’s We3 mini-series.
Needless to say, it doesn’t end happily for any of the main characters but the poetic quality of the climactic scene is really quite beautiful. Unfortunately, it would appear that for reasons unknown to me, that this film has been overlooked or simply forgotten about in critic and public circles. This is a shame, as it is of real artistic worth, and shows that adult themes were being successfully tackled in animated films long before Pixar began drawing.
So, if you’re looking for a hidden gem, or perhaps want to traumatise some children of your own, this comes highly recommended. However, a double-bill with ‘Watership’ might not be a good idea, unless you want to get really upset.