‘Eagerly anticipated’ hardly does justice to the clamor surrounding Richard Adams’ followup to the publishing phenomenon that was WATERSHIP DOWN. (SHARDIK, in-between, doesn’t feature anthropomorphized talking animal protagonists.) In the event, PLAGUE DOGS, the doomed odyssey of two laboratory dogs, escaped from some mysterious animal experiment station in England's Lake District and possible plague carriers, had a lesser order of success. So too with the matched pair of hand-drawn artisan animated features written, produced & directed by Martin Rosen, his only credits as writer/director. Doomed dogs at large no match for a tough, if ultimately uplifting, myth-making bunny tale. Yet a case can be made that DOGS is more suitable for film treatment; the story less fanciful, more focused, less reliant on providence more on the dogs maturing personalities. Same for ‘The Tod,’ the clever/honorable fox who wises up our already damaged specimens, little terrier ‘Snitter’ (sympathetically voiced by John Hurt) and big labrador ‘Rowf’ (gruffly voiced by Christopher Benjamin) to life in the wild. Pessimistic and physically dark, or is before its shattering finale, yet filled with a different sort of beauty when not bursting normal bounds of animation with shocking violence. The complete 103" cut a tougher watch then the safe-for-tv 82" release. (Note our Family Friendly label doesn’t mean a Kiddie Pic. Best for 12 and up.)
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Over-stuffed, but still Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghilbi’s PRINCESS MONONOKE/’97 has a level of violence & terror to match PLAGUE DOGS. OR: WATERSHIP DOWN/'78 https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/04/watership-down-1978.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Back in his early Disney days, Brad Bird (later THE IRON GIANT, THE INCREDIBLES, RATATOUILLE, the best of the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movies) took a break to work on this. (IRON GIANT showing particular influence.)
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