The Plague Dogs
Short description
The Plague Dogs follows two dogs who escape from an animal research laboratory and try to survive in the countryside. Rowf is an older, hardened labrador, while Snitter is a gentler terrier who still remembers life with a kind owner. A fox named The Tod helps them get by in the wild, but their freedom is short-lived. Word spreads that the dogs might be carrying disease, and search parties are soon joined by the military in hunting them down.
The film was directed by Martin Rosen, who also wrote and produced it, adapting Richard Adams's novel. It was his second feature as director, arriving four years after Watership Down, and the two films share a preoccupation with animals facing a hostile human world. The voice cast is led by John Hurt as Snitter and Christopher Benjamin as Rowf, with James Bolam as The Tod, Nigel Hawthorne as Dr. Boycott, Warren Mitchell as Tyson, and Judy Geeson among the supporting players.
Released in October 1982, the film was made on a budget of about six million dollars. On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.8 out of 10 from 308 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 is based on nine reviews. The two scores sit close together, suggesting that professional reviewers and general viewers responded to the film in broadly similar terms.
What's left behind the scenes
- The animated film was entirely hand-drawn. No computers or rotoscoping techniques (an animation technique where a cartoon is created by tracing over live-action footage frame by frame with real actors and sets) were used in its creation.
- This was Dandy Nichols’ last widely released work (she voiced Phyllis). Nichols died on February 6, 1986, from pneumonia and heart disease.
- The phrase that Snitter throws to the vulture (“Before we start, make sure we’re really dead”) is used in the composition “Testure” by the Canadian post-industrial group Skinny Puppy. The title of the composition plays on the words “test” and “torture.” Both the lyrics and the music video equate medical tests and animal research with cruel treatment.
- Along with the animated films “Watership Down” (1978), “The Last Unicorn” (1982), and “The Secret of NIMH” (1982), “Cats Don't Look Back” is one of the darkest animated films. The American Film Association gave the films “The Secret of NIMH” and “The Last Unicorn” ratings of PG (parental guidance suggested) and G (general audiences), respectively. All four films were made before the PG-13 rating (parents strongly cautioned) was introduced. The PG rating for “Cats Don't Look Back” was changed to PG-13 in 1985.
- The film's ending is much darker than the ending of Richard Adams' novel (1920-2016). Director Martin Rosen filmed the cartoon based on the manuscript provided by Rosen to the publishing house, after which the publishers convinced Adams to change the ending. In the book, Snitter's owner survives and saves him and Rowf. The monkey in the hyperbaric chamber also remains alive.
Auditions in India
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