The Plague Dogs
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DVD details
Actor: Christopher Benjamin, James Bolam, John Bennett, John Franklyn-Robbins, Tony ChurchBrand: Trinity
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-08-17
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: T-1283
Studio: Trinity Home Ent
Product features:
- Determined to escape the confines of an evil laboratory, two dogs make a flight for freedom into the rugged hills. Panicked by the cries of other animals on their way out, they accidentally break a vial used by plague researchers, and when news gets out that the two could be infected, the human world launches the deadliest hunt. Pursued at every turn, the dogs are forced to retreat further and fur
DVD Reviews of The Plague Dogs
DVD Review: Hummm. Still functioning despite the amputations!
Summary: 4 Stars
"Plague Dogs", based on Richard Adams' (Watership Down, Shardik) 1977 novel, is among the most substantive offerings in animation films. Snitter (terrier), and Rowf (Black Lab) escape from an animal research lab conducting "experiments" on dogs, monkeys, rabbits and others, including: Bubonic Plague, experimental brain surgery, sensory deprivation, and (often-fatal) recovery-from-drowning. Encountered on the run, a worldly-wise fox (The Tod) helps Snitter and Rowf evade re-capture and survive in the wild while seeking a vaguely understood, permanent safe haven.
The animation is fine, similar to Watership Down's. But it is the novel's substance and attendant characterizations that underlie the film: a brutal perspective, from that of two anthropomorphized dogs and a fox, about survival needs; animal researchers' clinical depravity; anthropocentricity; and a welter of CYA political and press mendacities. At its core is a fascinating character study: that of poor Snitter's brain surgery-induced delirious yet moving confusions and imaginings; Rowf's ever-fatalistic, aggressive, no-nonsense realism; and the Tod's sympathetic opportunism.
At 150,000 words, the novel (Knopf, 1978, 1st American hardbound edition) also has a bonus: 20-plus pages of carefully-drawn Wainwright illustrations (13 full-page, eight being route maps), plus a two-page frontispiece. While a quarter of the novel centers on various humans and their conversations, the film cleverly maintains interest by keeping the focus on Snitter, Rowf and the Tod, pertinent human conversations largely presented as voice-overs. But though the film carefully replicates Snitter's and Rowf's trek and manages to convey some personality subtleties, one needs the novel's far richer prose (Adams' prose rivaling Tolkien's) for a rewardingly deeper understanding of the characters and out-of-context scenes depicted.
Though intriguingly four minutes short of the original's reported run-time, Australian (PAL region 4) sources offer a 99-minute "extended release" DVD viewable in the US with a PAL-enabled system and region-free player. This version, reportedly made from an only-surviving copy, has non-re-mastered but adequate picture-sound quality. Also included is an 82-minute amputated re-mastered version. Struggling for film release, its producers obviously encountered lowest-common-denominator marketing mentalities, shunning of graphic depictions, script change demands appeasing the pro-fox-hunting lobby, and having to manufacture several thrills. Two notable changes from the novel concern the fates of the Tod, and of Snitter/Rowf. Even ignoring detrimental changes, this reviewer awards just four stars for this 80 percent of the original film.
Several reviewers caution prospective buyers to deny young children seeing this film. Would such folks also shield children from Oliver Twist, The Yearling, Race of the Swift, Cooper's Leather Stocking tales, or Felix Salten's Bambi? When this reviewer was in grade-school over fifty years since, it was customary to have such books read by the teacher, generally a chapter after lunch; or on one's own at home! Were that Plague Dogs had been available! Presumably no permanent damage resulted to this reviewer from such dangerous childhood adventures, though some might disagree! And do you suppose the film's missing four minutes were to accommodate the novel's ending, hinted in the closing scene?
Description of The Plague Dogs
Determined to escape the confines of an evil laboratory, two dogs make a flight for freedom into the rugged hills. Panicked by the cries of other animals on their way out, they accidentally break a vial used by plague researchers, and when news gets out that the two could be infected, the human world launches the deadliest hunt. Pursued at every turn, the dogs are forced to retreat further and further until their time runs out and they must make the ultimate decision ? and take their chance with fate.Bestsellers in DVD
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