The Plague Dogs

What a gut punch. This is an honest to God true story: I turned this on thinking it was 1984's Wild Beasts aka Belve feroci. It started and I thought right away, "No, this is that movie by the Watership Down guy." By the end I was cursing the film out loud for what it was doing both to its protagonists and my teary eyed self. I didn't discover the music video for Pup's "Sleep in the Heat" until after I knew the song by heart and so it destroyed me. This was equally devastating. What a gut punch

Bleak and utterly British. Will make your children trade in their lincoln logs for Nietzsche novels and question their existence in this corporate-driven dystopia we call modern day. John Hurt rocks the mic as the fox and Patrick Stewart shows us the fruits of his Shakespearean training with a 2-line performance so spot-on there isn't anyone who wouldn't believe he wasn't actually a faceless petty officer in the British Army.

Unrelentingly bleak, its sparse story-telling style, intensely tragic protagonists and the all-consuming aura of dread and persecution that emanate from its every pore make The Plague Dogs an incredibly difficult film to watch. A beautiful script, amazing performances (John Hurt is absolutely incredible) and a subdued yet haunting art-style develop The Plague Dogs into a truly mature animation that delivers a thought provoking experience. Watch it uncut, the drop in visual quality is worth it.

I wish they'd make more dark, adult cartoons like this. The ending is so heartbreaking. Stylistically interesting, with the disconnected human voice-overs.

An arduous journey for the dogs equates to a quite difficult journey for the audience as well. Everything is just so sad. The tone is almost nightmarish with a conclusion that, again, is so freaking sad. Watch with caution.

The happy music comes in when the dogs get beaten by a deer. The rest of this movie uses sad music, you get me.

From the same writer and director that brought us Watership Down comes another bleak story about animals trying to survive in the wild. The two leads are excellent as the hopeful Snitter and the downtrodden Rowf who try to survive in the Scottish (?) wilderness after escaping from a horrifying animal experimentation lab. An amazing story brought to life by Martin Rosen, another excellent animated film for adults that also exposes the horrors of animal experimentation. Must-watch.

Dark, painful but totally understandable. based on the creator of Watership down. British to the brim. including humor,oddness and authenticity.

Drenched in tears. Also the fox was so funny,

There's so much to unpack about this film of humanity's relationship with nature, the dichotomy of feral and tame, the way nature perceives human society, etc that all culminates towards a consistently engaging film that's elevated both by its visuals and narrative choices. The ending is brilliant not just in terms of how it captures its leads characterization and the inherent tragedy of it but also the clever use of red herrings that result in a lot of engaging interpretations.

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! edit: I have been in mourning for 2 days and I dont know if I can recover.

Two dogs escape from an animal testing facility. Their struggle as strays is heartbreaking, but at the same time it feels bittersweet as it's all on them now. They are free, but that freedom has a price like everything else in life. But a contrived scene, where they're almost rescued, leaves a bit of a sour taste to it all. It doesn't ruin it, but it makes me wonder why it was ever included in the first place. Can be a bit on the nose at times, when presented from the humans perspective.

Beautiful animation, absolutely heartbreaking story.

One can't help wondering who this was made for. However, the impressive visuals being the film's strong suit, I'd say pretty much anybody who's able to appreciate the art form of animation, really.

Filme #10.000 no Criticker. Em honra do centenário de Richard Adams. Não é o melhor dos momentos para ver uma das depressivas animações baseadas em livros do Adams, mas também não quero que passe batido. https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/the-plague-dogs/

Martin Rosen follows up "Watership Down" with another animated adaptation of a Richard Adams novel. The animation budget is obviously not very high, but it's used to magnificent effect. The film does a superb job of immersing you in the dogs's world creating an environment that feels constantly threatening. Like "Watership Down", this is a dark and disturbing, but very rewarding film.

Its brutally sad and depressing there is no redemption or a think to learn. And even for that year animation and color grading is sucks. We get it, they're try to change their fate but it was a moot effort and they'll meet with their sad end eventually. So we get the perspective of the author about life but. This is just a bit harsh and biased. Powerful story but like ı said visualy bad execution. And its just too much depressing.

This movie just fucking sucks. Everything about this is depressing. I hurt thinking about this movie.

It's hard to build a story around characters that try to change their fate when it's futile and just as brutal as their original one. I'm not a slave to happy endings, but there should be some redemption, something learned. There's not a bit of it in this.

A-

"First blood", canine version.

The ending is the bow on the tear stained package. Touching and remarkable.

A brutal masterpiece that had me feeling a depth of emotion I have rarely felt in an animated film. Beautifully tragic, it's rare that ANY film can capture such *real* emotion, and really stick with you like this film has. It's a bleak, tragic, brutal, gorgeous masterwork with a lot of heart and a lot of truth. Absolutely must be seen.

Cormac McCarthy style of realism. Only a rare few films seem to hit that oppressive, overriding negative tone just right & this one does the same. Water-colour back drops with some classic animation work over the top & the version I saw had grain running all through it, which added to the mossy, Lakes district greyzone feeling this film is set in. Nice stoic hopelessness.

It is easy to assume "oh great, another Richard Adams animals story", but you would be missing out. This is a far cry from Watership Down and almost as good. It's bleak and sad, and it rings true to this day. John Hurt is an amazing voice actor and more people should have used his talents in this regard.

extremely oppressive but not toward any useful purpose

Having never read the book, but knowing the reputation, I expected a sort of big boy version of Secret of NIMH. I was wrong. The animal testing stuff was only part of the story, the rest was a sort of mental health fable so tragic it would be completely unbearable if the characters were human. Beautiful, beautiful film. Bleak, but beautiful.

Edgy story. Pretty touching ending. Some interesting exploration of the themes of alienation, hysteria, morality and friendship. Love the artwork. Did not like it as much as Watership Down.

No good will come of watching this movie. Unrelentingly sad.

Well done and memorable, but I'm deducting huge points because this was so bleak and it literally got its point across in the first five minutes. I particularly enjoyed the fox, and John Hurt's incomparable voice acting.

Kind of glad I'm only now getting around to this, cause my young self would have been terrified.

One of the most unremittingly bleak films I have ever seen. Brilliant animation and direction; really enjoyed the score as well fitted the film perfectly as did the voice acting. Some of the themes give it an added depth as well for future reflection.

Definitely not for kids. The film is similar in feel to Watership Down (from the same author and director) but much darker. The animation is decent and the voice acting is above average. The dogs in the film are in many ways broken and hopeless, and the plot focuses more on their attempts to survive under increasingly difficult circumstances than any kind of adventure story.

A bit ponderous. And yes, that is Hurt's voice.

(Uncut) This is on an entirely different plane of thought to Watership Down; sacrificing satiating melodrama for the cerebral, the paranoia, the allegoric dystopia.

Excellent.