The Plague Dogs

Bloody injuries and death, some gore. Animals hunt and kill for food. Experimentation on animals includes forcing a dog to swim until exhaustion. Dead dogs disposed of by maintenance staff. Reference to a dog receiving vivisection. Another dog behaves aggressively toward humans when feeling threatened. Human character is accidentally shot and another falls to their death. Dogs eat decaying flesh of dead animals. Farmers and soldiers hunt with shotguns. Reference to the bubonic plague.

Language used includes "bugger," "bloody hell," "twits," "arse," "bastards," and "damn."

Reference to a character smoking tobacco. Pubs shown from the outside.

Parents need to know that The Plague Dogs is an animated adaption of the book by Richard Adams -- who also wrote Watership Down -- and contains some violence and distressing scenes. A bleak story about two dogs -- Snitter (John Hurt) and Rowf (Christopher Benjamin) -- who escape the harsh confines of an animal testing facility, there are few positive messages. But Snitter and Rowf do show bravery and kindness toward one another as they try to survive in the wild. The movie's human characters -- nearly all male -- are mostly portrayed in opposition to Snitter and Rowf, referring to the dogs and other animals without emotion and in terms of them being research subjects. The violence is intermittent and in keeping with life in the natural world. Animals are hunted and killed for food as a necessity. Snitter and Rowf are also pursued with weapons when they are identified as an unwitting threat to humans. Snitter is involved in human deaths -- including an accidental shooting -- but expresses guilt and remorse about them. He also alludes to mental illness and trauma when he recounts the events surrounding his master's death. But these allusions are often dismissed as "turns" or "going mad." There is some swearing including "bastard," "arse," and "bugger." There is also one minor reference to a character smoking. Parents should also be aware that two versions of the movie exist, an 86-minute cut and a 103-minute one (reviewed here). The former is edited for length and violent content.

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