and I control the decks
carfilledwithfish
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 3988
HP: 88 MP: 7 Lives: 0
|
 Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:25 am
|
 |
|
I MAKE TOO MANY TOPICS IN MEDIA I SWEAR TO FRANIS
The Plague Dogs is a novel by Richard Adams, later made into a film by Nepenthe Productions, who also made a movie based on another one of Adams' novels, Watership Down.
The plot centers around two dogs who escape from an animal testing facility. Rowf has lived in the facility his entire life, and believes that all humans are as evil as the scientists. (referred to as Whitecoats) The other dog, Snitter, fondly remembers his old master, but has gone insane from experiments performed on his brain. After escaping, a rumour gets out that the dogs are carrying the Bubonic Plague.
I like both, but I definitely prefer the film over the novel, for two reasons:
1. Seeing blood and dismemberment on a screen doesn't bother me, but reading the same scene in the book (described in minute detail) made me retch.
2. It's the only animated adaptation of a novel I have seen that not only isn't watered down and made "kid-friendly," but is actually darker than the story it's based on. At the end of the story, the two main characters are swimming out into the ocean. In the book, they are rescued by a boat, and Snitter is returned to his master. However, in the movie, there is no boat, and it's implied that they drown.
If you're reading the book, you will probably have a difficult time understanding the Tod. I read the American version, where his dialect was supposedly toned down from the original, and I still had to stare at his sentences for a while before what he was saying sunk in--and that's with a translation guide at the beginning of the book. He's a bit easier to understand when you're actually hearing his voice, though, so that's another reason to watch the movie instead.
I've heard that Watership Down is more accessible than The Plague Dogs, and is a better choice for a first Richard Adams book, but I haven't read it yet. |
|
