Martin Rosen

Martin Rosen is an American British filmmaker and theater producer, born in 1936, best known for writing, producing and directing animated adaptations of the novels of British author Richard Adams. His 1978 film Watership Down, adapted from Adams's 1972 novel about a warren of rabbits searching for a new home, became a landmark of adult oriented animated filmmaking in Britain, noted for its unusually intense and frightening content compared with conventional family animation of its time. Rosen followed it with The Plague Dogs in 1982, another Adams adaptation, which followed two dogs that escape a research laboratory. Both films departed from the Disney influenced style dominant in animation at the time, using a more naturalistic visual approach and unflinching subject matter aimed at older audiences. Rosen's work as director and producer on these two films remains his most significant contribution to media history, establishing a precedent for serious dramatic content within feature animation.