Britannia

1993 0h 5m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 5

Animation

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The history of empire. A British bulldog answers his mistress's call. He tacks down the Union Jack to cover the British Isles, then begins playing with a small ball that's the world. At first it's innocent play. The dog discovers tea in India; then, the dog shakes gold out of Africa. Gradually, innocence gives way to more and more ferocious play with the ball. We see terrorized women and children as the dog becomes an enslaving potentate. Harmless English archetypes benefit from colonial riches. Then the world begins to grow, and the dog changes too, from bulldog to effete lap dog.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Christine Pritchard
Britannia voice (Narrator)
Ben Henghan
Dog

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joanna Quinn
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 5-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

ERA

Did you know

33 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Christine Pritchard and Ben Henghan carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0205785 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

Only 5 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joanna Quinn directs. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 5-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
233 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Christine Pritchard and Ben Henghan carry the top of the cast.
5IMDB entry: tt0205785 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
6Only 5 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Runtime: 5 min · 0h 5m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Britannia (1993)

Also by

Joanna Quinn

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-11-15
★ 7/10
Using a quickly paced, sketch style of pencil drawing, this rather entertainingly presents us with a potted history of the rise and fall of the British Empire. Using the traditional bulldog as the purveyor of the story, we start off relatively benignly as tea comes from the Indian Raj, then Africa provides great wealth. That munificence gradually turns to more malevolence, though, as religiosity and militarism kicks in and then gradually our fearlessly crowned pooch becomes more like a manicured lapdog poodle, and those who were previously the colonised end up doing some colonising of their own, only on way less invasive terms. It’s jauntily scored with excerpts from “Rule Britannia” cut into a quirky animation that asks a few questions before it’s story sort of comes full circle. Well worth five minutes.

Production companies