Rock-A-Doodle (1992)

Wonderful Movie

Pretty Good

One of my all time favorites.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

As a fan of Don Bluth since I was a kid, I think this is probably where his work started to decline. What's really weird about this film is just how, well weird it is. I mean, it's about a singing rooster that resembles Elvis that is able to bring the Sun up. The weirdest thing is that at one point the Sun comes up without him singing. He then leaves because the animals realize they don't need him to bring the Sun up. It turns out they do. So...why did the Sun come up that one time? It's very dumb. Also, the main kid character in this is really not a good actor. His voice is pretty annoying and I guess I can't blame him since he's just a kid.Now, I did like the animation in this. Come to think of it, ALL of Don Bluth's movies have had good animation. That was something that was always consistent and in a good way. There is also an interesting subplot where a chicken named Goldie falls in love with the rooster, but it sadly doesn't go anywhere. Still, I will praise the visuals and I honestly thought this was something pretty unique for Don Bluth. Wow, owls have really gone downward since their portrayal in "The Secret Of Nimh". I guess the movie itself is harmless enough and doesn't teach bad morals or anything. It's just mostly boring and uninteresting. **

The fifth movie by Don Bluth, and probably the first one where his signature moves really got the best of him. It once again features anthropomorphic animals acting out the plot, with lots of gorgeous animation, nonsensical songs, bratty child characters and extremely jumpy storytelling.Chanticleer is a rooster living on a farm, and his job is to bring out the sun every morning with his crow. Unfortunately the Grand Duke of Owls prefers the night and tricks the other farm animals to see Chanticleer as a fraud and chase him away. But then the long night settles in and suddenly it's the mission of the animals and one little human boy named Edmond to find their missing friend and bring back the sun. Sounds pretty basic when you put it like that. But it's not. It's unbelievably weird in execution. Chanticleer has become Elvis, the Duke's magical powers are expressed through his breath, Edmond starts out as a live-action character but is turned into a kitten, et cetera, et cetera.And nothing really connects with anything. It's full of interesting little touches, but the plot itself is nonsensical and moves with the speed of a freight train, not allowing anything to sink in before we've already moved to something else. The songs are also pretty lame, though there's a catchy tune every now and then.All in all, I'd call Rock-A-Doodle a passable film. It's weird and hard to follow, but the characters are nice, the animation is still great and at least it's memorable.

The last time I saw this movie, I was probably about 3-4. I actually just finished watching it on Youtube, so I thought I'd leave my comments.I loved Chanticleer (Glen Campbell) and the Grand Duke (Christopher Plummer) in this. I loved the majority of the musical numbers in this- Chanticleer knows how to rock and crow! The only really bad songs were the ones involving the owls in my opinion, and even then they were at least tolerable.As many people have mentioned, Edmund was completely unnecessary, and the live action footage was terrible. At the musical number at the end (spoilers), seeing the live action boy amongst the animated critters was poorly carried out.If it had just been Patou, Peepers, and Snipes on the adventure, I probably would have rated this higher. Any fans of Dexter's Lab will grin when they realize that Snipes sounds exactly like Mandark because they are voiced by the same actor. Anyone familiar with Disney (then again, who isn't?) will recognize Phil Harris's voice as Patou and the narrator, who also voiced Little John in Robin Hood, Thomas O'Malley in the Aristocats, and Baloo in The Jungle Book. It was his last film role, but he did a good job with it.If not for the poor live-action quality and Edmund's involvement in the story, I would've given this at least a 6.

As is often the case, I find these animated features more fascinating when I see who provided the voices. Among the people in "Rock-A-Doodle" were Eddie Deezen (of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "1941") and Christopher Plummer. As for the movie's plot line, I now find it somewhat hokey that some farm animals have to bring a rooster back to the farm to stop malevolent owls from taking over. When I learned - some time after first seeing the movie - that the rooster's celebrity persona was a sort of Elvis Presley, that also made the movie more interesting.So, in my opinion, this is no masterpiece by any stretch. I consider Disney's "Aladdin" the coolest animated feature ever (remember, it had Robin Williams as the genie), and consider the classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons the greatest cartoons ever. But this one's OK.