Rock-A-Doodle (1992)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

It is a performances centric movie

Dreadfully Boring

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Coming after such great movies like The Secret of Nimh, American Tail and The Land Before Time it's baffling how Don Bluth could make something like Rock-A-Doodle. The film has things going for it, like some of the voice cast is pretty good, and the animation is nice but the story... most of the songs... Well the story is there's a rooster named Chanticleer (voiced and sung by country singer Glen Campbell) who's job is to crow every morning to bring the sun up. One morning he gets involved in a fight with some other bird sent by his nemesis The Grand Duke (voiced by the great Christopher Plummer) and he forgets to crow. He's cast out as a charlatan by his fellow farm animals and leaves for the nearby city.It turns out this was a story that was being read to a small boy named Edmund. He lives on a farm that is currently undergoing a terrible storm. Since he just read about Chanticleer leaving he assumes that's the reason the storm is happening and calls out for him. Okay but what about the rest of the day? Was it just raining all day or something? Anyway, The Grand Duke shows up and turns Edmund into an animated cat with his magic breath (don't ask) and tries to eat him. One of Chanticleer's old friends, Patou the dog (voiced by the late Phil Harris) saves Edmund and is joined by other animals from the farm. They resolve to go to the city and bring Chanticleer back so he can crow and bring back the sun.There's already a lot of holes in the story from the first ten or so minutes. Like if Chanticleer was really responsible for raising the sun, why did it come up that one time? Or why does Edmund assume the sun just isn't coming up, I mean he's a kid but he's not stupid. When they get to the city it gets a little more confusing when all the inhabitants are animals. Did they just show up when all the humans evacuated the city? Did the humans evacuate the city, are they all dead? Anyway, it turns out Chanticleer is now making a living as an Elvis impersonator named 'The King.' He's incredibly depressed and only feels good when he's on stage singing. His manager, Pinky, is in contact with The Grand Duke and is told to keep Chanticleer from meeting his old friends by distracting him with a chorus girl named Goldie. The two fall in love and Pinky manages to capture Edmund and the gang. Goldie tells Chanticleer his friends are here and they save them and after a lengthy chase return to the farm. While this is going on, The Duke sends his nephew, Hunch to try and kill Edmund but he keeps failing miserably. This all comes to a head when Chanticleer can't crow and The Duke hurts Edmund. This causes the animals to try and boost Chanticleer's confidence until he finally crows and brings up the sun, sending the owls flying and turning the Duke into a midget for whatever reason. Edmund turns back into a boy and then it turns out the whole thing was a dream, Wizard of Oz style. Or maybe it wasn't cause Chanticleer pops out of the book, and Edmund is now on their farm and... what? I'm not ashamed to admit I watched this movie a lot as a kid, but watching it now... what's going on? The animation is nice and some of the songs are decent but there's too much going on. I didn't mention the other two animals who accompany Edmund, a magpie named Snipes (voiced by Eddie Deezen of Dexter's Lab fame) and a mouse named Peepers. None of the characters get a lot of development and most of the story is told through narration from Phil Harris. Narration is good sometimes, but not to tell the audience everything that's going on at the moment. We're not stupid we can figure this out by ourselves.The songs also range from OK to just plain unnecessary. The Duke and his cronies don't get any good songs which is a shame since Christopher Plummer is a talented singer. Some toad bouncers get a song about bouncing people, make of that what you will, and most of Chanticleer's songs are talked over. Wasn't the whole purpose of getting someone like Glen Campbell to sing for the character to use his voice to attract an audience? Why talk over most of his numbers?This film is a mess, through and through. Is there anything here offensive for kids? Not entirely, I remember liking it when I was young but there isn't really much to offer them in return. Apart from some good animation and a decent cast this film isn't really for those looking for the high quality of Don Bluth's other movies.

I've been told by a lot of people that this movie is the first of the mediocre entries (except Anastasia) in the early/late 90s that caused Don Bluth's career to go downhill, but as for me, I think I actually found this along with The Pebble and the Penguin to be very decent. Why? Well, I will admit, the story was weird and predictable and has a lot of flaws that went nowhere despite it being supposedly charming. The characters were good. Edmund was okay, but nothing special, Chanticleer and the others were very decent, but the Grand Duke of Owls' henchman and the fox guy that wants some money for using Chanticleer to sing for the audiences were not that interesting. I think that the best character throughout the whole movie is the Grand Duke of Owls himself voiced by Christoper Plummer (who previously voiced Henri the pigeon in An American Tail) since he was so intimidating and very threatening which makes him one of the best non-Disney villains ever.The songs were forgettable. The first song in the beginning was surprisingly good, but some of them were forgettable due to their uninspired lyrics.There were several inconsistencies like the Grand Duke's breath contains magical powers and the rooster can sing while bringing the sun with his cock-a-doodling voice. It's weird, but that's not saying much.And that's it for Rock-A-Doodle. Is it a weird movie like The Pebble and the Penguin? Yes, but unlike A Troll in Central Park, it's not a bad movie for it's worth watching for the kids. For adults, however, they will have a hard time viewing this.6/10

Well, there's little surprising in this film, as this is where Don Bluth started to lose his touch, as well as his creativity. The film is perfectly acceptable for kids, and that's who should view this shining embodiment of mediocrity. Adults will not enjoy this film if it's their first time, as there are some plot holes that are easy enough to miss when you're ages 6-12, but that do stand out to the experienced moviegoer. The most prominent of these plot holes is used as a convenient cop-out by writers who were obviously fatigued and were looking for easy way to not only explain the nonsensical parts of the movie (there are a number of them), but also attach a happy ending to the movie (a staple of Don Bluth films). The solution they come up with is that the events of most of the movie were just a dream, but because of the power of little Edmond's belief in Chanticleer, their worlds merge in a great cosmic polymerization. This allows them to attach a typical happy ending, with the difference between Edmond and the other characters emphasized through the use of a cheesy blue-screen effect. All-in-all, this is an average film, nowhere nearly as good as "The Secret of NIMH", but far better than say, "A Troll in Central Park".

I never heard of this 1991 Don Bluth film until about five years after its release. I was about ten years old at the time, and saw "Rock-A-Doodle" when it came on TV. I was fairly impressed with the movie upon my first viewing, and watched it more than once shorty after that. Over a decade later, after not seeing it for a long time, I finally rented a copy on video to see what I would think of the movie after all these years. This time, I didn't enjoy it so much, but that wasn't surprising.Chanticleer is a musical rooster who sings early every morning on the farm. The other animals are convinced that he has to do this in order for the sun to rise. However, one morning, Chanticleer is distracted by an intruder! The rooster manages to fight this intruder off, but the incident prevents him from singing at the usual time, and the son still comes up without him! The other animals on the farm who once respected the rooster now begin to ridicule him, so an upset Chanticleer leaves the farm and goes to the city. After his departure, however, the sun stops rising in the morning, and it begins to rain nonstop! The animals on the farm now realize that Chanticleer really is needed for the sun to rise, so several of them, including Edmond (a young boy who has been turned into a cat by an evil owl), set out to find the singing rooster in the city, before the flood gets so high that everyone drowns! Finding him in this big city won't be easy, and the owls will make the mission even more difficult! If you've looked at IMDb's main page for "Rock-A-Doodle", I'm sure you've noticed that it has a fairly low rating, which I can understand. Watching the animated feature again recently, it really didn't mean much to me at all, and I found it very forgettable. However, by this point, I was probably WELL past the age group that this film was aimed at. Watching this movie when I was around ten years old was somewhat enjoyable, and I might have enjoyed it more if I saw it back when it was first released in 1991, when I was around five. So, I can understand why this movie is so highly criticised, but those who have seen it as adults and don't like it should remember its audience.In my opinion, "Rock-A-Doodle" is one unmemorable peace of animation, with a rather bland plot. Some of the characters are poor quality as well (especially Goldie, with her voice). However, who am I to judge? I'm sure that a lot of kids (especially younger ones) would strongly disagree with my thoughts on the film. For that reason, I do recommend this Don Bluth movie for kids who are into animated adventures. For adults, I do not recommend it, unless you have any kids to watch it with. If you want an animated feature that can strongly appeal to all ages, there are plenty of those for you to choose from, but remember, "Rock-A-Doodle" is not one of them.