Rock and Rule (1983)

nTitle: Rock and Rule (1983)

nDirector: Clive A. Smith

nReview:

nYou might not have heard of Rock and Rule, the animated postnapocalyptic Rock and Roll fantasy, but that’s okay, it’s not your fault, thenfilm got the shaft from MGM during one of those major studio shake ups where anlot of people get fired and some movies get ignored and lost in the shuffle;none of those movies was Rock and Rule. Basically, what happened to Rock andnRule is one of the worst things that can happen to any film: all the work, sweatnand tears that went into making it got ignored because another film screwed itnup for them. Said film was Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980) one of thenmost expensive turkeys in the history of cinema. That particular film cost UnitednArtists 44 million dollars; an astronomical amount of money back in those days.nThe film ended up making little more then 3 million in box office returns. Obviouslynheads were going to roll over at United Artists. By the time it was all saidnand done, MGM bought United Artists (which almost went bankrupt over the wholenHeaven’s Gate fiasco) and MGM ended acquiring all of United Artists films. Problemnwas that MGM was not enthusiastic about Rock and Rule, therefore the proper promotionalnpush needed for a film to take off was not given.

nA similar situation happened to Terry Gilliam’s ThenAdventures of Baron Munchausen (1988); an amazing film, but in the middle of anstudio shuffle (this time it was Columbia Pictures) the film lost the peoplenthat championed it, the ones that cared. The way things work in Hollywood is that whennnew studio executives come in, they don’t want to market the films that thenprevious studio executives were producing and so, though Gilliam’s Adventuresnof Baron Munchausen was an epic fantasy film with some amazing images andneffects….the film ultimately got the shaft from the new guys at the studio. Asna result, the film tanked at the box office. Not because it wasn’t any good,nbut because when a studio gives a movie the shaft, it doesn’t get the propernmerchandising, and when a film doesn’t get that needed promotional push to getninto audiences psyches…well, then the movie tanks because the movie doesn’t existnin the publics’ consciousness. They don’t know about it, because the studiondidn’t make sure the public knew; this is what happened to Rock and Rule.

nNow I’m not saying Rock and Rule is the best animated filmnin the universe, or that it’s even any good, I’m just saying it never got thenchance to find its audience. What kind of film are we talking about anyways?nWell, Rock and Rule is one of these old school animated films. The kind thatnwas painstakingly hand made, without the use of digital anything. This thingnwas done frame by frame by the efforts and passion of a talented group ofnanimators. Some reports say that over 300 animators worked on the film. Thenanimation studio that produced Rock and Rule was a Canadian one known asnNelvana; they were they guys responsible for doing that animated segment in thenStar Wars Holiday Special (1978), the one were Boba Fett makes his firstnappearance. So anyhows, this little animation studio wanted to make it big, sonthey decide after producing various half hour animated shows for television,nthat they would make their first full length animated feature film. These guysneven turned down Ivan Reitman, who asked them to produce Heavy Metal (1981) fornhim; I mean these guys were obviously really driven, they really wanted to makentheir own thing, and that they did.

nRock and Rule tells the story of a rock band that’s tryingnto make it. Omar, the lead singer, is having a hard time accepting the factnthat Angel, the bass player can sing as well, maybe even better than he can. Togethernthey play in a rock and roll bar called Mylar. At the same time, the biggestnRock and Roll god on the planet, a guy by the name of Mok; is looking for a waynto open up a portal to another dimension (presumably hell) so he can bringnforth a demon (presumably the devil himself) so he can take over the world, ornsomething like that, it’s never really quite clear. Mok’s computers tell himnthat the only way to open up the portal is by using something called ‘ThenArmageddon Key’; said key can only be used when certain musical cords are sangnby “a very special voice”; that voice is the voice of Angel. So he goes aboutntrying to convince her to sing for him. Will she accept his offer or will Moknhave to end up using other methods to persuade her?

nRock and Rule started out as a children’s film in the mindnof the guys at Nelvana; they were going to call it ‘Drats!’ But as time wentnby, the project evolved. It got darker and darker, until it became adultnoriented and finally ended up being what it is: a post apocalyptic rock and rollnsci-fi. This film is often times compared to Heavy Metal (1980) and for goodnreason; same as Heavy Metal, it mixes the worlds of science fiction and Rocknand Roll. They also share the fact that they are animated films made fornadults. Both films include foul language, drug use and nudity, both films haventrippy visuals. This is probably what made it a hard sell for the guys at MGM.nIt got what I like to call the ‘assured death formula’ for any film: it was toonkiddy for adults, and too adult for the kiddies. Topple that with the fact thatnAmericans were having a difficult time accepting that animated films could benmade for adults, and voila! You got yourselves a turkey. The film cost 8nmillion dollars, yet recuperated little more than 39 thousand at the boxnoffice. Ouch!

nBut that doesn’t mean this is a bad film. Same as HeavyMetal, it’s not the best animated film ever made, but it certainly wasn’t thenworst either. Rock and Rule has some cool ideas going for it. For example, thensoundtrack for the film was produced by artists such as Debbie Harris (strange,nshe’s playing on my I-pod right now as I type this…), Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick,nEarth Wind & Fire and Lou Reed. It also has a cool sci-fi angle to it, wenget flying cars, and Blade Runner like city landscapes. We get a strong femalenprotagonist in the form of Angel, the girl with the ethereal voice. The bestnthing about the film though is MOK, the villain; a mix between Mick Jagger andnDavid Bowie, but certainly more Bowienthan Jagger. The only problem I had with the film is that it sometimes didn’tntransmit some of its ideas in the best way possible. I guess the animation wasntoo crude, or didn’t really show us what we needed to see in order tonunderstand the ideas. For example, the opening scroll tells us that this isnsupposed to be a post apocalyptic world, yet we have cities and flying cars? Nothingnterribly post apocalyptic about it. Mok wants to bring a demon from anotherndimension, but it’s never really stated why he wants to do so. What’s hisnpurpose? As a viewer, you have to kind of fill in the blanks, which tells younthat the film needed some work storytelling wise.

nStill, there are times when the film dazzles and shines. Whatnwe need to keep in mind is that this film was made in a time when computernanimation was in diapers, in fact, computer animation is used sparingly on thisnfilm; 90% of the film is hand drawn frame by frame. We need to remember what anpainstakingly difficult process this was back in those days! This was a filmnthat started production in ’79 and was finally released in ’83! That’s aboutnfour years of production! To animate one of the characters they used real brains!nThe animation gets really psychedelic and trippy at times, so I guess,nvisually, the film does have its strengths. But at the end of the day it’s a mixednbag. It might have some cool visuals, but storytelling wise, script wise, itnneeded work. This is something that the animators themselves acknowledge whennthey say that they didn’t really have a script to work with. They had a “poolnof ideas” but not a script; hence, the uneven, underdeveloped nature of thenplot and characters. Across the years, Rock and Rule has garnered cult status,nand in my opinion the film is a curiosity in the world of American animation. It cannproudly stand next to films such as Heavy Metal (1981), American Pop (1981), Wizardsn(1977) and other American animated films that were trying to break the mold,ntrying to present themselves as something more than just for kids; and as such,nthis one succeeds

nRating: 3 out of 5