Movielogr
Rock & Rule (1983)
Directed by Clive A. Smith
Twitter Facebook Google+Musical | Science Fiction | Horror
Most recently watched by seanCduregger
Overview
A malevolent rock star kidnaps a female singer to force her to participate in the summoning of a demon and her band must help her stop him.
Rated PG | Length 77 minutes
Actors
Don Francks | Lou Reed | Susan Roman | Debbie Harry | Paul Le Mat | Robin Zander | Dan Hennessey | Chris Wiggins | Greg Duffell | Brent Titcomb | Samantha Langevin | Donny Burns | Martin Lavut | Catherine Gallant | Melleny Brown | Anna Bourque | Nick Nichols | John Halfpenny | Maurice LaMarche | Catherine O'Hara | Iggy Pop | Keith Hampshire
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05/20/2015 | Computer | DVD | Owned | 4.5 stars |
| (Average) 4.5 stars |
Viewing Notes
Rock & Rule was a film that almost broke the company that made it, Nelvana, an animation studio out of Canada. They were trying to make something that was a bit over the kids crowd with animation but didn’t quite move into an R rated feature like Heavy Metal did. Released today it’d probably get a PG-13 just for the themes in it instead of the PG it got. This isn’t exactly a kids movie, but it’s one that I grew up on in the 80s and memorized every song in the film. Make no mistake, this is definitely a musical film, it’s just that instead of Broadway inspired songs we get some kick ass songs from some Rock and Roll greats.
This is another post-apocalyptic offering, only the animals that survived the nuclear war have evolved and are running the planet now, emulating our culture and taking over what was left of our cities. Rock and Roll has arisen again and a legendary super rocker, named Mok, has risen on the scene. Using technology to simulate all sorts of magic on stage, he’s looking for the next big thing, in this case using music to cast a real spell to summon a demon, but he needs a specific voice to summon it.
Angel and Omar are up and coming on the rock scene and have high hopes, but they’re obviously still struggling, that is until Mok shows up to one of their performances and realizes that Angel’s voice is what he needs to summon his demon and invites her and her band up to his home to convince Angel to sing for him. When convincing her doesn’t work, he drugs them all and kidnaps Angel, leaving Omar and his band to follow after them to Nuke York and get some answers.
As far as story lines go, it’s kind of basic, but the characters here are what really sells this. Omar is kind of the loveable jerk, Angel has an amazing singing voice and just wants to make it big, their band mates are a lot of fun. Mok is based at least in looks off of Mick Jaggar and has this menacing and smarmy feeling to him that makes him a fantastic villain. Even the guys he employs who all look alike have their own personalities and quirks. So while the story is pretty simple, the characters and the world really help this one along quite a bit.
The animation is pretty fantastic in this. There are a few moments where it looks a bit rushed, but I’d put this up there for quality well over Heavy Metal in appearance and at least on par with most of Nausicaa. The design of the world is fantastic and each character that shows up on screen is unique, even the triplet brothers that work for Mok. They do some neat effects work with the animation as well. It’s a great romp into a possible future world of rock and roll.
The voice acting in this is great. The characters are well cast and a lot of the charm of the film is definitely in the delivery. Omar would not nearly be as likeable and Mok as detestable with different talent behind the characters. Then there’s the music and bands they picked. Angel’s songs are taken care of by Debbie Harry, Lou Reed handles most of Mok’s songs with an Iggy Pop thrown in for good measure, Cheap Trick gets Omar’s written songs, and Earth, Wind and Fire tackle one of the songs that gets played at a club outing. It’s a great mix of rock talent for the film and I’m still pissed we don’t have a proper soundtrack release for the film and likely never will get one. Angel’s songs by Debbie Harry have gotten a few covers by Harry over the years but they’ve been changed up from their appearance in the film and Cheap Trick did release ‘Born to Raise Hell’ on an album which is our first song from Omar’s band, but the rest we can only get from the film.
The version I watched is a remaster from the original US release of the film which is different from the Canadian version. MGM didn’t like some of the vocals and re-dubbed over with a new actor and changed a few other things. Having never watched the Canadian version, I guess I’m ok with this. I originally watched this when it hit basic cable and taped it off the tv way back when so when a remastered widescreen version cropped up I of course had to grab it. Unearthed Films did a great job with the DVD release back in ‘09. If you can find it, grab it. Hell I’m tempted right now to grab the 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray since I see Amazon has it up.
If you like the Disney animated musicals, but wish there was a sci-fi and slightly more adult take on that, then this would be your bag. It’s an under-rated film for the early 80s with some great music and fun characters driving a pretty simple story with some fantastic animation. This is one of those gems from my childhood that’s not tarnished with age.
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