Forgotten 90s animated movies: Rock-A-Doodle

(some spoilers)

Today I was bored and decided to check out the Don Bluth film Rock-A-Doodle. I had never seen it before but noticed that even though was trashed by reviewers it also has a somewhat decent following online so I figured it couldn't be all that bad.

It's an odd movie for sure. While it has the classic Don Bluth look (for better or worse) it's of note for also being his only attempt at blending some live action with animation. While it's a bit oddly paced and put together the blend of animation and live action somewhat works. The flick was clearly chopped to hell in the editing process and the biggest offense has got to be the horrid narration that was obviously forced on late in the process.

The basic story is an evil owl hates Chanticleer the rooster who believes his crowing wakes the sun every day. He sends one of his henchmen out to stop him from crowing. When he does it shows that Chanticleer does not have the power to raise the sun which embarrasses him so badly that... he leaves for the big city to become a rock and roll singer. Which... ok I guess?

It's then that the movie takes a left turn moving to live action and reveals that a young boy is being read a story by his mother. His dad comes into the room and we learn there is a huge storm raging that is causing massive flooding. He, the wife, and his older sons go outside to help shore up the sandbags. The boy is watching from the house when he sees the water burst through the sandbags heading towards the mother. He calls out for Chanticleer to bring back the sun and stop the rain.

Suddenly a tree branch with the evil owl perched on it crashes into his room. The owl is pissed at the kid for calling Chanticleer back which I'm not sure why since it was shown at the start that he doesn't actually control the sun. He says he's going to eat him as punishment and turns him into a cat b/c he'll be easier to digest. The farm animals come to the rescue and their adventure to find Chanticleer starts. They go to the big city, some musical numbers happen, and eventually they battle the big bad who does the very late 80s early 90s animated movie move of turning into a giant monster via magic.

The movie is a musical through and through but for some idiotic reason the narration blathers on over most of the (fairly decent) Elvis inspired songs which destroys any energy they could have brought to the film. The narrator also talks over characters while they are speaking, talks over easy to understand montages, and mostly just seems to talk just to talk b/c some suit investor thought peopel were too dumb to understand the movie and demanded it. Due to this at times I feel like I'm watching somebody on YouTube react to a movie rather than the movie by itself. There are also some issues with Chanticleer having/not having the power to control the sun but that can all be ignored due to the fact that the main character is a child who was knocked out and sent to a sort of dream world Wizard of Oz style.

It's too bad b/c while it's not top tier Bluth it likely wouldn't have such a bad reputation had the narration not been added. The Elvis rooster Chanticleer is fun and the evil owl has cool looking magic breath. The animated cast is solid with actors like Phil Harris (best known as Baloo from Jungle Book), Glen Campbell, Christopher Plumber, and Ellen Greene. On the negative end the story is choppy in a way that makes it feel kind of like you are watching a movie that has been edited for TV and worst of all the narration... my god it's so horribly tacked on that it hurts my head. The acting in the live action parts is nothing to write home about and the child works much better as an animated cat than he does as an actual human. Dropping the narration would probably put this solidly in the second tier of 90s animated films but as it is it's mostly a curiosity for fans of hand drawn animation and hardcore Bluth fans.

2.5/5


It can currently be viewed for free with limited commercials on both Vudu and PlutoTV. FWIW I watched a bit of it on both streaming apps and it seemed like Vudu had less ads interspersed throughout.