 List Price: $9.98
Lowest Price: $5.60 
Amazon.com: Don Bluth's lavish animated musical Rock-A-Doodle was not a success when it was released in 1992. It's not hard to understand why: the film varies wildly in tone and the story makes little sense. In the live-action prologue, a little boy named Edmond learns that the crowing of Chanticleer the rooster did not make the sun rise, as everyone thought. But when a flood threatens his family's farm, Edmond sets off to get Chanticleer to make the sun rise and save the day. (Edmond gets turned into a kitten during this adventure, for no apparent reason other than that cats are easier to animate than humans.) Chanticleer has moved to the city, and although the farm seems to be in the Midwest, the nearest city is clearly supposed to be Las Vegas. Chanticleer is now the King, an Elvis caricature used for an unfunny spoof of showbiz clichés. The animation is quite fluid, and there are lots of brightly colored effects--rainbows, sparkles, sunbeams. But parents will have a hard time explaining the story to their children. --Charles Solomon Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-29
Rock A Doodle
I received this DVD in very good cosmetic condition. It runs perfectly and has yet to skip once on me. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-10
Horrific yet Good
I remember seeing this in the theatre, and wondering what in the world it was about. To this day, I'm still not sure where Bluth was going with it. As always, he takes a simple, childish story and adds bizarre, adult elements, jazzy colors and terrible musical numbers. But that's all part of the fun.
The animation isn't bad, but it's definitely gritty and unpolished. Like All Dogs Go to Heaven, it looks sort of old and grainy. Anastasia and The Secret Of NIMH did not have that problem (and made decidedly MUCH MORE sense). The female characters are awful stereotypes: we get some ugly, fat, busty chicken women, a whiny and beautiful (but TRICKY!) peasant and a feminist mouse (complete with a lisp and some classic huge glasses for the perfect Smart But Ugly woman look). However, the guys aren't much better. I swear, this movie is full of hopelessly stupid characters. The only intelligent one seems to be The Grand Duke of Owls, the vast and easily worked up villain, voiced by the great Christopher Plummer... but even he randomly will do things like spew colorful shapes and use magic that will leave you wondering what in the heck you're looking at, an acid trip or a children's movie.
Oh and the live-action scenes are scarily bad. The acting is forced and the color is off. The mom gives a lot of evil looks to the camera, too.
The plot is very loose and there are a lot of things thrown in like long chase scenes and dream sequences that seem to only be there to take up time. Everything is very ugly and it gives me a bad feeling.
BUT, please don't think I'm being "mean" or "too harsh." My opinion is just as valid as anyone's even if this isn't a glowing review. I watch this movie still, and I love it despite its oddness. It's entertaining, and some of the characters pull some great one liners, especially the villains (the Duke and his nephew). I would say that 3-7 is a good age group to watch this movie, but also adults, because it's a great one to analyze (if you're on of those types who pleasures in finding strange grown-up references in kiddie films).
However, if you've never seen this and are therefore non-nostalgic, I must say that I brought this over to watch with a three year old that I was tending, and she constantly was asking me what was going on.
It's an odd one, but definitely one you won't soon forget. Rating:
Date: 2008-02-03
So many memories
I loved this movie as a kid!!!! My Fiance had never seen it and he loved it to!!! Gotta love Don Bluth films total classics in the making!!! Rating:
Date: 2007-12-05
Rock A Doodle is a classic
This may be coming from the perspective of one who first saw this film as a 10-year-old, but I definitely wore out the VHS copy of this film that we had when it came out in the 90s. I also have two younger sisters who have seen this movie more times than we can count. I'm so excited now that it's available on DVD. It may not have the clearest storyline, but you can't go wrong with an Elvis-impersonating rooster! This is a great children's film, entertaining, fun and even a little scarey at times. It's in the vain of all those other 90s childhood favorites like "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Little Nemo." I don't know how I would have survived all the days when it rained as a child without this movie to watch indoors. Rating:
Date: 2007-10-05
There's Nothing Wrong With This Movie
In my opinion this was and still is one of the most cherished children's movie ever made. It wasn't made for adults but made for "CHILDREN". It's not hard to understand it's about a rooster who makes the sun shine and about an owl who (like all owls) hates sunshine and wants total darkness, and a little boy who tries to get the rooster to come back and bring up the sun. It's a children's story so as long as the children enjoy it, that's all that matters. |
