Review of Rock-A-Doodle (1991) by Kendall I — 01 Oct 2012

One of my oldest childhood favorites.

PLOT:The rosster Chanticleer (Glen Cambell) is shunned from the farm after he realizes his crow doesn't bring up the sun. When he leaves, the farm realizes they need him when The Duke (Christopher Plummer) and his minions set up the plan so that it would be dark the rest of the time. The farm summons the help of a little boy neamed Edmund, who feels he's small and useless. They head for the city to find Chanticleer and bring him back. The plot is pretty unique but weak in some places, considering it borrows as CHanticleer be called "The King" after Elvis, another character being the blonde bimbo in Hollywood, and one of the villians being a copycat of Disney's Robin Hood secondary villian. But it is a children's animation flick so it has to be somewhat cliched most of the time.

ACTING/VOICES:See what I did there? the voices in here were all-star and lovable, featuring Glen Cambell,Phil Harris, Charles Nelson, Eddie Deezen, Christopher Plummer and more! Some are still typical for a Don Bluth film.

SCORE:Toe-tapping beats from Elvis-like tunes to haunted house themes, but they are cliche and grow childish after a while, so it's typical for a children's animated movie. The SCORE score was usual as well.

ANIMATION:This is actually a low-point for Don Bluth animation. Don has his own brand of nostalgic animation, but it still seems to dazzle at certain parts. This had the least dazzling effect even as it BEING a half live action/half animated movie.

OTHER CONTENT:One scene I just found darkly beautiful for an animated movie, as a kind of "come-to-realism" scene. It's when the trailer crashes and the mouse goes missing (you'll see). I didn't like the ending much, for it didn't make much sense. I love the cliched "everyone back together as a group after a journey" cliche, but they didn't give it any sense as live-action literally fit into animation.. It would've worked, if they put any sense into it.

OVERALL,a great Don Bluth animation flick with toe-tapping score,a unique plot, and lovable voices. On the dark side, it has bland animation, some cliched rip-offs, and a cheesy ending.