Review of Rock & Rule (1983) by Luis Carlo B — 23 Apr 2011

Overall Message:

Rock has the power to change the world and depending on the song you sing you can release or vanquish demons.

Story (Spoiler Alert):

Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war and humanity has been wiped out and replaced by mutated animals.

Mok, an aging rock star, is trying to open a portal to another dimension to bring a demon to earth and harness it's power. Through scientific research he has found out this is possible by using a specific frequency that can only be created by a live singer. Upon discovering this, he travels the world looking for the singer with the right voice.

Cut to Angel who is a keyboardist in a band and wants to be a lead singer. Unfortunately Omar, her boyfriend and band's lead singer, is too focused on hogging the stage to give her a shot. During a performance Angel defies Omar and sings her own song and Mok just happens to be in the bar and his ring (designed to detect the right frequency) lights up. Mok then invites the band to his mansion and when Angel doesn't agree to sing for him without her bandmates he forcibly separates Angel from her friends, and tells them that she is going to pursue a career with him. Omar, her boyfriend, believes she has selfishly abandoned them, but the other two bandmates are suspicious of Mok and convince Omar to follow Mok and talk to Angel.

The boys attempts are unsuccessful and they end up being captured and mind washed by Mok. When Mok shows Angel the mind washed boys being tortured she agrees to sing for him if he lets them go. During the concert when the demon is released Angel finds a way to send it back to hell along with Mok and save the what's left of Earth.

Critique:

Overall this animation is to be admired for a variety of reasons. The lead female character is a stand alone that never requires the assistance of her male companions, the supporting animation visuals are way ahead of their time, the character animation is high-end (they don't use cycles and each frame has been carefully drawn), and the animation for the demon alone is worth seeing the film for (loads of shading, flowing organic shapes, freaky visuals). Don't believe me? Watch the film :).

Ideas:

There needed to be more edges in the characters. Both in terms of traits and character designs. The characters are childish in design while the sets take on the feel of a post-apocalyptic Blade Runner. It feels like there were too many genres blended as a result of aesthetic changes during the production process and not enough of a budget to go back and update the previous work that was initially designed for a younger audience.

Angel was too much of a goody two shoes. I wanted Angel to lose it on Mok, break his arm or smash his nose, anything really to show she was pissed off.

I wanted to like Omar, but he was too self centred, the only non-self centred things he did came as a result of his band mates suggestions. He needed to have some initiative of his own.

Mok was the best character. For me, he was the only main character that jived well with the story and overall aesthetic.

Conclusion:

Overall, Rock and Rule had a foot in two age group categories and as a result neither one totally embraced it. To broaden the appeal to the older age group, I believe that Nelvana would have needed to find a way to push the sex quotient just a little higher. The easiest way to do that would have been to make the characters human. Then the scene at Club 666 with all the bouncing breasts and pert nipples would have made every boy from the eighties run out to buy this movie. I think that's the main difference between Heavy Metal and Rock and Rule. Heavy Metal, even though the plot was shaky, had sex scenes with nudity and as funny as that is it played a large part in making made Heavy Metal a financial success.