What the HELL is Rock & Rule? (A Box Office FAILURE)

she can't sing or smoke and scream but she still pissed beyond rock and roll an adult animated musical science fiction/fantasy film from the early 1980s that was a mouthful created by a Canadian animation studio called nirvana it was their first animated feature film and it was very close to almost being their last we'll get to that in a moment but rock and roll always stood out to me for a handful of reasons it has fluid animation bizarre character designs an interesting setting in a post-apocalyptic world and of course as the name of the movie implies a healthy dose of rock and roll going off an 8 million dollar budget navona put their best foot forward and attempted to make something that could establish their name and the theatrical animation industry but unfortunately for them in this case it was not to be rock and roll was released in 1983 and get this only made thirty thousand dollars at the box office it was unequivocally a financial disaster I don't think I've ever seen a film performed this badly before those results are so much worse than delgo and that's saying something Jim let's talk about you so what happened why was rock and roll such a huge failure despite having legitimate talent involved with its production well let's find out the 1970s were such a bizarre era for animation Disney wasn't putting out their best work and were somewhat stumbling around meanwhile you had adult animation actually making a name for itself with the likes of Fritz the Cat by Ralph Bakshi for example but in 1971 a new studio arrived on the scene and it went by the name of Nirvana stationed out of Toronto Ontario it was founded by Michael Hirsh magical a bear and Clive a Smith to which the latter of the three had previously worked on Yellow Submarine and also the Beatles cartoon that was a weird show I wonder if anyone is home there is this combo of animation and rock and roll got its first chance to shine with a TV special the devil and Daniel Mouse from 1978 it's about a 20 minute long special if follows these two mice one's a guy one's a girl they want to be rock n roll stars and the girl now sells her soul to the devil the guy goes to court with like the denizens of Hell and rescues her and that's the entire special and for what it's worth it's pretty neat I wouldn't say it's great the animation something else I mean just look at this devil guy I call yells above otherwise known as [Music] you can really see how this special would be the inspiration for Nirvana to go on and do rock and roll oh by the way fun facts George Lucas was apparently a big fan of this studio and he even commissioned them to do the animated segments of the Star Wars Holiday Special you know the one where Han Solo's face is melting off of his skull oh man you look rough and this is also the first time that Boba Fett ever made an appearance so that's kind of cool I take it you have no love of the Empire I don't well neither do I so before navona started production on rock and roll they were actually approached by heavy metal which is another film from that era I haven't seen it yet but I believe it's like this anthology series also intended for an older audience and they asked Nirvana if they wanted to work on that movie - which Nirvana turned them down they said thank you we're gonna focus on our own film Rock and rule the officially launched production for the movie in 1979 and will go on to team up with United Artists as the main distributors for their film again the 1970s were an era of experimental animation where adult content was getting more attention amrok arul wanted to be among those names it wanted to be a film to stand up and say check it out we're not Disney we're for an older audience who likes rock and roll they were very passionate and confident that this movie would be a hit with their viewers they even picked up some pretty hot musicians from around that time to work on the movie and do a soundtrack for it you got Debbie Harry cheap trick Lou Reed Iggy Pop Earth Wind & Fire like legitimately the soundtrack for rock and roll is very good too it's if the name of your movie is rock and roll well you should probably have a good soundtrack [Music] the main folks behind rock and roll when it came to writing directing producing were the original founders of Nirvana so the three guys I mentioned before once more they were pushing hard for this movie to do well even with a substantial budget of eight million dollars they still push themselves really hard to put their best foot forward to provide a quality fluid animation that was high quality and looked good but disaster struck Nirvana as United Artists was purchased by MGM and 1981 for three hundred and eighty million dollars an event that would have a ripple effect and would go on to ruin the release of Rock and rule according to my sources MGM bought you a after the disaster a film called Heaven's Gate ooh those numbers I guess we've got ourselves a bit of a theme going on in this video rock and roll would be released in April of 1983 but MGM deliberately throttled the release of the movie because they did not care for it they didn't know how to market a film like this to an audience they thought it was crude that it was sexual that it was violence and had too many adult themes about it well duh it's an adult movie but they did not care they marketed the movie in a very bizarre particular way that involved very few movie theaters and because of that the movie only made about thirty thousand dollars at the box office it was an absolute mess and to top it all off MGM went back into the film and butchered it up they changed the voice of one of the main characters Omar they took that voice actors out cuz apparently MGM did not like that voice and they replaced Omar with American graffitis Paulie Matt or Apollo Matt I'm not sure how you say your name dude on top of this they would go back and change scenes chopping out some stuff editing the opening crawl that explains the setting of the world it was incredibly bizarre what they were cherry-picking and editing and altering for the film and most of this was for the American release so when it comes to the actual film and its entirety America never got that until many years later fortunately Canada got the original release with Omar's voice still in there with the original edits but yeah at that point it was a failure there was nothing they could do to safe it MGM screwed Nirvana and completely screwed rock and roll it was a failure and it almost put Nirvana out of business now fortunately for Nelvana they went to television and started to do projects for Inspector Gadget the Care Bears cartoon shows that could help them make up their laws and actually did they were able to bounce back and Nirvana is still in business to this very day now here's a couple of fun facts I wanted to list off about rock and roll despite its failure of a launch first off the don't cut that was widescreen was lost in a fire so what they had originally that was intended for audiences was lost so that sucks now they had another version that was able to salvage the film in its entirety but as far as the full widescreen goes that was lost which kind of explains things because when I watched these different versions of the film I notice that sometimes it's four by three sometimes it is occasionally widescreen it's a hodgepodge of edits and I don't know exactly what brought about so many different kinds of versions of this movie but something went wrong which is no surprise because navona has the worst luck apparently now this film became a bit of a cult classic throughout the years where it was hard to get a copy that the copies that were in circulation were incredibly rare and that when there were viewing parties it took place at conventions and the movie was even incorrectly sourced saying that Ralph Bakshi was the director when that's not the case there's also something about how if you wanted a copy of the movie you could have sent 80 bucks to navona and they would mail you back a VHS copy of the version that they had which wasn't the widescreen version because that was lost in the fire but the version that it currently had on stock as in here's what we have it's yours I feel bad for rock and roll I feel really bad for Nirvana they tried their best they got completely screwed and then they lost their main version of their movie in a fire that's rough buddy eventually rock'n'roll was officially released on DVD in 2005 and on blu-ray and 2010 it's also up on YouTube which is good I was actually wondering why I got so many requests to review this movie out of the blue and I was like where did this come from why is everybody emailing me the same thing only to realize ah it's up on YouTube now that's why which is good I'm glad that folks are checking out this film it is definitely one for the ages and I'm glad that I'm finally getting around to talking about it but that being said is it actually any good well let's take a look nothing can stop me all right so what's the movie about I told myself I'll hold back on spoilers but forgive me there might be some here so take it for what it's worth the film starts off with an opening crawl that describes the setting how it's a post-apocalyptic world how animals like dogs and cats and rats have mutated and have become an anthro there it is an anthro race of intelligent sentient creatures who have essentially replaced humanity that the world is I would say it's kind of an urban Mad Max where there's order and structure to a degree but it's like stay in the cities everywhere outside of it is kind of dead but that's unfortunately not explained too well I'll address that later on here in the video we start off with maque who is the main villain of this film we're following him as he's on a quest he is talking to his computer it's helping him track down this voice he's got this entire scheme where he needs this one voice that can help him unlock his quest which he reveals that later on in the film and I'll get to that we then go to a concert and this bar where we meet our four main protagonists well two of them are the main protagonists and the other two are the sidekicks the two main protagonists being Omar and Angel and then the two sidekicks being dizzy and stretch dizzy and stretch they don't really do much in this film they are the definition of side characters Omar he's a rock and roll at soul I mean that I can say it because it's true he's arrogant he's got a massive ego he's a diva he thinks he's a hotshot that he's the greatest thing since sliced bread angel feels like she lives in his shadow that he always takes a spotlight that she is there to support him but never gets a chance to do her own thing that's like one of the big as takeaways in the film as far as character growth goes how Omar is a selfish bastard and needs to grow up and be more supportive of Angel especially with what's about to happen so angel sings her song on stage to which Omar was not happy about and mock here's the song he's like wow this girl's voice hmm this is it this is the voice I need for what I'm trying to do he then invites her and Omar and dizzy and stretch over to his mansion to where we meet these three goons these brothers who work for muck by the way shout out to this seam it's one of the greatest opening scenes to introduce a villain officially in a film just just watch [Music] anyone want a beer look at this guy it's outrageous my God Almighty his lips shoot out of his skull his lips should be separated as their own individual character it is insane and I love it um mock Oh more continues to be selfish he's being very cold - angel you can tell that he's jealous that she is getting all the attention and he's not because again he's a diva and this is where the main adventure begins MOC kidnaps angel he goes to nuke New York City isn't that great sounds like a fallout City right the city from the Fallout games that is and then the gang chases after him to go rescue Angel because she was kidnapped Omar's being reluctant dragging his feet feeling and different funny enough it's the side characters dizzy and stretch who are like Omar come on we've got to save angel she needs our help Omar's like I guess I suppose we'll go save my girlfriend Omar sucks by the way he is awful we then are introduced to other characters Marv Locke who owns us Club which was the club from the first act you've got Cindy who is the sister of the three brothers she kind of reminds me of a Harley Quinn like character especially with her voice and then things start to get crazy where Mach is losing it he tries to put on a show there's not enough power for it so they go back to hometown I believe that's the name of the original city they were in so they literally went from the first setting to a second setting and then back to the first setting which again I have a qualms with the the moral building in this movie and I'll get to it later on but ultimately it comes down to Mach forcing angel to sing and by the way hold on this is about to get crazy like you're about to get your minds blown with what Mach was trying to do Mach use is Angel's voice to unleash a demon from Hell named Armageddon to help him get revenge on the world because his last album didn't perform so well that was mocks main plan the entire time was to get revenge on folks and command this demon so he could rule the world I wanna clean of it I know it's got problems but I love it [Applause] Omar shows up saves angel they sing together both of their voices sends the demon back to hell mocks sidekick it kills him and that's the movie it ends very quickly it's it's like okay here's the end done and what a roller coaster it was [Applause] [Music] okay so let's go over my five points first the story the main characters being angel and Omar Timmy aren't that interesting Omar is not likable which is fine with certain characters but in this movie it just doesn't work he's incredibly selfish he's a diva he's arrogant and also ignorant to angel and what she needs which I get is the main plot point of the movie for the main characters is how Omar isn't being supportive of angel but it just never clicked with me it just felt like this is a bad guy who doesn't deserve angel no angel is a bit better but she's also boring I feel like she isn't much outside of I want to be a star someday and get your hands off me you villain leave me alone I wish he had more spice to her character a bit more spunk but no she was pretty basic and that wasn't much fun to watch chop chop same song Omar my son Muk was without a doubt the most interesting character in the movie he had spiced his performance to what he was trying to do how it was a bit of a mystery that grew with the film and evolved for us to discover oh wow he's trying to unleash a demon that's crazy and it fits well with the rock-and-roll theme going on in the movie MOC is prideful he's got a bigger ego than Omar but it works for a villain it's almost like he fancies himself as a philosopher there's even a scene where he's talking to one of his lackeys saying there's no good or evil just moral grays and elaborates on what he's doing as okay when in reality is trying to kill people Mott's interesting the best part of the film without a doubt is what we are doing evil of course the side characters are yeah just man dizzy is like the voice of reason trying to keep things on track stretch here is just for comic relief Cindy as I said I liked her she was much more interesting than angel I wish Cindy's spunky attitude was Angel's character but oh well it just overall these characters aren't that interesting except for Mark and his lackeys the the Lackey who was the dumb one he was interesting as well at least with how he was a good juxtaposition to mom who was a know-it-all and then I think he's him sleazy I believe he's a complete buffoon but he actually has a good heart so that's good someone who's cold in quote/unquote logical versus somebody who is emotional but has a good soul and means well no Santa Claus no tooth fairy and no Uncle Mike aid as I said the setting I have issues with I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic worlds recently keepo i did a quick vid on that that takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting i loved it at venture time does the same thing of course Mad Max being one of my absolute favorites especially with fury road that's like one of my favorite movies ever so when I started to watch rock and roll back in the day for the first time and I saw the opening crawl I was like this is awesome it's a post-apocalyptic world with anthro creatures and we had to see how they go about their lives after humanity has fallen and it wasn't that different it's almost like they were humans anyway there was nothing really animal about them except for their looks and even then they aren't that outlandish especially the main characters it felt like I was watching something from goof troop and how I'm in an anthro world of Mickey Mouse characters and that I know that just that was weird to me I felt like it was lost potential with how you could have explained this world how could have been a bit more like Mad Max where it's desolate and the cities that do exist are like pseudo prisons and just full of ruffians and mutants and creatures and just a lot more you could have done but instead it felt like oh where in the future there are mutants but we just see them once and that's it and they aren't even really that big of a deal yeah I was let down because of that the story itself was not the best it all hinges on MOX plan he's the main one making things happen he's the one who kidnaps angel he's the reason why Omar and his friends are chasing them down and when it's finally revealed that he's summoning a demon it was I mean it was shocking and cool but then after that it felt like anti-climatic where it's like oh that set it felt like all the tension was zapped out of the room after the novelty revealed that it was a demon once more it doesn't help that most of the characters aren't that interesting stretch is a comic relief dizzy is the voice of reason Omar's a selfish Axl who does come around at the end but it almost seemed like it came out of nowhere he had no real change of heart except for just randomly showing up and being like back away angels my girlfriend and then singing with her I wish there was more of showing him becoming good seeing that he needs to grow up and no longer be a diva or his girlfriend will die but we don't get that music though music is really good music make you lose control it's a topical meme the music was fantastic I loved angels song listen to the lyrics I probably can't play it because copyright but you hear her lyrics which is done by oh gosh I forget the name Debbie Harry - I'll type it out because I'm getting it wrong but Angela song is pretty I like the lyrics it's meaningful with her relationship with Omar the music and this movie and its entirety is good cheap trick you Earth Wind and Fire good stuff so on that front they delivered but with the main course of the story with the main characters aunt felt lacking and that's a bummer because I want to like this film I want to enjoy it but the story could have been much much better next there's the voice acting so I said earlier in the video that Omar's voice and the original cut was replaced because apparently MGM was like we don't like the sound of Omar's voice let's replace some with the guy from American Graffiti because he's popular right yes I don't know I do know this though uh-oh my voice is much better now I am NOT a fan of Omar's character but the voice that got for the redub with Paulie Matt hmm no thank you he sounds even more arrogant which I did not know was even possible like here see for yourself here's the Canadian version with the original Omar I just came to tell you you were good you were good and here's the redub so why'd you walk sometimes I walk sometimes I talk I'm talking now but for the other voice actors they were fine nothing outstanding nothing awful mocks voice was great I think he steals the show and according to my sources navona actually approached Mick Jagger to voice mock because mock is actually modeled after Mick Jagger his name is muck swagger isn't that great but Mick turned it down and instead they went to dawn Franks who voice muck and he did a great job singers can scream but she still pissed me off then there's the dialogue obviously this is a rock and roll inspired film so I can understand the rebellious dialog with people being short and aggressive with one another get out of my face man I'm a rock and roller I'm rebellious I'm a vagabond if that's the word that applies here I don't know but don't talk to me unless you're talking about rock and roll brother I so out of touch give me just one good reason why you guys should finish how about this okay that's one good reason Omar is an ass he's aggressive he's short with people that's his rock and roll diva like character angel is a sweetheart understanding and also the damsel in distress mock his dialogue was the best because just like his voice acting just like his character he is interesting especially building up to the finale unfortunately finale as I said wasn't as satisfying but leading up to it you hear how he manipulates people how he uses his words to twist and turn and get people to fall for his schemes I like that I think it works well especially with Don Frank's voicing mock Oh and Cindy again a great character I appreciate her dialog with angel how they go to a club how angel is being shown around town Cindy's saying we're a new kind of woman these men aren't ready for us and Cindy's great I think her dialogue is charming and cute kind of a girl who's trying to get out from her brothers boots because again she's related to those three stooges and she wants to go out and live her life but they're being protective so Cindy it's cool hearing her talk about how she escapes every Saturday night to go to the dance club and how her brother's constantly try to stop her but she's always one step ahead of them she's great I can't slide down the chute and away [Music] after that there's the editing who okay like I already said it this movie suffered from MGM who decided to go back and gut the movie they changed the opening crawl they even added some new scenes in to help change the outcome of the original cut which is very bizarre I actually had to go and take different versions of the movie and cobble them together to get the best version of the original cut plus some extra scenes that were created by MGM or not by them but I imagine ordered by them and that way I can get a full version of this movie even with the extra stuff but I digress what I'm getting at though is that the new things they added and the old stuff they removed really hindered the movie in its entirety which to be fair isn't incredible from a story perspective already so having MGM go back and do host edits oh that sucked and the one scene that is the most unforgivable to me and I'm not sure this was MGM or Nirvana or who was responsible but that one stooge the one who has a kind heart he wants to be good and at the end of the film he sacrifices his life to save angel and Omar from the demon that was being controlled by Mach so the brother dies it's really heartfelt scene I feel more for this guy dying than for any of the main characters because he took a stand and died and his brother snaps his brothers like you killed my brother and he kills Mach and retaliation that was good and at the end of the movie and again I don't know what cut this was from they have the guy coming back to life why would you do that why would you steal away the significance of his death and how it brought about mocs demise at it why would you even add that Anna stupid so again this movie has editing issues on a pretty massive scale freeze you where'd he go I think I know let's go [Music] everybody freeze that needs you [Music] and finally there's the animation the animation is the best part of the movie hands down it's fluid it is high quality it's bizarre it's so weird there are some really interesting faces and facial movements and body movements it's it's peculiar it's bizarre it's strange and it's so much fun to watch it is unlike anything else I've seen especially with mocks lips just look at those things go look at his face there's so much skin with his cheeks and his lips and is just everything about his facial movement and it's mesmerizing I can't draw my eyes away from it [Music] I know you you can tell that these animators the ones who work on the film went hard trying to make the best thing they could they wanted to make stuff that was fluid animation that's bizarre and even a bit uncanny but it works with this film hell there's even some old-school computer graphics in this film like really basic stuff but hey it works and there's also the grittiness of the film that works with the post-apocalyptic setting that this film is taking place in how the backgrounds are gritty and use darker colors looks a bit like a wasteland in some ways and the cities look overly urban designed with technology it's a bit of a dystopian future I like that stuff it works again I have issues with the settings but when I see some of the set designs I'm like okay right now with the city with New York with these different vehicles and different ships and and designs it works I just wish you would have explored the world a bit more but when it comes to this movie and its animation I can very much so understand why it's a cult classic it is supremely unique and I would recommend it to any person who's a fan of animation my dear what's a face thank you for your help it's a pleasure working with you mark so how would I improve the film it's got issues I'll say that it definitely has its issues Omar's character Angel's character their boring they aren't fun to watch they aren't satisfying with their character growth and that character arcs if anything angel didn't really change at all and Omar's change was on a dime and wasn't satisfying Mach was great up to a point until the end he was interesting until he was immediately not interesting so I would work a bit more on the characters and make them resonate with your audience a bit more as of right now I'm not sure how I would do that outside of trying to have some genuine change in your characters and where they start and where you want to take them but here I stand with I think the true answer of how I would improve it and that is not changing it at all I know I just said that I would make changes and that the film's not perfect yes true it's not and it could be improved but part of me my gut is telling me leave it as it is this movie is so unique with its production with its direction with its animation with the era that it came from and how it got completely screwed by MGM how it was lost in a fire how it barely survived over the years with the wrong credits to the film how it eventually resurfaced on YouTube I find the production and the survival of this movie much more interesting than the movie itself and also the movie being as weird and bizarre as it is just adds that much more to the Flair and the appeal of this movie the animation alone is unlike anything I've ever seen it's not God's here fantastic and there's some weird things that they combine where it's like what direction are you going here but overall just this film's production and the direction that was trying to achieve I think that makes the movie unique and it's almost like from an that we will never go back to ever again it's a product of its time unlike MGM I wouldn't touch it I will leave it alone [Applause] [Music] so in conclusion I would recommend rock and roll I think it is worth checking out again if you're a fan of animation this one should be on your list just for the bizarre novelty that it is it's not perfect but I fully understand why it turned out the way it did and I give it props for persevering over the years I'm glad that it wasn't lost a time entirely it was strong enough to survive to this very day and I'm glad that it's finally up on YouTube hopefully it can get the audience that was robbed from it from back in the day by MGM navona I give you massive props you saw your chance you took a leap of faith you made something that was awesome and different you missed your window but I think there's a certain beauty that it was able to survive and resurface and again hopefully it can finally make the rounds around the internet and people can appreciate the bizarre wonder that is rock and rule so until next week boys anchors hey guys thank you for watching the video a shout out to my patrons who support me on patreon and a big shout out to my YouTube members I think they're called sponsors I think thank you guys for your support to also want to thank Ryan Walter s'en and Jim diz Rio for helping me to research this video you guys are awesome you're good research buddies and hopefully we can keep providing some good content here in the future all right thanks for watching see you all next time [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Saberspark

Views: 1,444,525

Rating: 4.9607763 out of 5

Keywords: saberspark, saber, rock & rule, rock and rule, what the hell is, what the hell is rock & rule, failure, box office failure, nelvana

Id: IkEADs9ftvc

Length: 37min 8sec (2228 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/tomservo88]

Being that the man himself has posted the video here, I’m gonna back down and remove my posting of the video, but I will bring my comment from my post with me:

Oh, Hell yeah.

Knowing the thematic nature of this movie, I desperately hope this is Saber attempting to edge away from reviewing anthro/furry stuff and focusing back in on more niche animated works.

[u/JackieNaper1907]

I both love and hate this movie so much and I don't know why