Rock-A-Doodle (1992)

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  May 11, 2011

  ajv2688

  I saw this when I was a kid, and I liked it then, but I don't really remember it now. Maybe I'll watch it again sometime, it has a very cool voice cast.

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  August 23, 2010

  coollala0910

  18% Rotten?! In my opinion, Rock-a-Doodle is one of Don Bluth's most underrated work.
  
  I've been watching this film since I was like five years old and I still enjoy it. The demented owl gave me the heebiejeebies as a child. Don't make fun of me, but I have feelings for the cha... read moreracters. The scene where the club that Chanticlier performed announced that no cats, dogs, birds, and mice were allowed make me feel bad for our heroes. See? Proof that I feel for the characters. This movie also shows how corrupt the world would be if populated by animals. Just take a look at Pinky the Fox! He's got "jerk" written all over him.
  
  Also, the scene where the owl keeps Chanticlier hostage under that creepy tree stump still gets me today.
  
  Don't make fun of me for this but I think Chanticlier's hen girlfriend is freakin' hot! She's far more sexier than the animatronic hen at Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.
  
  Well that's what I think of "Rock-a-Doodle", haters!!!
  
  "Jeepers, I'm furry!"

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• 
  
  October 16, 2009

  mumby1988

  This is one of many examples of a film being so bad it?s unintentionally hilarious. Don Bluth?s Rock-a-Doodle is poorly written, poorly acted, has terrible musical numbers and no directorial control whatsoever; its only redemptive feature is that it follows through with its nonse... read morense and makes you laugh a couple of times along the way.
  
  The story, ripped off from a Geoffrey Chaucer story about a rooster who fights a fox, makes no coherent sense. Not only is the idea of a cartoon world encroaching on the human world not original, but it's executed in such a confusing way. If the whole of the human world has been turned into watercolours, what has happened to the parents out trying to protect the farm? Do they know that any of this is going on? And if so, why don?t we see what happens to them? Even if this all takes place in Edmund?s dream, surely they?d turn up at some point.
  
  Then there is the acting. Glen Campbell's singing is passable, as you would expect, but his delivery of lines is otherwise pretty mediocre and lifeless. Toby Scott Granger is terrible as Edmund, though to be fair he has to work with a script which is both incomprehensible and lazy; he does, in the words of the Nostalgia Critic, ?make Jake Lloyd look like Haley Joel Osment?. The supplementary characters are also largely forgettable; the only thing you remember about the magpie and the mouse is that they?re incredibly annoying. And as for Goldie?s singing: it?s like a strangled canary, a complete nails-on-the-blackboard experience. The only vaguely good performance is Christopher Plummer as the villainous Grand Duke of Owls, and even that hardly stretches the boundaries of what is possible, even as children?s animation goes.
  
  The musical numbers in this film seem to have been included to make the film more light-hearted and family-friendly. But almost no effort was expended in the writing of these pieces, either lyrically or musically, and so they come across as completely laughable. Not only are they completely superfluous to the plot, but they never develop into anything meaningful. At least in other musicals - like Plummer?s most famous work, The Sound of Music - the songs go on long enough to be actually construed into meaning something. Here they are just quick, highly surreal interludes which at best will make you laugh as you watch them on a loop and at worst just confuse and piss you off.
  
  There are also several segments in this film which are either inappropriate or just plain absurd. The former is best shown by Edmund?s initial remark upon being turned into a cat: ?Jeepers! I'm a furry!?. For those of us who are old enough to have some idea of what this means - think niche gentleman?s literature - this is just plain wrong. The absurd sections of the film include the ?flashback? (or whatever it is) where we enter into Edmund?s mind for a few seconds, or the bizarre sequence where Hutch - the Duke'? aggressive pint-sized nephew - attempts to do away with our heroes in the trailer and ends up being electrocuted in a spinning bed. You watch the sequence, which runs like it?s in fast-motion, and come away with only one thought in your mind: ?What the hell just happened??.
  
  In fact, that?s the impression this whole film will leave in your head. In his efforts to keep up with both Disney and the industry as a whole, Don Bluth has lost all grip on reality. In the wake of both Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Little Mermaid - which managed to be both innovative and box office hits - he has thrown everything he has at this film and, as expected, ended up with a god-awful mess. It's sloppy, inexplicable nonsense, resoundingly weird and inadvertently funny, and should only be watched as kickback for a good laugh.

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  September 29, 2009

  SirPant

  Cock a doodle don't!

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  February 27, 2009

  superclerk25

  I actually liked this flick when I was a kid.

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  February 27, 2012

  staindslaved

  Don Bluth says he was inspired by Roger Rabbit to make a hybrid live-action/animated film. Oddly the film is largely animated with only a few live-action sequences at the beginning. The film involves a country rooster who goes to the big city to be a famous Elvis like singer bu... read moret the farm animals need him to return and crow so the Sun will come up and scare away the Owl's who are trying to eat them. If that sounds ridiculous it's because it is. Bluth's films had been declining in revenue and appeal to the point where Rock-A-Doodle made only $12 million on an $18 million budget. It flopped so hard that Bluth's animation studio was liquidated and A Hong Kong company purchased the companies final three films Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park and The Pebble and the Penguin. Pebble & Penguin was the only one to get an actual theatrical release and it flopped critically and commercially just like Rock-A-Doodle.

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  January 25, 2011

  nadyajoensen

  I used to watch this movie all the time when I was a kid, actually I loved all movies made by Don Bluth. This movie was much fun, has cute characters and wonderful music. It's a story about a rooster (Chanticleer) who is much appreciated on the farm he lives in, he sings every mo... read morerning so the sun willl rise. But one morning some owls prevent him from singing and all the other animals on the farm see that he's a phony. Chanticleer then runs away to the big city and to everybody's big surprise, the sun doesn't rise again after Chanticleer has left. Then they go on a journey to find him and get him back to the farm.

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  May 3, 2009

  SunilJawahir

  I don't know why I loved this movie as a kid but there is a weird cuteness to it.

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  September 22, 2007

  unicornofbalinor

  A fun, made-for-TV kid's classic, at least for me. If you can find it, it's a fun romp - definitely a throwback. ;)

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• 
  
  November 15, 2011

  paj85

  It is tough to believe that this is Don Bluthâ(TM)s retaliation to Beauty and the Beast. "Rock-A-Doodle" is just... awful. When your antagonist is an owl whose evil deed is making it rain... and his main motivation is liking the dark... and hating rock and roll... you know that... read more youâ(TM)re in trouble. Then let's create a main character who is Elvis in rooster form and is basically written out of the script after the first scene. Let's add in a scary-looking hound dog that can't tie his shoes as a sidekick and a live-action boy who is turned into a feminine-looking cartoon cat. This film is a good reminder of why Disney rules the world of animation. In "The Lion King," a lion fights to save the kingdom that his evil uncle has taken. In "Rock-A-Doodle," a cat and a mouse fly a giant pink helicopter in an attempt to make the sun come up and drive the evil owls away. The only thing worse than the story is the live actors. I'm still trying to comprehend why they have a narrator (a la Beauty and the Beast) AND a live-action person reading a story to a little boy (a la The Princess Bride). One or the other is a nice touch but you can't have a cohesive story with both. How dare Phil Harris (the voice actor who portrayed Little John and Baloo in Disneyâ(TM)s Robin Hood and Jungle Book) sign on for this atrocity. Even though they hired some entertaining character actors like Ellen Greene and Eddie Deezen, they were wasted wasted on horrible dialogue. The characters are incredibly forgettable, particularly the "main character" who isn't even really in this movie. He does little more than provide the soundtrack for the rest of the characters. The "bouncers" are bunch of toads? Were they trying to make us roll our eyes? Not to mention the fact that the owl can unexplainably turn into a tornado. But after suffering through this film, at least there is an exciting, show-stopping ending, right? Just as the main character starts to sing and interact with the rest of the characters for the first time in the film [wait for it...] the ending credits begin to roll. And then that song quickly fades away to make room for another song being sung by a different character about how learning to tie your shoes is just like life. I'm sorry, Don Bluth, but your enjoyable animation couldn't save this garbage.

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• Glen Campbell as Chanticleer
• Ellen Greene as Goldie
• Christopher Plummer as The Duke
• Charles Nelson Reilly as Hunch
• Eddie Deezen as Snipes
• Phil Harris as Patou
• Sandy Duncan as Peeper
• Sorrell Booke as Pinky
• Andrew Duncan

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

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  Mona Lisa Smile (40%)
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  The Pebble and the Penguin (79%)

• • Hunch: Animation! It's music to my ears!

• A boy is turned into a kitten and helps to find a rooster who forgets how to crow.  Answer »
• In what movie will you find the following five charaters? Chanticleer Snipes Goldie Patou Peepers  Answer »
• What Don Bluth film features a singing rooster?  Answer »

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