Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 23, 2023

Any Baby Boomers who grew up with the cookie cutter assembly line cartoons that used to populate Saturday morning television will probably feel right at home, not that that's necessarily a good thing, with Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat, though one assumes if Baby Boomers do watch this film, it will be in the guise of being a grandparent and/or babysitter attempting to keep a young one occupied for an hour and a half or so. It's almost unbelievable that this "franchise" is up to its third outing, since even the first Rock Dog, a film one would assume was designed to be the "tent pole" for the series, failed pretty spectacularly at the box office. That first film at least had the benefit of a number of well known actors voicing the characters, including Luke Wilson, J.K. Simmons and Eddie Izzard. By the time Rock Dog 2: Rock Around the Park showed up (several years later, it might be noted), those putative stars were missing in action, though perhaps in need of a quick pay check, Eddie Izzard at least is back for this third go 'round.

This time the sweetly good natured Bodi (Graham Hamilton) gets swept up in supposed "intrigue" revolving around a talent competition show that is rather like The Voice. Izzard is back as Angus Scattergood, who's already ensconced on the show as the story begins, but who is soon replaced by Bodi when the producers want to play up conflict between judges. In fact, finding peace among former enemies is a kind of subtext to this piece, which is all well and good, but the writing is so ham fisted that any moral is basically delivered in a pummeling style rather than as a relatively subtle suggestion.

There's more than a whiff of staleness to this enterprise, as if the production company had a bunch of "ready to go" characters that had already been rendered and just needed to be inserted into some putative new storyline. It ends up coming across like a 21st century CGI infused version of Hanna Barbera cartoons of yore, with about the same general entertainment value.

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a decent if far from mind blowing example of competent CGI, though rather strangely fine detail on the animal characters, like fur, tends to only come into focus during close-ups, and midrange shots offer what basically look like smooth geometric figures with facial features attached. The design is often pretty minimal in terms of backgrounds (again echoing efforts like the Hanna Barbera cartoons of yesteryear), but the palette is typically quite bright and nicely saturated. There are a couple of compression issues, including the by now expected banding during the Lionsgate masthead, but also later some brief macroblocking during one scene that has Simon getting his chimney sweep on, where billowing smoke and ash doesn't quite make it through the compression gauntlet.

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that tends to come most vibrantly alive during the musical sequences, though that said, this film really doesn't offer that much music, kind of strangely enough considering the plot mechanics. It's also perhaps just a little funny that Bodi keeps waxing philosophical about what "rock 'n' roll" means, when the song score is decidedly in the poppish category. That niggling objection aside, the track provides intermittent immersion in some outdoor scenes that offer ambient environmental effects, and dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there is a Special Features designation on the Main Menu, it ends up pointing only to Bookmarks, which in my considered opinion is a major "fail" in terms of pretending there's actual bonus features available. A digital copy is included, and packaging features a slipcover.

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kids younger than seven or so may find this an okay time filler, but any Baby Boomers in attendance may want to be surreptitiously catching up on old episodes of The Huckleberry Hound Show and/or Top Cat if they're in the mood for animated animals. Technical merits are generally solid if uninspiring for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.