Rock & Rule Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Rock & Rule Blu-ray Movie Review

Canada gives us their take on post-Apocalyptic heavy metal.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 20, 2010

The vagaries of the film business are often so odd that what may seem on the surface to be completely tangential issues can make the difference between any given movie becoming a box office bonanza and what is sometimes charitably called a “cult hit.” Two relatively simultaneous examples can be culled from the late 1970s to illustrate this odd phenomenon. In each case, an unexpected concatenation of events deprived a film from receiving its due. My friend Bruce Kimmel thought he was on the cusp of being the next big thing in comedy when Paramount optioned his 1976 farce The First Nudie Musical for distribution. In fact, Paramount’s then head, Richard Sylbert, told Bruce, “There’s Mel, there’s Woody, and there’s you” (also the title of Kimmel’s newish memoirs). That would be Mel Brooks and Woody Allen in case you were wondering. But Kimmel soon found himself grist for the mill when his Nudie costar Cindy Williams went stellar in a little television series called Laverne and Shirley. Suddenly Paramount didn’t want their family friendly leading lady exposed (pun intended) in a sweet if semi-raunchy send up of the porn industry. Paramount pulled the plug on Nudie and Kimmel’s career took a decidedly different turn.

Business matters of a completely different ilk seem to have put the kibosh on Rock & Rule, a peculiar little animated film that began production a couple of years after Nudie, but which due to an almost Murphy’s Law series of events at MGM, ended up not seeing even a minimal light of day until 1983. If Nudie was sunk by the sudden rise of a star, Rock & Rule got caught up in the machinations of studio mergers (in this case MGM and United Artists) and new management coming on board. If there’s one thing anyone with any experience in the film business can tell you about these changes of the guard, it’s that the new order wants to jettison anything that had been greenlit by the previous head honchos, and that played in to Rock & Rule’s eventual shelving. It’s interesting to note that both The First Nudie Musical and Rock & Rule eventually found large audiences through the auspices of cable television. In the case of Nudie, it was Cinemax, and in the case of Rock & Rule it was HBO and Showtime. Nudie has yet to make it to Blu-ray (though I have it on good authority that that may indeed be in the offing, sooner rather than later), but Rock & Rule is now out in high definition (if, sadly, with only lossless audio) and may now find a whole new generation of fans drawn to its post-Apocalyptic vision of a world overrun with rock playing mutants.

Rock & Rule in many respects resembles what Don Bluth or Ralph Bakshi might have done in the late 1970s had they intentionally (or unintentionally) ingested large amounts of hallucinogens. The film has a surreal quality, if only for the fact that the “humans” actually resemble large rodents or dogs, a la An American Tail or All Dogs Go to Heaven. The film follows the exploits of Mok (voiced by Don Francks, one of the live action co-stars of Francis Ford Coppola’s film version of the Lane-Harburg musical classic Finian’s Rainbow in the dialogue segments and by the iconic Lou Reed in the songs). Mok is an aging rock star who has discovered he can summon an interdimensional demon to help him achieve world domination if he can find the “one voice” with the proper frequency to open the portal to the demon’s lair. Mok soon discovers that voice in the person of Angel (voiced by Susan Roman in the dialogue segments and none other than Blondie’s Deborah Harry in the sung sequences), who is part of a rock band which also includes Omar (voiced in the American version of the film by American Graffiti’s Paul Le Mat, after MGM had problems with the original Canadian Omar, Greg Salata). The film plays out as a sort of dark and dank fairy tale, as Mok attempts to woo Angel into unwittingly opening the interdimensional passageway and allowing the evil demon to wreak havoc on this side of the wormhole.

This film plays like a slighty past its prime “head trip,” as wags used to deem films like 2001. Full of crazy, and sometimes crazy-scary, visuals, Rock & Rule is almost a precursor to the dystopian anime which would soon become a staple of the Japanese film industry. New York is here Nuke York, a suitable analog to any number of anime versions of “New Tokyo.” Here, however, while there's some nice supposedly "new" technology, the biggest high-tech revolution seems to be squarely focused on screaming guitars and power chords. While the film certainly has some compelling visual elements, including a neat evocation of the demon and in a sort of King Kong homage, Angel tied to a sort of Fay Wray-esque contraption as she invokes the evil spirit, it's the soundtrack that will probably be of most interest to audiences. In fact it’s the music that elevates Rock & Rule above its sometimes generic seeming plotline. Aside from Harry and Reed, who contribute some likable if not exactly classic material, the film also features entries from Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and, perhaps most disconcertingly, Earth, Wind & Fire. The excellence of the soundtrack makes it all the more disappointing that only lossy audio options are included on this new Blu-ray.

Rock & Rule is certainly an interesting film for any number of reasons, and anyone who remembers Heavy Metal may well want to check this out as a sort of sibling companion piece. Rock & Rule certainly presents a more compelling storyline and not just because of Heavy Metal’s episodic structure. And the late 1970s-early 1980s hand drawn cel animation has a charmingly retro look which somehow plays well into its supposed “futuristic” ambience. If this film is most definitely not a lost classic in any sense of the word, it defines what a “cult hit” really should be: a fascinating little film that will appeal to a select segment of the public and which has its own very peculiar charms to recommend it.

Rock & Rule Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rock & Rule received a new HD master a few years ago when it came out on a Special Edition 2 DVD set. That HD master has been utilized once again for this new Blu-ray release, encoded via AVC and in 1080p and 1.85:1. The results are mostly encouraging, but leave a few issues nonetheless. The clarity of the image, especially with regard to nicely saturated colors, is generally excellent. This is old school hand drawn animation, and it typically features intentionally soft looking (as in drawn that way) backgrounds, backgrounds which almost resemble Frazetta paintings now and then. The characters themselves, while never rising to the complexity of some modern day CGI renderings, are still appealing, with good line detail and sharpness. Where this Blu-ray seems to go awry, at least a couple of times, is with contrast. An opening montage is virtually indecipherable due to being so dark, and that anomaly crops up a couple of times later in the film. There are also occasional damage issues, though none of those is egregious enough to warrant serious concern. There are transitory flecks and very minor scratches which typically only last a frame or two. Grain is apparent though never overwhelming, and there are some occasional registration and flicker issues, no doubt inherent in the source elements. I've actually never seen the SD-DVD version of Rock & Rule so can't authoritatively comment on how much better this Blu-ray looks when compared to the standard definition release. It's certainly on a part with some of the other "old school" hand drawn animated Blu-rays we've gotten.

Rock & Rule Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

What a shame that Unearthed didn't splurge and give the consumer lossless audio on this Blu-ray. Instead we get a pretty front heavy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and the original stereo deployment for the film in Dolby Digital 2.0. Surround activity is so spotty and minimal in this film that I actually recommend just going for the DD 2.0 mix, certainly not something I say lightly. Unearthed has been fairly vocal about their disastrous SD-DVD release, which evidently got caught in some film business machinations of its own, leaving Unearthed uncompensated for their time and trouble, so perhaps they simply didn't have the capital to expend on a lossless track. But as I was listening to Harry, Reed, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and Earth, Wind & Fire, I couldn't help but wonder how much better these songs would have sounded with a nice repurposed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Even the Dolby tracks are encoded at the standard DVD 448 Kbps bitrate, another shame. Putting all that aside, however, there's nothing to complain about per se with these Dolby tracks, especially the 2.0. If the 5.1 just barely ekes out some transitory surround activity, the 2.0, while narrowly focused, is reasonably sharp and clear, with no noticeable dropouts. While it's obviously lacking especially the abundant low end that lossless audio delivers, there's a decent enough dynamic range here to keep you from completely tearing your hair out over what might have been.

Rock & Rule Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All of the (SD) extras from the previously released 2 DVD set have been ported over to this release:

• An interesting Commentary by Clive Smith (available under the Audio Setup Menu) offers a lot of background on the film, as well as the hassles with MGM/UA which scuttled the release.
• Alternate Version (1:21:03) offers the original Canadian release, with Salata voicing Omar.
• The Making of 'Rock & Rule' (24:36) features some nice interview segments with the starring musicians.
• The Devil and Daniel Mouse (22:23) is the original short which inspired the feature length film.
• How We Made 'The Devil and Daniel Mouse' (21:14) offers a bunch of Nelvana nerds (I mean that in only the nicest way possible) hobnobbing around a work table and discussing the animated short.
• Workprint Title Sequence (3:13)
• Workprint 'Drats' Ending Sequence (12:38)

The Theatrical trailer and Special Thanks (text) round out the extras.

Rock & Rule Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With the contributions from Lou Reed, Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and EW&F, Rock & Rule certainly has the cast to assure its cult appeal. The film itself is frankly hit and miss, but it features some nice hand drawn animation and an interesting post-Apocalyptic storyline. This Blu-ray is going to be at least partially scuttled for a lot of potential consumers by its lossy audio, but this is such an intriguing little project that even those dismayed by the Dolby tracks may want to check this out. Fans of the film may be satisfied enough with the SD-DVD they probably already own, but for those intrigued enough by the cast, Rock & Rule is Recommended.