| Director: | Don Bluth |
| Screenplay: | David N. Weiss |
| Cinematography: | Robert Paynter |
| Music: | Robert Folk |
| Runtime: | 74 minutes |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $18 million |
| Gross: | $11.6 million |
Rock-a-Doodle is a 1991 independent[1] live-action/animated musical comedy film produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios Ireland Limited and Goldcrest Films.[2] Loosely based on Edmond Rostand's 1910 comedy play Chantecler,[3] Rock-a-Doodle was directed by Don Bluth and written by David N. Weiss. The film features the voices of Glen Campbell, Christopher Plummer, Phil Harris (in his final film role), Charles Nelson Reilly, Sorrell Booke, Sandy Duncan, Eddie Deezen, Ellen Greene, and Toby Scott Ganger (in his film debut).
The film tells the story of an anthropomorphic rooster named Chanticleer, who lives on a farm and crows every morning to raise the sun. However, he leaves his farm to become a singer in the city after being tricked by the Grand Duke of Owls, whose kind hates sunshine, into thinking that his crow does not actually raise the sun. Without Chanticleer, rain continues to pour non-stop, causing a massive flood all over the country. The Duke and his henchmen take over in the darkness, and plan to eat all of the barnyard animals. Chanticleer's friends from the farm, along with Edmond, a young human boy who was transformed into a kitten by the Duke, take off on a mission to get Chanticleer to bring back the sun and save the country before it is too late.
Rock-a-Doodle was released in the United Kingdom on 2 August 1991 and in the United States and Canada on 3 April 1992. The film received mostly negative reviews and was a box-office failure, grossing $11 million on a budget of $18 million. Nevertheless, it would achieve greater success on home video and obtained popularity among many 1990s children.[4]
In 1957, Chanticleer, a rooster whose singing raises the sun every morning, gets into a fight with a stranger sent by the Grand Duke of Owls, whose kind hates sunlight. Chanticleer defeats his attacker but forgets to crow, and the sun rises anyway. Ridiculed and rejected by the other animals, Chanticleer leaves the farm in shame, and the sun goes back down as Chanticleer had not crowed. Afterward, perpetual darkness and rainfall threaten the farm with flooding.
This story is a fairy tale read by his mother to a young boy named Edmond. Their family's farm is in danger of being destroyed in a storm, and when his mother leaves to assist the rest of the family, Edmond calls for Chanticleer's return. He is instead greeted by the Duke, who is angered by Edmond's interference and uses his magical breath to transform Edmond into a kitten with the intent to devour him. Edmond is saved by Patou, a basset hound from Chanticleer's farm, and Edmond manages to drive away the Duke with a flashlight. Edmond then meets several other animals from the farm, all of whom hope to find Chanticleer and apologize to him for their behavior. Edmond accompanies Patou, a cowardly magpie named Snipes, and the intellectual field mouse Peepers to the city, while the rest of the animals remain at Edmond's house.
The Duke sends his pygmy nephew Hunch to stop Edmond and the others from finding Chanticleer. The group narrowly escapes him and enters the city through an aqueduct pipe. Chanticleer, now under the name of "The King," has become a famous Elvis impersonator under his manager Pinky Fox, who is employed by the Duke to keep Chanticleer in the city and prevent his friends from finding him. During a concert, he is introduced to Goldie Pheasant as a distraction in case Chanticleer's friends come to see him. Goldie soon grows genuinely attracted to Chanticleer, and realizes Pinky's true intentions when he captures Edmond and the others trying to get a letter to Chanticleer. Meanwhile, the Duke and his party stalk the farm animals at Edmond's house, who continually use Edmond's flashlight to drive them off as long as the batteries hold out. Realizing that she is in love with him, Goldie confesses to Chanticleer that his friends have come to see him, and Pinky blackmails Chanticleer into attending his show by holding his friends' hostage. Hunch inadvertently frees Edmond and the others, and they help Chanticleer and Goldie make a grand escape in a helicopter, which they use to return to the farm.
After their batteries run out, the Duke and his minions nearly make a meal of the farm's residents when the helicopter's spotlight drives them off. Edmond and the others try to get Chanticleer to crow, but his ongoing sadness limits his ability. The Duke taunts Chanticleer and tries to drown him, but Edmond starts chanting Chanticleer's name in hopes of reviving his spirit, provoking the Duke into strangling Edmond until he loses consciousness. Impressed by Edmond's bravery, the other animals begin chanting Chanticleer's name, driving an angry Duke to transform himself into a tornado. Chanticleer finally regains his confidence and crows loud enough to raise the sun, diminishing the Duke into a harmless miniature version of himself. The floods begin to subside, and Edmond transforms back into a human. Edmond awakes in the real world, where the sun is shining outside, and the floods have ended, but Edmond's mother assumes that his adventures were only a dream. Nevertheless, Edmond picks up Chanticleer's book. He thanks him for returning before he gets magically transported into Chanticleer's world, where he witnesses the rooster singing to make the sunshine.
Plans for an animated version of the Chanticleer tale dated as far back as the early years of the Disney studios, where several of its artists were interested in combining elements of the story with those about an anthropomorphic fox named Reynard. Though character designs by Marc Davis survive, Walt Disney personally rejected the pitch in 1961, eventually passing on the project in favor of The Sword in the Stone.[5] Eleven years later, Don Bluth, himself a former Disney animator, had begun pre-production on an fully animated film based on Chanticleer in 1982, before the release of The Secret of NIMH.[6] In 1985, the film was mentioned as being in development limbo.[7] Three years later, as a response to the success of the groundbreaking live-action animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bluth ultimately revived his proposal, intending to tell the rooster's story through live action and animation.[8] Originally, the story's first and last scenes were to be shot in black and white, similar to 1939's The Wizard of Oz. The film's opening, which took place at a farm, had Edmond's mother reading the book The Story of Chanticleer to him.[8] Victor French, who had directed several episodes of Get Smart and Highway to Heaven, was set to direct these sequences, but terminal lung cancer forced him out of production. Bluth, who had never done anything in this field, took over from this point, but very little of this footage made it in the final cut.[8]
In a 1990 magazine article, Don described the plot of the film thusly: In the final film, however, it is never explained why the sun rises even though Chanticleer does not crow, despite how much the narration of the film tries to explain many things.
The live-action sequences were done at Ardmore Studios in Dublin, Ireland.[9] [10] When the live-action footage was finished during production, Goldcrest Films recruited Sullivan Bluth Studios to animate the rest of the film. Animation took place in both Burbank, California and Dublin, Ireland. Chanticleer's girlfriend, Goldie the Pheasant, was designed to have attributes similar to Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit (as seen in the original trailer). In response to reactions from mothers during test screenings of her scenes, Goldcrest requested that Sullivan Bluth reanimate the scenes by covering her chest with feathers as cel overlays, or simply painting her cleavage out.[8]
The live-action and animation sequences were filmed in two separate aspect ratios. The animation was shot on an open-matte full-screen negative, meaning the top and bottom of the image was cropped to fit the theatre screen along with the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases. The live-action scenes, including all animated elements, were shot in hard-matted widescreen. When viewed in full-screen (except the theatre screen and the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases), all the animated sequences (except for parts of the finale) can be seen in full, but the live-action segments lose information on the sides.
To avoid a potential PG rating, Bluth edited out the showing of The Duke's "skunk pie" (the pie is not seen in full view in the final version), the animators had to replace Chanticleer's glass of wine with a transparent cup of soda in the "Kiss and Coo" sequence, and had to draw colored effects into The Grand Duke's breath to make him less scary for young audiences. Test audiences also felt confused by the storytelling so the filmmakers decided to include narration told by the dog character, Patou, voiced by Phil Harris. The crew, because of these changes, had to work overtime to finish the film by Thanksgiving 1990.[8] [11]
The film was originally going to be released by MGM-Pathe Communications Co in November 1990, but studio partnership was facing financial difficulties, so Bluth rescheduled the film for release around Thanksgiving 1991 and selected The Samuel Goldwyn Company as the film's distributor.[8] That date was further moved to April 1992 to avoid competition with Walt Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Feature Animation's Beauty and the Beast, as well as Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment's , a sequel to An American Tail, in which Bluth himself was not involved.[8] Prior to the North American theatrical release, a sneak preview of the film was included on the 1990 VHS release of All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Rock-a-Doodle was the first feature-length live-action/animated film since 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but unlike the live-action characters from that film sharing the screen with animated characters like Roger Rabbit, Edmond is the only live-action character to share the screen with the animated farm animals; this was at the beginning, when The Grand Duke confronts Edmond before turning him into an animated cat, and at the end, where Chanticleer is singing a reprise of Sun Do Shine like he does at the beginning. Bluth chose this direction because he was influenced by Roger Rabbit.
In the United States and Canada, Rock-a-Doodle was first released on VHS and LaserDisc on 18 August 1992, and then on DVD on 20 July 1999 by HBO Video. A second edition was released by MGM Home Entertainment through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 8 November 2005.
In 2010, the film was released along with The Pebble and the Penguin as a double-sided DVD. For the 25th anniversary of Rock-a-Doodles North American release, a third edition was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Olive Films (under license from 20th Century Fox and MGM) on 31 October 2017. That edition marked the film's first widescreen debut in an American home media release. Unlike the previous home media releases, both the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases were sourced from telecine masters made for PAL, resulting in a slightly higher audio pitch than normal, despite the running time remaining the same as its NTSC counterpart.
A copyright date of 1990 appears in the film's end credits, although it was not released until at least a year later.
The film took in $11,657,385 at the US box office after an opening weekend gross of $2,603,286,[12] which forced Bluth's studio into liquidation half a year after its release. Moreover, a Hong Kong company, Media Assets, purchased Bluth's next three films, Thumbelina (1994), A Troll in Central Park (1994), and The Pebble and the Penguin (1995).[8] None of these did any better than Rock-a-Doodle critically or commercially, except Thumbelina, which did get slightly better in critical reception. All of them preceded 1997's Anastasia, his comeback hit. Despite the film's dismal theatrical performance, Rock-a-Doodle did sell quite well once it hit home video, shipping an estimated 2 million units, worth about $28 million gross, by November 1992.[13]
Rock-a-Doodle received generally negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics gave the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average score of .[14] In a positive review, The Washington Post wrote: "The young ones, who certainly don't give a sticky-fingered hoot about animation production values, are likely to have a good time with this. There are many passing delights. Composer T. J. Kuenster has some funny songs. They're not Ashman and Menken (The Little Mermaid songwriting team), but they're sprightly. The best is probably a Bach-like fugue number, in which the Grand Duke and his owlish goons sing "Never Let Him Crow" around a church organ. But in a movie like this, it ain't over till the rooster sings".[15] Empire found it more compelling than Bluth's previous effort All Dogs Go to Heaven, labeling Chanticleer "good-natured kitsch" and praising the film's "successful if unspectacular" live-action/animation mixture and the use of the real-life Jordanaires as backing vocalists.[16]
Halliwell's Film Guide commended its "excellent animation", but complained of the "poor and confusing narrative" that "rendered [it] pointless". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four. In his review, he gave mild praise to the songs and the animation and said the film may entertain younger audiences, but said the film "doesn't feel as bright as it should". He also called the live-action segments unnecessary.[17] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune criticized the film's overwhelming amount of characters and subplots as well as its "frantic" altering in pacing and tone, but acclaimed the hand-drawn animation, calling it superior to the "shabby rotoscoping techniques" of Beauty and the Beast (1991).[18] Hartford Courant reviewer Malcolm L. Johnson, while feeling that Rock-a-Doodle lacked a story, highlighted its "technical feats" in animation, such as the use of live action and moments where the animation "zoomps us through layers of action, as though a camera were riding on the back of a freewheeling bird". He also praised the voice acting and "witty" take of the "Bach vs. rock" story.[19]
Charles Soloman, a critic for the Los Angeles Times, disliked the film's writing, reasoning that it was filled with plot holes, forced "fun" elements, and rejection of the source material's "powerful message about the importance of self-knowledge". He also criticized its cheap-looking special effects: "The Grand Duke's magic breath sprays twinkling stars and crescent moons that look like the glitter sold by the scoop in card shops. The matte lines are clearly visible in the final live-action/animation scenes, and a weird glow suffuses the entire sequence, as if it had been shot at Chernobyl".[20] Entertainment Weekly panned Rock-a-Doodle's "limp rock homages", forgettable song, "washed-out" colors, and the "cheap" look of the live-actions sequences.[21] Joly Herman of Common Sense Media gave this film a rate four stars out of five, saying "Colorful tale of singing rooster has perilous moments."[22]
In 2011, Total Film ranked it as 24th among the 50 worst children's films ever made.[23]
| Rock-a-Doodle: Music from the Original Soundtrack | |
| Type: | Soundtrack |
| Artist: | Glen Campbell and various artists |
| Released: | 13 April 1992 |
| Length: | 20:38 |
| Label: | Liberty |
| Genre: | Soundtrack |
The soundtrack for Rock-a-Doodle was composed by Robert Folk and performed by the Irish Film Orchestra, with songs written and produced by T.J. Kuenster, one of the songwriters for All Dogs Go to Heaven. Background vocals on "We Hate the Sun", "Tweedle Le Dee", and "The Owls' Picnic" were all sung by a triple-tracked Kuenster himself. The tracks "Sun Do Shine", "Come Back to You", "Rock-a-Doodle", "Treasure Hunting Fever", "Sink or Swim", "Kiss 'n Coo", and "Tyin' Your Shoes" contained background vocals by The Jordanaires.
The soundtrack is the forty-ninth album by American singer/guitarist Glen Campbell, released in 1992. Campbell voiced the main character.[24] The soundtrack was recorded at The Music Mill, Nashville; Ropewalk Studios, Dublin, Ireland; and Devonshire Audio, Los Angeles. It was produced by T.J. Kuenster, Robert Folk, and Nicky Moss. The album was released on the Liberty Records label.
All tracks are written by T.J. Kuenster:
A novelization of the film, written by Don Bluth and Chip Lovitt, was published by Troll Communications LLC .[25] The film also inspired a Computerized Coloring Book by Capstone Software and IntraCorp called The Rock-A-Doodle Computerized Coloring Book.