Rock & Rule: Special Edition DVD Review

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Title: Rock And Rule: Special Edition

Region: One

Genre: New Wave Music Animated Fantasy

Starring The Voices Of: Don Francks, Susan Roman, Paul Le Mat, and Catherine O’Hara

Featuring Original Music By: Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, and Lou Reed

Writers: Paul Sander and John Halfpenny

Based On A Story By: Patrick Loubert

Director: Clive A. Smith

Feature length: 77 minutes

Extras: Feature Length Audio Commentary By Director Clive Smith, The Making Of Rock And Rule, Extensive Character Sketch Gallery, Restoration Comparison

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Stereo Sound

Subtitles: N/A

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 33

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Stereo Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 1983/DVD Release: 2005

American Theatrical Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists

Home Video Distributor: Unearthed Films

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Some time in the future, long after humanity has extinguished itself out of existence in the nuclear fire of a third world war, cats, rats, and dogs have inherited the earth and mutated into sentient humanoid type beings. Mimicking the society that once was the dominant self aware life form on the planet, the “Drats” have developed a strange society with a mixture of leftover technology from the age of humans and developed upon it so there are literally cities like “Nuke York” where the buildings of the old as well as the new buildings are on top of each other as if to pay homage to their descendants former masters. One of the many cultural elements the drats have adapted from humanity is rock and roll. In the little oasis of Ohm Town Mok, a legendary music artist has discovered the voice of a female singer, who is part of a local band. Her voice contains an octave that can provide the final part of the Armageddon key to another dimension where a demon able to give Mok dominance over all exists. Kidnapping her, the other members of the band travel to and from Nuke York in an attempt to save her and the world.

“Rock And Rule” was barely released theatrically at all in the early 1980s in part because the timing of the film’s release was off. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were some animated films intended for an adult audience. In particular the work of Ralph Bakshi as well as the sci-fi anthology “Heavy Metal” arrived at the time when there was an interest in this kind of feature, but outside of films like Bakshi’s “Wizards” and “American Pop” Disney was still the chief producer of animated features in the United States. Even anime was relatively new in America and then it had only appeared on TV. It would not be until the theatrical release of “Akira” in 1988 that anime would find a mainstream audience outside of children’s programming and essentially open up American audiences to rediscover animated movies intended for adults. In the years since CGI animated features like the groundbreaking “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” as well as the fabulous work of both Pixar and PDI has revolutionized the manner in which both adults and children can share a film on two different levels. I should also point out that the animated features Disney has released from “The Little Mermaid” through “The Lion King” also helped open up animation again as a viable form of media for the entire family.

Now over twenty years since “Rock & Rule” was completed, people can now revisit this imperfect, but ambitious animated fantasy. Since the screenplay was constantly being rewritten and concepts being changed as budget constraints and long hours of dedicated production took their toll on the filmmakers, “Rock & Rule” becomes one of those projects that never does reach the full potential of the project. Some sequences do little to nothing the forward the story and the characters are often flat. Fine details Director Clive Smith points out in his feature length audio commentary track get lost easily unless one listens to it. At times I look at the film and wonder why wouldn’t the insects evolve if cats, dogs, and rodents have and why wouldn’t the landscape appear more exotic? Where is the culture the drats have developed for themselves since in order for them to evolve into some kind of society, they certainly would not just mimic the humans who existed before them… Scenes where un-evolved cats and so forth appear amongst the mutants seems infuriating to me. Why would there be housecats in the alleys if they were supposed to have all evolved? How would a drat come into existence anyway? The opportunities for clever humor related to the nature of these creatures is completely ignored in favor of hokey animated clichés. The storytellers also focused too much on the music and not enough on the story.

Deborah Harry, Cheap Trick, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed all contributed excellent original music for the film and the filmmakers matched the voice actors up well so that one can truly believe the characters speaking are also the ones that sing. Unearth films has done an impressive job with restoring “Rock & Rule” for DVD by including a brand new anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio presentation coupled with an amazing newly remixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. The mix really uses the 6 channels quite well considering the age of the film and the songs especially are quite impressive in 5.1 Surround Sound. The original English Stereo Soundtrack is also included and Clive Smith delivers an enthusiastic retrospective feature length audio commentary track that is screen specific.

There is a short restoration comparison (1:23) as well as a surprisingly well-preserved making-of featurette (24:28), which aired on Leonard Nimoy’s “Lights, Camera, Action” series on Nickelodeon© in the 1980s. “Rock & Rule” was the first independently produced animated feature film to come out of Canada from Nelvana Studio. Nelvana Studio produced the animated segment that first introduced Boba Fett to fans of “Star Wars” in the otherwise epically awful 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special” and went on to produce both the “Droids” and “Ewoks” animated series that aired on ABC television Saturday mornings in the mid 1980s. Looking back on the original versions of the “Droids” and “Ewoks” cartoons, one can see some stylistic similarity in the artwork and music used when compared to “Rock & Rule.” A short insert with liner notes is also included within the DVD keep case and interactive menus are fully animated with motion scene selections and all are easy to navigate too.

A limited 2-disc set with exclusive extra value features and special packaging is also available on DVD day and date with the single disc version. While the film is not a classic, the restoration by Unearth Films is truly worthy of an A for effort so for animation fans as well as the curious and of course admirers of the film, I can’t recommend purchasing the DVD of “Rock & Rule” enough. It really is a great addition for anyone’s cult film collection too. “Rock & Rule: Special Edition” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Unearthed Films. Check it out!

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