Couldn’t pass up this Weird Wednesday offering at Alamo South Lamar since it’s a huge favorite of Somara’s. She has it on DVD somewhere too but with this being a Canadian movie with a tragic history, it was exciting to see it on the big screen in 35mm.
Good thing we went too. The co-host was dead wrong on a couple things, ergo, Somara had a few words with him after the screening.
Let me rewind (no pun intended) though. Rock & Rule was the pet project of the Canadian animation studio Nelvana which now resides in Ireland. The people who ran things in the Seventies wanted to do a different take on the old story in which the Devil makes a deal with someone for a fantastic opportunity and yet loses by being outperformed or outwitted. Their twist would be having it set in a weird Post-Apocalyptic future that would explain why it bears some resemblance to Heavy Metal (film and magazine) and the soundtrack incorporated contemporary Pop/Rock music from Cheap Trick, Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
There was a downside. It was coming out of Nelvana’s budget as a huge gamble since nobody was “demanding” the story. So Rock would often get shelved while the studio took on work for hire to keep the lights on. I think they helped do a segment or two of 1981’s Heavy Metal and I read they did TV dreck like Strawberry Shortcake and commercials. The soundtrack being a tad out of date by Rock‘s eventual release was another side effect. Trust me, by 1983, Cheap Trick’s popularity was already waning nor did anyone care about Lou Reed or Iggy Pop neither.
According to the co-host brought in from out West, he claimed that Rock & Rule was mainly shown in Canada but couldn’t get any serious distributors for the US beyond a limited run in Boston. Here’s where he was dead wrong. Somara definitely saw it in Houston at a movie theater around the same time. Me? I only recall it being one of those “weird” cartoons or “cult” movies you’d only see on HBO/Showtime alongside Twice Upon a Time (George Lucas production with music by an unknown Bruce Hornsby), Animalympics (one of Brad Bird’s first gigs) or the scavenger hunt movie Midnight Madness co-starring a young Michael J. Fox.
Is it any good? Somara is very fond of it. Me? Rock is more interesting for what it represents in animation history. How impressive it looks from a technical standpoint and how Nelvana did this without the level of computer assistance we have today, namely digital cels. Mok’s expressiveness is amazing for hand-drawn work. Beyond those things, it has a thin plot with clunky dialog. I do remember, it was one of legendary voice actor Maurice LaMarche’s first jobs! When I mentioned it to him in 2018, Maurice said he was originally promised a bigger role but lost out to Howie Mandel.
What we saw was the original Canadian version UCLA had a print of in their extensive archive. Somara automatically recognized the differences over the US one she owns:
- The hero’s original voice actor
- The music was in a different order and makes more sense to the plot
- The opening explained why the characters resembled animals
- It’s 20 seconds longer
- A minor character who dies in the US version, was only injured
If you do get an opportunity to watch Rock & Rule, give it a shot. Somara recommends it and I endorse it for getting to see what the world of cable television could be like when it was scrambling to air any affordable content available. Maybe the rise of streaming services could bring it out of the shadows to a new audience.