Rock-a-Doodle
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| Rock-a-Doodle | |
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| Directed by | Don Bluth |
| Produced by | Gary Goldman John Quested Morris F. Sullivan |
| Written by | David N. Weiss |
| Starring | Glen Campbell Sorrell Booke Christopher Plummer Charles Nelson Reilly Ellen Greene Sandy Duncan Eddie Deezen Phil Harris Toby Scott Ganger Will Ryan |
| Music by | Robert Folk T.J. Kuenster |
| Editing by | Lisa Dorney Dan Molina Fiona Trayler |
| Distributed by | The Samuel Goldwyn Company HBO Video (1992 VHS and 2000 DVD) MGM Home Entertainment (2005 DVD) |
| Release date(s) |  April 3, 1992 |
| Running time | 74 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom / Ireland |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Rock-a-Doodle is a 1991 animated re-telling of Geoffry Chaucer's Chanticleer. This film was directed by Don Bluth, produced by Goldcrest Films for The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and originally released to U.S. movie theatres on April 3, 1992.
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[edit] Plot
As his father and older brothers battle a hurricane force storm outside, a young boy named Edmond listens to his mother read him a book.
The story concerns Chanticleer, a proud rooster whose singing wakes the sun every morning, or so the other farm animals believe. One morning, he is attacked by a rooster sent by the owls. Chanticleer wins the fight but forgets to crow, and the sun rises anyway without his singing. Believing him to be a fraud, the other animals ostracize and ridicule Chanticleer, and their insults deeply sadden him. Feeling that he can no longer live with his now belligerent former friends, Chanticleer leaves the farm and moves to a nearby city. Meanwhile, the animals back on the farm realize that it was a mistake to mock and humiliate Chanticleer into leaving, because without his singing, the sun no longer rises. This brings on the rain, which causes a flood and makes the animals prime targets for their enemies, the ever-hungry owls.
As his mother leaves to help battle the storm, Edmond calls for Chanticleer to come back. A bolt of lightning shatters a tree, sending it crashing through Edmond's window, apparently knocking him out. When he wakes up, he is confronted by the Grand Duke of Owls (Christopher Plummer), the aristocratic sorcerer who leads the owls in the story. The Duke is angry because Edmond smashed his monocle by poking his picture in the book, and then tried to call back Chanticleer. The Duke then transforms Edmond into a kitten and the entire world into that of the storybook. Patou the dog then saves Edmond from being eaten by the Duke by biting the Duke's leg.
Some of the animals, along with Edmond, then band together and head for the city to persuade Chanticleer to come back, hoping that his singing will bring back the sun, end the flood, and drive away the owls. The Grand Duke sends his clumsy and dim-witted nephew Hunch, who enjoys humming "The Ride of the Valkyries," whose favorite word is "annihilation" or anything that rhymes with it (eg:aggravation, abomination), to stop Edmond and the other animals. However, Hunch and the owls fail and Hunch is then sent to the city alone with only sunglasses to protect his eyes from the light.
Edmond, Patou the hound dog, Peepers the mouse and Snipes the magpie discover Chanticleer is now "The King", a rocking rooster and parody of Elvis at a night club. His manager, an overweight, golf-obsessed and greedy fox named Pinky, is a servant of the Duke, and Edmond and the other barnyard animals are trapped in Pinky's trailer. Goldie the Pheasant, another club-singer, falls in love with Chanticleer and tells him of Pinky's plan to keep the others away from him. Pinky overhears this and berates Chanticleer and Goldie. The roosters are forced to make a new film with Pinky.
Chanticleer and Goldie manage to escape on a prop-motorcycle and rescue Edmond and the others. Chanticleer is knocked unconscious and the other animals, including Goldie, steal Pinky's car and head for the farm. Despite managing to temporarily evade Pinky, they are pursued by Hunch. Peepers is lost when the trailer attached is detached. Edmond has frightening flashbacks of many things, particularly Pinky the fox and the evil Grand Duke. Edmond, not being afraid anymore, steers the car and climbs a tower, which collapses. They are all rescued by Peepers, who has stolen Pinky's helicopter. Edmond, Chanticleer, Goldie, Peepers and Snipes escape Pinky only to crash on the farm due to Hunch's interference.
The other animals, who were left to guard the farm, along with the animals who left to find Chanticleer, are ambushed by the owls when their final batteries run out of power. Goldie wakes Chanticleer, who then confronts the Duke. Chanticleer is pounded to the ground by the Duke, who is able to use his mouth in the form of magic, which led to Edmond's transformation. Edmond, chanting the rooster's name to crow, is strangled and dropped on a hard rock by the Duke's magic. The other animals are devastated. Patou goads the barnyard animals to chant the rooster's name. The Duke, angered by this, then transforms into a giant and causes chaos in the form of a tornado. Chanticleer now has a choice: crow or let the owls destroy the farm. He regains his confidence and crows. The sun strikes the gigantic owl's twister and shrinks him into a baby owl. The Grand Duke is then chased away by Hunch, who sees a chance to avenge himself for all the abuse he was put through, while the other owls flee. Edmond wakes in the real world, realizing it was a dream. The end of the film shows Edmond singing with Chanticleer and the gang.
[edit] Main characters
- Chanticleer is a rooster who lives on a fairytale farm with many other animals, who are fond of and love him. His enemy is an owl sorcerer called the Grand Duke, along with the gang of owls who serve him. Chanticleer is attacked by a servant of the Duke, another rooster. Chanticleer beats the rooster, only to realize the sun has risen without his crowing while he was busy. His friends, believing he was lying to them about how his crowiing brought up the sun, ostracize him, leading to the adventures of Edmond and the others. He is voiced by Glen Campbell.
- Pinky Fox is an obese fox who favors golf. He is discovered to be a crony of the Grand Duke when he captures Edmond and the other farm animals. He is also Chanticleer's manager in the city. His job was to ensure that Chanticleer never felt the compulsion to return home by convincing him that his friends hated him, making it easy to profit off of Chanticleer's superb singing skills. Chanticleer and Goldie, who have fallen in love with each other, escape with Edmond's friends, ruining Pinky's industry. He is voiced by Sorrell Booke, and is likely to be a caricature of Colonel Tom Parker.
- Goldie Pheasant is a pheasant, and a singer also in Pinky's employment. She seemed to dislike Chanticleer at first for stealing her spotlight, but when she got to know him more, they fell in love. She is seen at the end of the film to have moved into the farm and be in a relationship with Chanticleer. She is voiced by Ellen Greene.
- The Grand Duke of Owls, or simply "The Duke" is a magic owl who despises Chanticleer. He overhears Edmond's call for Chanticleer in the real world. Edmond falls asleep and enters the story-book. The Duke turns Edmond into a kitten, and magically animates his room. The Duke hates his nephew, and threatens several times to kill him if he fails. The Duke is a malevolent, omnipotent creature of the night. He hates sunlight, like all owls, and recoils when light is shined on him. He is voiced by Christopher Plummer.
- Hunch the Grand Duke's pigmy nephew and lead henchman. Hunch enjoys rhyming words with "aggravation" and humming "The Ride of the Valkyries". He is dimwitted, but extremely aggressive. He carries a Swiss-Army Knife in a lidless soda can strapped to his back, and uses its various bladed and tools (like a flyswatter) functions as weapons. After the way his uncle pushed him around, eventually, Hunch finally gets his revenge. A small running gag in the movie was that whenever the Duke would breathe on him, his magic would transform Hunch into a random different creature. He is voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly.
- Edmond is the son of the farmer, who is transformed into a kitten by the Grand Duke and is the one who organized the farm animals to bring Chanticleer back to the farm after the flood started. He is voiced by Toby Scott Ganger.
- Patou is a dog and a good friend to both Chanticleer and Edmond. He despises the Grand Duke and is dedicated to Edmond's cause to bring Chanticleer back home. He's brave and reasonable, but is somewhat temperamental. His endeavor to find Chanticleer is hampered by the fact that he does not know how to tie his shoes, but thanks to Edmond, he eventually figures it out. He is voiced by Phil Harris.
- Snipes is a magpie. He, Edmond, Patou, and Peepers travel to the city in a toy box floating on the floodwaters. Being claustraphobic, this poses a problem when he pokes holes in the box trying to escape and reach open air. He hates garbage and dirt, but loves the food served in the city when they go inside a restaurant where Chanticleer sings. He is voiced by Eddie Deezen.
- Peepers is a mouse. Because of this she is initially terrified of Edmond, but he tries to convince everyone that he used to be a boy. It's not until the very end of the movie that she believes him, and comments "He was a boy.... oh, he was a very handsome boy, too..." She has a lisp and very round glasses, and is constantly arguing with Snipe's chuvanistic views. She is voiced by Sandy Duncan.
- Stewie the Pig A chronically nervous pig. While Edmond, Snipes, Patou, and Peepers go to the city to return Chanticleer to the farm, he stays behind to keep the owls at bay. He was almost eaten by the Grand Duke, but was saved when the group returned with Chanticleer, shining a helicopter light on the Grand Duke.
[edit] Production
Plans for an animated version of the Chanticleer tale dated as far back as the early years of the Walt 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, and the film was never put into production or animation tests.[1]
In the late 1980s, as a response to the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the proposal was revised by a former Disney animator, Don Bluth, who wanted to tell the rooster's story through live action and animation.[2] 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 tale of Chanticleer to him.[2]
Victor French from Get Smart was set to direct these scenes, but terminal lung cancer forced him out of production. Bluth, who had never done anything in this field, took over from this point. However, very little of this footage made it in the final cut.[2]
Chanticleer's girlfriend, Goldie the Pheasant (Ellen Greene), was designed to have attributes similar to that of Roger Rabbit's Jessica (as seen in the original trailer). Reactions from mothers during test screenings of her scenes made Sullivan Bluth, at the insistence of their investor Goldcrest Films, cover her cleavage with feathers as cel overlays, and reduce her proportions.[2]
To avoid a potential PG rating, Don 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 wine glass 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. The crew, because of these changes, had to work overtime in order to finish the film by Thanksgiving 1990.[2][3]
Rock-a-Doodle was originally going to be released by MGM-Pathe, but studio partnership was facing financial difficulties, so Bluth rescheduled the movie for the 1991 Christmas season and found a replacement in The Samuel Goldwyn Company, which released two other animated features (The Care Bears Movie and The Chipmunk Adventure) in the late 1980s.[2] However, that date was further moved to April 1992, in order to avoid competition with Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Universal/Amblin's sequel to Don Bluth's film, An American Tail, Fievel Goes West, which Don did not associate with.[2] Ironically, SGC was sold to MGM in 1998, and MGM owns the film today.
This was the first feature-length family live-action/animated film since 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but unlike Roger Rabbit, Edmond is the only live-action character to share the screen with the animated characters; this was at the beginning, where The Grand Duke would have to answer Edmond before being turned into an animated cat, and at the end, where Chanticleer was singing "Sun Do Shine" again like he did at the beginning.
Animation Production took place at Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin, Ireland, and was the last Don Bluth film to feature the end credit "A Don Bluth Film" logo.
[edit] Reaction
Upon its initial release, Rock-a-Doodle was not well received by critics or audiences, judging by its subsequent poor financial performance and contemporary name recognition (possibly due to the film's dark, worldly setting. Some complained of the Grand Duke being a frightening villain, with his mean appearance and his plot to eat the farm animals. The film's criticism has since been reflected in its Rotten Tomatoes rating of 20% "rotten",[4] but it does have a "C" at Box Office Mojo. Although it was released in early-1992, the film was probably overshadowed by FernGully: The Last Rainforest.
Many critics were baffled at some of the plot details which created inconsistencies in the story. Among them, the sun's refusal to rise in the beginning of the movie is never fully explained. Many also wondered how the Grand Duke could not produce more than one pair of sunglasses for himself and his owl army, despite being a dark sorcerer with great magical powers.
Its $11.6 million take at the U.S. box office forced Don 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, A Troll in Central Park and The Pebble and the Penguin.[2] None of these did any better than Rock-a-Doodle or his previous ventures; all of them preceded 1997's Anastasia, his comeback hit.
A book adaptation of the film, by Don Bluth and Chip Lovitt, was published by Troll Communications LLC (ISBN 0-816-72475-X).
[edit] Cast
- Sorrell Booke - Pinky
- Glen Campbell - Chanticleer
- Eddie Deezen - Snipes
- Sandy Duncan - Peepers
- Toby Scott Gainger - Edmond
- Ellen Greene - Goldie
- Phil Harris - Patou
- Christian Hoff - Scott
- Kathryn Holcomb - Edmond's Mother (Dorie)
- Stan Ivar - Edmond's Father
- Jason Marin - Mark
- Christopher Plummer - the Grand Duke
- Charles Nelson Reilly - Hunch
- Will Ryan - Stuey
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Hill, The "Chanticleer" Saga - Part Three
- ^ a b c d e f g h Beck (2005), pp. 233-4.
- ^ The copyright date of 1990 appears in the film's end credits, although it was not released until at least a year later.
- ^ Rock-a-Doodle at Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
[edit] Sources
- Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. ISBN 1-55652-591-5. Chicago Reader Press. Accessed May 26, 2007.
- Hill, Jim (August 2000). The "Chanticleer" Saga - Part Three.
[edit] External links
- Rock-a-Doodle at the Internet Movie Database
- Rock-a-Doodle at Allmovie
- Rock-a-Doodle at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Rock-a-Doodle at Keyframe - the Animation Resource
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