Rock & Rule Review

Cartoon fans you've seen me review alot of strange and weird films over the years and this is perhaps one of the strangest and weirdest animated film i've seen. There are honestly no words to describe how strange this film is but I will try explain why later on this review because I have alot to say just on how strange and weird the film is in certain aspects and so here is my review of the 1983 film Rock & Rule aka Ring of Power.

The plot of the movie is Angel is apart of this rock band and is kidnapped by mega star Mok and so it's up to her band mates to get her back and to put a stop to his evil plans. I will say that this film is set in an alternate 1983 where world war three has happend. In terms of what of what I thought of the story it's very basic and very easy to follow but oddly enough I was expecting more from a rock and roll musical.

Now I want to state that im watching the American dub of the film which only changes one cast member and so starring in the film is Paul Le Mat (replacing Greg Salata who plays the character in the original Canadian dub) as Omar , Susan Roman as Angel , Don Francks as Mok , Dan Hennessey as Dizzy , Greg Duffel as Stretch and Zip and Catherine Gallant as Cindy. What I find freaking funny is that when this film was being imported from Canada the American distributors wanted a name actor to play a role in the movie and yet they go and cast someone who hasn't been in anything of note both before and after this movie.

As for what I thought about the acting in the film it ranges from ok to pretty freaking bad  , the actress playing Angel is decent enough in the film but tho the actors playing her band mates are really bad. The same can at times be said for the actor playing Mok I say at times because there are times where he is really creepy and slimy and then there are times where the director must have chose the wrong line delivery because he seems like the villain you'd find in a bad kids animated film.

This was the first animated film that Nelvana worked and I have to say for there first time working on a movie they do a decent effort. I don't really know what other films they've worked on but just based of this film i'd want to see more animated films from them because the animation seen here is really good and that's shocking considering the film had a budget of eight million dollars and yet the animation looks like it was done in the early nineties.

Just based of the above picture you'd be forgiven for thinking that this film is made for adults which it very well might have done in it's original country. Sadly tho as the guys releasing the film in America made several cuts to the film we are left with a film that doesn't know if it wants to be a kids film or an adult film because in one scene you'd get a joke that a little kid would like and then in the very next scene you'd get a shot of a girls boobs talk about tonal whiplash.

For some reason this film also got a new title outside of America where it's called Ring of Power which to me sounds like a weird title since while there is something to do with a ring involved with the movie it doesn't sound like an eye catching title. I don't really know why they chose that title when Rock & Rule is a far better title and I know it's a strange thing to comment on but for me the title of a movie is just as important.

This film does have a cult following and I can see why since this film is basically sex , drugs and rock and roll without the sex or drugs. This film also has an issue with pacing because the film very early on feels like it's dragging on most likely because there throwing so much at you and your expected to keep up which really isn't a good thing at least in my opinion but I think they also did that because of the very short run time the film is only an hour and seventeen minuets long and it should have been a bit longer.

This film also had an all star singing cast as well with Robin Zander of Cheap Trick , Debbie Harry of Blondie , Lou Reed and Iggy Pop all doing the singing voices for the cast. Just the pure fact that they managed to get all of these legends together in one movie and in some cases even singing a song together is just so awesome and if your a fan of any of these guys it's worth seeing just for them to be frank.

Now this is a musical and that means we have to talk about the songs featured in the film and for once I have no idea who wrote the songs for the film. I can say tho that as the title would suggest the songs in the film are all rock songs so if you like Rock then your in luck because that's all your going to hear and I mean all your going to hear , I will say tho that my favourite song in the film is called "Angel's Song" which is just pure awesome.

Overall this is a weird film and one that doesn't know if it wants to be a kids film or an adult film and so it gets a 5 out of 10 from me since there is effort in there and the film does try to be good.