Rock & Rule

Year: 1983
Genre: Animated Comedy
Directed: Clive A. Smith
Stars: Don Francks, Gregory Salata, Susan Roman, Debbie Harry, Samantha Langevin, Dan Hennessey, Greg Duffell, Chris Wiggins, Brent Titcomb, Paul Le Mat, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed
Production:

For those who have never heard of this ugly looking animated feature, think if Heavy Metal (1981) was redrawn by furries on quaaludes and dubbed it like a kung-fu movie. Oh and the music sucks.

Set in the far future long after humans have destroyed themselves, stray mutant dogs, cats and rats have taken over and created a dystopian society run on sub-par rock & roll. The most powerful man-thing in the world, Mok (Francks and Reed) has a plan to unleash an inter-dimensional being (Pop) that would destroy everything in its path. Why? Because he's evil.

Can't you tell?

The only hitch in his plan is a woman-mouse-cat type thing Angel (Harry and Roman), who possesses the voice needed to open the portal. Problem is she's got her own band fronted by her continuously aloof boyfriend Omar (Salata and Le Mat). So he devises a clever plan pitting them against each other and...just kidding! No he actually just kidnaps her.

Supposedly Rock & Rule was jolly-rogered by MGM's changing management and forced to rewrite and move things around. Apparently the studio was not excited about an animated project with constant casual and forced drug use, devil worship and sexuality. It's even more subversive when you consider all the characters look like Goofy and his extended family have taken over. Regardless I doubt this movie would have amounted to anything even if it had 100% studio support. The characters are dopey, the songs are boring and the animation is lazily cheap. The Omar character in particular is so incredibly unlikable I found myself rooting for the bad guys.

I doubt anyone watched Rock & Rule when they were little. If they did they have much bigger problems than film taste. But with a cult following thanks to late night HBO showcases and a surprisingly formidable 6.4 on IMDb out of a group of 1,426 voters, I'm starting to think people will make a cult out of anything.

Final Grade: F