ANI-MOVIES, *Rock & Rule

For the first full-length movie from the now defunct Nelvana Studios, the adult animated production of Rock And Rule was actually inspired from a TV short they created in 1978 titled The Devil And Daniel Mouse based on the Stephen Vincent Benet story. Clive Smith directed the original short as well as the big budget remake which premiered in 1983, even though they turned down working on the more controversial movie Heavy Metal to make their own animated rock opera. The 80s were a different time for animation as before most studios went on to making TV shows based on toys, and Disney itself was struggling to keep itself afloat as their renaissance was still a few years off, so Nelvana trying to create a mature animated production with a rock-themed soundtrack was a serious stretch for anybody at that point, even with an 8 million dollar budget. The studio was first owned by United Artists which was later incorporated into MGM who greatly receded Rock And Rule's release which led it to becoming a huge flop in theaters. MGM also reformatted the American release that added to its disappointing turnout, although the original widescreen version done for Canada was burned in a fire making the intended edition of this lost to time. MGM also added new scenes to the film along with a narrated opening crawl which made the edit chopped to pieces. Most people would remember this as being one of those bizarre films you would catch on rotation on HBO sometime on a late weekend night, but this helped the movie get enough traction for animation fans to make it a cult classic. Nelvana put a huge effort into this production helmed by their team of over 300 animators, despite the false rumors that some former legendary Disney animators worked on it and that Ralph Bakshi was also somehow involved, although the movie featured the best of the studio's fluid animation which helped them gain the respect of George Lucus as they went on to work on the first animated Star Wars productions. The main draw for the movie was the musicians that were signed to provide the soundtrack such as Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop which helped make some of the music numbers seem like their own 80s music video. The cast was split up into having some actors for the Canadian version only to have them being replaced in the American dub, but the best of them all was the main villain performed by Don Francks who most will know as the original voice of Boba Fett and the first Sabretooth from the X-Men 90s series, plus there was also a small appearance by Catherine O'Hara. All the work Nelvana put into this was flushed away due to MGM's meddling, however the movie did manage to gain a new audience with its various physical releases including VHS, LD, DVD, and Blu-Ray.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where all the humans were killed off in a nuclear war and the rodents evolved to take their place, Mok is the most popular singer in the world with a reputation for using actual magic in his acts, but since some of his last few concerts weren't completely sold out. Like all disgruntled rock stars, instead of going into a drug-induced depression, Mok decides to summon a demon from another dimension to become popular again. The only way to achieve this was with a special voice, so Mok goes all over the globe looking for one, but only when he gets back to his home of Ohmtown does he find the voice in a local girl named Angel who is part of a 4-player band including her rowdy boyfriend, Omar. Angel is not willing to join Mok without the rest of her band, so Mok and his trio of goons kidnap her and take her to do a concert in New York, now called Nuke York. Omar and the rest of the band go to get her but fail, and Angel is forced to try and summon the demon. Fortunately, the demon wasn't able to manifest because of insufficient power which there is an abundancy of back in Ohmtown. Mok sets up another concert and manages to conjure up the demon, but the combined power of Angel and Omar's voices send the demon and Mok back into the darkness.

Rock And Rule broke conventional animation film standards for having even greater quality that most of the Disney movies of that era and was one of the first ones to incorporate computer animation as well. MGM's negligence in holding back promoting the movie really bit Nelvana's streak which up until then was known mostly for animated holiday specials. There was also no wide release of the movie soundtrack which is the one thing that kept Heavy Metal from its initial obscurity, even though there was a good comic book adaptation by Marvel. Rock And Rule is a trippy psychedelic ride with memorable songs and shooting from the hip humor that will leave a solid groove in your mind.