Movie Review: Rock and Rule

Overall Message

Rock has the power to change the world, and depending on the song, demons can be released or vanquished by it.

Story (Spoiler Alert)

Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war that wiped out all humans and replaced them with mutated, anthropomorphic rodents.  The story centres around Mok, an aging rock star, who is trying to bring a demon to earth from another dimension and Angel, who is a keyboardist in a band who dreams of being a lead singer

Through scientific research Mok has found out he can transport the demon to earth and harness it's power by using a specific frequency that can only be created by a live singer.  Upon discovering this, he travels the world looking for a singer with the right vocal frequency.  

Cut to Angel trying to convince her boyfriend, Omar the band's lead singer, to let her sing.  Unfortunately Omar is too focused on hogging the stage to give her a shot.  During the performance Angel defies Omar and sings her own song.  Of course, Mok just happens to be in the bar for Angel's first performance and his ring (designed to detect the right frequency) lights up.  Mok then invites the band to his mansion.  He separates the band mates and tries to get Angel to agree to sign a record deal with him.  Angel says she'll do it, but only with her bandmates, at which point Mok kidnaps Angel, and tells the other band members that she is going to pursue a career with him.  Omar, her boyfriend, believes she has selfishly abandoned them, but the other two bandmates are suspicious of Mok and convince Omar to follow Mok and talk to Angel.

The boys attempts to meet with Angel are unsuccessful and they end up being captured and mind washed by Mok.  When Mok shows Angel the boys being tortured she agrees to sing for him if he lets them go.  During the concert when the demon is released Angel finds a way to send it back to hell along with Mok and save the what's left of Earth.  

Critique 

Overall this animation is to be admired for a variety of reasons.  The lead female character is a stand alone that never requires the assistance of her male companions, the supporting animation visuals are way ahead of their time, the character animation is high-end (they don't use cycles and each frame has been carefully drawn), and the animation for the demon alone is worth seeing the film for (loads of shading, flowing organic shapes, freaky visuals).  Don't believe me?  Watch the film :)

Ideas

There needed to be more edges in the characters.  Both in terms of traits and character designs.  The characters are childish in design while the sets take on the feel of a post-apocalyptic Blade Runner.  It feels like there were too many genres blended as a result of aesthetic changes during the production process and not enough of a budget to go back and update the previous work that was initially designed for a younger audience.

Angel was too much of a goody two shoes.  I wanted Angel to lose it on Mok, break his arm or smash his nose, anything to really show she was pissed off.  

I wanted to like Omar, but he was too self centred, the only non-self centred things he did came as a result of his band mates suggestions.  He needed to have some good deeds originate directly from himself.   

Mok was the best character.  For me, he was the only main character that jived well with the story and overall aesthetic.  

Conclusion

Overall, Rock and Rule as an animation is fantastic.  Unfortunately from a marketing point of view it had a foot in two age group categories and as a result neither one totally embraced it.  To broaden the appeal to the older age group, I believe that Nelvana would have needed to find a way to push the sex quotient just a little higher.  The easiest way to do that would have been to make the characters human.  Then the scene at Club 666 with all the bouncing breasts and pert nipples would have made every boy from the eighties run out to buy this movie.  I think that's the main difference between Heavy Metal and Rock and Rule.  Heavy Metal, even though the plot was shaky, had sex scenes with nudity -and as funny as that is- it played a large part in making made Heavy Metal a financial success.

This film represents a special time in history when animation was reinventing itself after the golden age of Disney and if you haven't seen Rock and Rule yet, I've listed some amazing deals from Amazon below.  

    

Voice acting for Animation. What counts?

It is my belief that voice actors need to embrace the character they are playing and then amp up the range and sincerity. When a character professes to like something it should be over the top, but still retain sincerity. The great thing about this is that you know when an actor gets it because you and everyone else will feel it. If an actors performance doesn't make you feel it, don't fool yourself, it's not right. Never go with a performance that's 'good' or 'ok' take the time to work with your actor until they get the right voice/inflection and you feel it -or find another actor- because with animation there's way too much work involved after the voice record to go back and try again.

One show that has great use of comic sincerity in both words and actions is Archer. Anything the characters say will be backed up by over the top actions - usually in the form of knives in the back or a shot to the leg.

While we're on the topic of sincerity a great comic juxtaposition for that trait is the addition of a fickle nature. This gives them to ability to believably replace what they just professed to love with something of equal or lesser value. The humour quotient rises exponentially if they are convinced by another character to replace the first item with something of lesser value. The first episode (Check it out on YouTube)  of the 'League of Super Evil' plays this out by the book for Lightening Liz when the lose'rs get her to trade her XGL Prototype Battle Armor from her father for the 'stuff I found in the kitchen' bot.

Eggs Gone Wild - You Look Pretty

The key to all of this is finding voice actors that are about to convey intensity & believability through their voice. I'd have to say that I feel that the best vocal performance I've gotten from an actor playing such a sincere and 'over the top' character was for Stephanie in the 'Eggs Gone Wild' episode 'You Look Pretty'. This voice actor pretty much nailed it as far as I'm concerned.

The Magic Ingredients for Adult Animation: Race, Sex, & Religion

Not quite the virgins he was expecting

Before I dip into the magic ingredients I want to state for the record that the term 'adult animation' has always seemed a bit weird to me.  Probably because I associate the term directly with the term 'adult films', aka porn, and I expect that others might as well.  As a result when I talk to people about the animation I make I often favour the term 'adult-skewed animations' because I feel it will be less misleading or at least prompt further questions instead of having them assume I make animated porn.  On other occasions when I'm feeling mischievous I make no such distinctions just to see how people will react.

Alright, now back to the magic ingredients.  They're fairly simple as the title suggests they are race, sex & religion.  How did I come up with these?  Well, they're the topics that animation for the general populace skirts around like the plague.  That makes them the exclusive domain of adult animation.  Most decent adult animation series have developed a way to critically and humorously discuss these issues and because audiences can't get similar discussions on these topics from their other shows they always come back to get their fix.  The further an animation series is willing to go in discussing these issues the more interest it will garner.  Mind you, if a show alienates too large of an audience with controversial scenes then the broadcasters will shut it down because advertisers won't pay for time slots during the show, just look at Family Guys record of being canceled and then brought back according to public outcry.

That's the tip of the day.  If you're making an adult-skewed animation your trump cards are the freedom to incorporate controversial scenes dealing with race, sex, & religion.

Love Stinks, but at least we have Brillo, David, and Archer.

So these days I'm back to playing the creator game.  Create a new adult animation series.  Brush the dust off the creative forces inside and bring something new into the world.  I believe the challenge to writing a successful adult animated TV series is coming up with a new way to express what people believe to be true, but don't know how to say, or by saying something that people want to say, but don't have the balls to because of the possible repercussions.

One of my friends is currently exploring Andy Warhol's filmic works and going through the process of recreating similar pieces of his own each week.  It reminds me of the power of artists like Warhol whose work in and of itself doesn't look that powerful, some might say children could have done it, and yet these works continue to fascinate and inspire artists today decades after their creation.

Warhol's Brillo Box

You might argue that Andy Warhol's Brillo Box is nothing like Michelangelo's David, but aside from the skill required to to create one verse the other I think you might have your work cut out for you to argue that angle.  I have no intention of arguing any such thing.  I'm more interested in talking about the similarities.  One of which is that they both have similar spacial oddities.  The Brillo box is oversized - as is David (aside from his wedding tackle).

But I digress, what I'm really interested in examining is the process that lead to these two geniuses creating works that caught the imaginations of their audiences at the time of their creation.  Either work, created in the time of the other, would have been inconsequential and I'd postulate that a great artist becomes so by being able to tap into creative forces that will allow them to create a work that will affect those in their society.

Michelangelo's David

To me, creating an animated show that incorporates various pieces of the societal puzzle is similar; it needs to come at a time when audiences are receptive to it otherwise the interest won't be great enough to sustain the creative process required to sustain a show.  So while the friend I mentioned previously is pursuing the illusive Warhol I am once again taping into the world of animated shows that have struck a cord with their audiences recently to see if I can ascertain as to why.  There is a caveat to that though, I'm only watching shows that also strike a cord with me. Sorry Squidbillies.

So far the winner is Archer, followed immediately by Bob's Burgers and then Clone High.  Drawn Together is good, but it didn't fully draw me in.

Archer has completely flawed characters.  Even the ones you at first root for as the underdogs succumb to their flaws and betray themselves and others, but at the same time they remain loveable.  Maybe this is because they don't pretend that their flaws don't exist.  They also take joy in their own hypocrisy, which maybe helps the viewer delight a little more in it as well.  Anyway, I'm starting to ramble now.  I'm still letting Archer permeate through my senses, but it's the first animation I've watched since seeing Robot Chicken where once I started I couldn't unglue my eyes until I'd watched every episode available.  The final second season episode of Archer "Double Trouble" airs later today and I'm waiting with baited breathe.  I'll check back in once I've seen it and then maybe my thoughts on Warhol, Michelangelo, and Archer will coalesce into something more than late night (early morning for some) ramblings.

Oh, and by the way, the working title for the new series I'm putting together is: 'Love Stinks'.  It revolves loosely around a heroine with flatulence issues.

Bob's Burgers is Renewed by Fox!

Bob's Burgers is the first original mass distributed prime time animation to come out of animationdom since Family Guy in 1998. I'd say Clone High in 2002, but it's mass distribution run got cut short when it was released in the US, possibly due to Indian outrage at it's portrayal of Gandi… Archer would hold this title, but a 10pm time slot from Fox FX holds it back a bit.

Bob's Burgers is also the first animation since Family Guy to hit prime time airwaves that doesn't make ad nauseam pop culture references. It's unique, because it's funny in and of itself. Isn't it sad that being a stand alone show is now a seeming rarity for animation series?

All in all, Bob's Burgers has everything I want in an animated show: twistedly clever irreverent humour. Do I think it's going to be an epic blockbuster like South Park? Nope. But is it a refreshing spring breeze in a barren wasteland of pop culture reference overload? Yes.

I don't think Bob's Burgers is offensive enough to hit the sphere of South Park, but it's cute and homey in a reassuring way. It has a functional family that to the untrained eye looks dysfunctional and there is a lot of humour to be mined there. All the Family members care deeply about each other, but not so much that they don't cherish getting an elbow in here and there. My favourite character by far is the rabbit hat wearing Louise. She's feisty and viscous with no holds barred. That I can appreciate. I also appreciate that Bob is not a bumbling buffoon.

Loren Bouchard, the creator of Bob's Burgers also created Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil, which is on my top favourite list of animation series. I didn't realize that the shows had the same creator until I did a little research about Bob's Burgers to see who made it. After finding that out it was no surprise that Bouchard was the creative genius behind this new show.

On a Canadian animation note, Bardel Entertainment Inc. is the company contracted to do the actual animation work for the show. (I found that out on the AWN article about Bob's Burgers, which is awesome.) Bardel is an animation house in Vancouver and they use Toon Boom animation software. Toon Boom is a software company based in Montreal, Quebec that make some of the best animation software on the market. I've just started experimenting with Animate 2.0 and I have to say it's changed my own indie animation production pipeline for the better.

My prediction, after seeing the first three episodes, is that if Bob's Burgers stays as it is it will become a hit and have a dedicated audience. My fingers are crossed on that one. If it makes it past season three then it will have a shot at it.

P.S. I'm ecstatic that it's already been renewed for a second season.

DISCLAIMER

Robot Chicken was, and is, one of my favourite animated shows, but it doesn't have a story arc, there's no continuity from one episode to another aside from revisiting popular skits from previous episodes.

I enjoy Moral Oral, but it has maybe three episodes that I found to be laugh out loud funny. Gary and Mike had a good story arc and has fantastic stop-mo animation, but not enough humour in the writing. I had really high hopes for Titan Maximum, but although a story arc was attempted it really didn't have the same humour level of the creator's previous shows (Family Guy & Robot Chicken).

American Dad and the Cleveland Show are just Family Guy reorganizations that throw race and aliens into the mix. I'm not a fan of either, but I also didn't give them much of a chance.

King of the Hill has it's moments, but it never really did too much for me. I think that might be because I grew up in a conservative Southern Ontario town and the humour just hits a little too close to home for me.