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  • Coming from a big lifelong animation fan, 'Rock Dog' may not be on par with the best films of the best major animation studios (i.e. Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli), nor does it ever try to be or be anything more than it is.

    It's also much better than especially anything from Video Brinquedo and, although to me critics do not deserve anywhere near the over-the-top bashing they get on the internet, 'Rock Dog' is another case of liking it much more than they did and going against the grain. 'Rock Dog' is less than perfect, but for the imperfections there are it has its heart in the right place, it knows who to aim it at and really tries to appeal to all ages and it doesn't try too hard or attempt to do more than it needs to.

    'Rock Dog' may not be ground-breaking in story, a good deal of it is derivative, and some of the plotting concerning the villain's plan is a bit strange and takes away at times from the rest of the story. The film is also too short, if it were twenty minutes longer it would have fleshed out the slightly underdeveloped lead character Boni more and done more with the disapproving parent cliché.

    However, the animation may not be mind-blowing or imaginative but it's colourful and detailed enough and at least the characters don't look ugly. The music is truly amazing and along with the supporting characters steals the show. In particular "Glorious", which lives up to its name.

    Writing is witty and heartfelt and while the story execution is less than perfect it goes at a bright and breezy pace, is fun, is inspiring, is well-meaning and has a heart of gold that comes over movingly. Although he could have been better fleshed out more, the lead character is an easy to relate to one. Stealing the show though is the hilarious character Angus Scattergood, a character so rich in personality and so much fun he is worthy of a solo outing of some kind. Fleetwood Yak (nostalgic adults will have a good chuckle at this) is fun too.

    Voice acting is good, with the best contribution coming from a note-perfect Eddie Izzard. JK Simmons is perfectly gruff as well and Luke Wilson is a likable lead. On paper, Lewis Black didn't seem right to me for a villain but he won me over, making Linnus a suitably formidable and somewhat cool villain. Mae Whitman is charming.

    Overall, didn't love it but liked it better than thought. 7/10 Bethany Cox
  • So this movie was a little more than what I expected (Or just better than I expected).

    It starts out with this cool 2D animation that tells the story of a sheep town being guarded by a kung fu dog being attacked by wolves. In order to keep the wolves from coming back he outlaws music, and of course his son Brody grows up wanting to be a musician so he goes to the big city to become a Rock Dog.

    One of my favorite parts of the film is their concept of the rock park, a place in the city were musicians meet and perform. It's like a cross between Venice Beach and CBGBs. Really cool.

    The animation was not that good nothing too great or unique, but I did love the story. The typical animation type of a animal that was met for one thing and is known for one thing, wanting to do something out of the norm, but that rock setting in which is goes over the clichés of Rock and Roll specifically that late 80s early 90s version in which the movie seems to be happening.

    Plus a lot of real cool characters in the movie. My favorite being Angus Shattergood a cool cat voiced by Eddie Izzard who is the living persona of Rock and Roll.

    My biggest pet peeve of the film is actually that the movie is really short. I mean really short. It was barely over an hour. Usually, when animated movies are that short they give us a animated short at the beginning of the film to make up for it. that did not happen this time. You can see the story coming to an end, and you think to yourself more is coming, but it does not.

    So bland animation tells a great story so simple that it makes the movie seem short. For that I would wait for the DVD to come out to see it.

    http://cinemagardens.com
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Pros: Likable characters, decent animation, the song "Glorious", great cast, good pick me up movie (even if it is predictable and cute, but so what?) Cons: the reviews saying the film mediocre and TV ads misled me to believe that it's gonna suck which didn't

    We'll be glorious and you know it's true
  • Sure, it looked like a rip-off of animated movies came out from 2016, like Zootopia, Sing, or whatever, but it is actually worth watching it. It's a disappointing that everybody didn't like it, cause of the clichés, and it is predictable, but it's a movie that is good actually. Get the fact that this is a Chinese-American movie, and it is not made by the big companies and stuff like that. The story is a lil' bit flawed, but other than that, it's still good. And the song is great, though. (song name: Glorious)

    My final rating 10/10. Great movie, maybe it's predictable and clichéd, but I guarantee it's a good movie for the whole family.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I'm a big animation fan, and when I stumbled on Rock Dog's Wikipedia page earlier this year, I thought it looked good. I finally watched it the other day and I enjoyed it. It doesn't approach the best Disney or Pixar movies, but then, I don't think it's trying to. It just wants to be a nice family-friendly animated flick, and it succeeds.

    The voice acting was pretty solid all around, which Eddie Izzard being the obvious standout. His irreverence and British dry wit are perfect fits for the spoiled, insecure rock star Angus. Luke Wilson's Bodi is a simple but likable protagonist. I really liked Mae Whitman and Jorge Garcia's work as Darma and Germur, fellow musicians Bodi encounters on his quest. And who couldn't like Sam Elliot voicing a sage old yak?

    The animation is definitely on the simpler side, particularly the backgrounds. I'm not sure if this was done intentionally, but I actually kind of like it. It gives the movie a clean, distinctive look. I would have liked a bit more variety in the background critters, but the main characters are nicely done and pretty expressive. Angus in particular is fun to watch.

    There are some pretty clever lines, some funny sight gags, and some nice slapstick. The whole thing breezes by and reaches a tidy little conclusion. The message is nothing new - keep chasing your dreams and be true to who you are - but it's a good one nonetheless. If you're looking for something groundbreaking, look elsewhere. But if you just want a nice little animated movie, check it out. I'm glad I did.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I saw "Rock Dog", starring the voices of Luke Wilson-The Ridiculous 6, Blades of Glory; J.K. Simmons-The Accountant, The Closer_tv; Eddie Izzard-Hannibal_tv, Valkyrie and Lewis Black-The Daily Show_tv, Man of the Year.

    This is an animated movie that is based on a Chinese graphic novel about Tibetan sheep dogs that keep a village of sheep-that live on a mountain top-safe from wolves. J.K. is the top dog in charge that is training his son, Luke, to take over when he retires. Only problem is that Luke has no interest in taking the job. He would rather play his guitar all day and after he finds a radio, he wants to become a rock star. The first chance Luke gets to follow his dream, he takes off for the big city to learn from legendary rock star, Eddie. Since the number of dogs for security purposes is kind of low, J.K. resorts to dressing some of the sheep up in dog costumes, just to fool the wolves. Lewis plays the leader of the wolves. There is a cameo that is kind of like a narrator to the movie. He is a yak named Fleetwood Yak-Ha Ha!!-and he is voiced by Sam Elliot. It's a pleasant family movie. Not the best I've ever seen but not the worst, either. It's rated "PG" for action and language and has a running time of 1 hour & 20 minutes. I don't know if I would buy it on DVD but it would be a good rental.
  • This review of Rock Dog is spoiler free

    **(2/5)

    AT ONE POINT in Chinese-American animation Rock Dog, our protagonist meets with a scrawny English cat (Eddie Izzard) who treats him to new tricks about Rock and Roll. An obvious nod to Rock of Ages which had an insane Russell Brand teach an inspired individual about the traits of the music world. The cat is insane here but he doesn't hit the correct notes, in fact none of the characters in this outwardly unoriginal animation do. Which in a genre when directors are supposed to be their most creative - this is perhaps the least creative.

    We open with teenage Tibetan Mastiff Bodi (Luke Wilson) who lives under the shadow of his father, Khampa (J.K. Simmons) who has banned music around the town and wants his son to follow in his footsteps to become a guard, teaching him about his powers - Bodi thinks there is more to life than being a guard. He unlocks a magical gift with music then when a radio lands on his head and he sees a whole other world to meet with his idol - he goes to New York to perhaps perform with him. Along the way the film hits familiar notes, there's a pack of Godfather inspired wolves who want to attack his city, there's a Yak named Fleetwood Yak (Sam Elliott) who teaches Bodi that he has a gift and finally there's a point when the famous rock-star takes all the credit. It's been done.

    There's inspiration here it follows along the same lines as artsy animations such as Kubo and the Two Strings or perhaps Coraline, but due to the lacklustre ideas of overused techniques this quickly descends into unoriginality. This is a shame especially since this has Pixar veteran director Ash Brannon helming the ship. In addition it also has eight writers but it seems here they only wrote a couple of lines of characterization for each character perhaps making them feel 2D, and the rest is clunky dialogue. On the bright side there are couple of gags mostly from Izzard's scrawny cat who falls over himself a lot and the sheep dress up as dogs to fool the wolves.

    Brannon neither makes this funny nor imaginative and in an animation that's the latter, there are so many references too that it's hard to follow which you're watching. Rock Dog is a cheaply looking, inspired, list of ideas, references and uneasy clunky dialogue and unfunny gags and albeit rushed Chinese-American animation that fails to make one correct guitar lick into being a memorable and hilarious animation.

    VERDICT: An unpleasant and unremarkable animated comedy which ties tired visuals with a thin plot and a characterless drive. It's one guitar lick too far away from memorable too.
  • I went to go see rock dog, having very little knowledge and expectations of the movie. After sitting in my chair for 90 min I thought "Despite some clichés, it was better then I hoped for it to be." I saw the movie to be more fun and heartfelt then funny but it does have humor the whole family can enjoy.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Rock dog, a movie that I just watched in theaters, anyway, let's take a look on what the plot is, The plot is about a guardian dog named Bodi and he wants to be a rock star an follow he's passion, but his dad doesn't like the idea and says that he needs to be a guardian, however he lets him go, in the city he meets white cat rock super star Angus witch in the beginning he starts not liking Bodi, but in the middle he starts liking him, but Bodi's village will be attacked by the villagers greatest enemies witch are wolves (who wear suits by the way) so now Bodi has to save them. Now lets get to the positives. The positives are it's animation, I do admit, the animation is not as watchable as The Boss Baby, but it still has some decent colors, and speaking of the animation, the prologue animation is also good, and seeing how beautiful it is, I really think this animation would be a much better animation then the actual movie's CGI use, plus, some of the humor is really not that bad, I would say that it's not as funny as Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, but they sometimes tried to be funny, and another thing that I liked was Angus' mansion, now is not as cool as Vector's lair from Despicable Me, but come on who wouldn't want to have a house that has a huge bed, a studio, and an technological garden with rat robots, wouldn't that be awesome, however this movie has it's problems, the first problem is that this movie is unoriginal, now like the title in my earlier review, a show or movie can be unoriginal, but it's still great (if it's copying a few things), but this cannot be said about Rock dog, this movie copies Kung Fu Panda 1 and 3, why, well for Kung Fu Panda 1 it's using of one of the messages of Kung Fu panda, that is follow your passion, and for Kung Fu Panda 3, it's using the "character has to protect a village from the bad guy" witch is the same plot as Kung Fu Panda 3, another movie this is ripping off is SING, because you got characters singing popular songs, witch is the same as SING, another movie that's this is ripping of is Zootopia, because you got the plot of anthropomorfic animals living in a city, another movie this is ripping of is Alvin and the chimpmunks, because Angus starts using Bodi in order to give a character that doesn't appear in the movie a song, kinda like Dave using the chimpmunks to produce a song, and another movie this rips off is Kubo and the two strings (witch I haven't seen yet) why, well, there's one scene in the movie where Bodi's guitar with the mixture of his guardian powers form a guitar with powers, kinda like Kubo, another thing (witch are characters this time) are the Minions, like, the sheep completely act like the minions, especially in that scene where Bodi's dad wants to show him the consequences on not being a guardian, just that scene shows that they're completely minion ripoffs, another issue I have is Angus, first of all, him having his nails painted just feels like he does girl things, and not only that, he lies to a radio announcer that he did Bodi's music by himself, why did he did that? Because he wants to still be recognized as a rock super star, dude, is better to tell the truth than lie in public, just, this scene is a bad example to teach kids, hell they might as well be like Angus in the future after learning that "message", another issue is that goat (or something) character who's one of Bodi's friends, really that goat is literally Patrick Star in form of an animated goat, like every single line he says turns into a question in his second line, just, that goat is just unnecessary to this or every other animated feature, another issue that I got is that there's a barbershop on a village, yeah, a barbershop on a village with no electricity, does that makes sense to you? For me it doesn't, another issue is the other humor of this, just the other humor didn't entertain me at all (but this wasn't the first film that didn't have to much entertaining humor, oh trust me, we're going to go on that later), and finally the last issue is the scene where Bodi's dad puts sheep on things that are exactly like him and thinks that if he has a team, then the wolves will run away, oh come on, this "plan" is just stupid, the only people who are afraid of that are dumb and coward people who don't know how to fight against others, that's it, those are the only people that I know who are afraid of that. In the end this was a film that I wasn't really entertained with, it had unoriginal story, and characters that are easy to hate, sure, the animation was pretty good especially the prologue animation, and it had some good humor, however, it's not enough to save this film, now if like this movie, then i respect your opinion, but for me, this was just bad, now is this the worst animated film of the year? Not really, but I don't think this movie is worth your money and time.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I knew nothing about this film when I picked it up. I'm just a sucker for animated features, so I grabbed a copy. This movie was a pleasant surprise. It's not perfect by any means, but it has a certain je ne sais quoi that led me to watching it three times in a row.

    The animation quality can't compete with anything produced by the bigger production studios. There is simplicity in the design that reminds me of early 3D animated films, but with a slightly more polished appearance. Director Ash Brannon claimed there were limitations that had to be dealt with (I'm assuming financial) that forced them to keep things simple. Brannon said they embraced their limitations to pay homage to older, hand-drawn cartoons. This alone allowed me to forgive any facet of the animation I might have otherwise regarded as "subpar." The animators could only do so much with what they had, and they pumped out the best product they could.

    The voice acting is spot-on. I give props to the casting directors for getting Luke Wilson and Eddie Izzard on the project. Bodi's unending sunny optimism is brought to life with Wilson's vocal ministrations. The naïve little mastiff is easily the most charming character in the film. Angus Scattergood, a rock star cat played by Eddie Izzard, steals the show every second he is on screen. Clever animation and hilarious dialog result in him being just a pure joy to watch. I've found J.K. Simmons doesn't have any variety when it comes to his voice-over roles. He really only uses the same voice for every part he's given. However, it lends itself well enough to the gruff character of Bodi's father, Khampa. In the same boat of one-voice actors there is Lewis Black. Black plays Linnux, an evil businessman and head of a wolf gang who is hell-bent on invading Bodi's village and devouring the sheep that live there. This is quite a strange plot point. Even in a world populated by animals it seems out of place for a wolf (even though he is a predator) to murder an entire village and consume its inhabitants. One would think primitive evolutionary holdovers such as these would simply be things of the past.

    Now for the music. For a film titled "Rock Dog" the viewer is going to expect plenty of it during the show. Surprisingly there is very little actual rock in the film. Other than three or four incidental cues and the big number at the end there isn't a whole lot of rockin' taking place. It appears to me the story and growth of the characters take precedent over the actual music. This is not to say the music is lacking, it's just not the main focus of the filmmakers.

    I particularly enjoyed the Rock and Roll Park idea. Being a musician myself I was left wishing such a place actually existed. It'd be great to take a few friends to a park and perform for the public. The rapping rabbit was definitely the highlight (for me) of the scene. Adam Friedman, who provided Bodi's singing voice, provided the rabbit's voice in addition to the music and vocal talent of the other park performers. The "shred off" scene was a little disappointing, to be honest. For all the hype the characters gave it, I expected some actual shredding. Unfortunately the whole thing fell flat. I'm not sure what went wrong but Bodi's and Trey's performances sounded equally terrible. Perhaps this was the intent, I don't know. Had Bodi not thrown his guitar (is it really a guitar, though?) away like a fool and losing by default, I'm not convinced there actually would have been a clear victor. For a film that is music related I expected more inspired performances.

    The song at the end of the film, "Glorious," is very catchy. We get to see the writing and recording process of the tune in a montage, but we don't hear the final product until right before the credits roll. While not exactly "rock" it's definitely worthy of praise. It seems Bodi truly is the savant Fleetwood Yak thought him to be. Once again Adam Friedman's talents shine through. I hope to hear more of Friedman's work in the future.

    The film is obviously intended for the younger audience. One has to know this going in. For me it's a fun, innocent popcorner, albeit a tad sugary. Don't try and compare Rock Dog to other films such as Zootopia. Take it as its own thing. There aren't any boundaries being pushed, nothing new taking place, but it's a heartwarming story with clever visuals and some good music.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    There have been plenty of animated movies that have borrowed elements from previous movies before. A notable example of a movie that did this well was "Sing". Despite using elements used in other movies, it still managed to be its own movie. "Rock Dog" on the other hand, is sadly not one of those movies. I can tell that this movie means well as it has a good animation studio and a talented director helming the project, but in the end, it fails to deliver which leads to a film that lacks the inspiration we have seen in many other good movies.

    The story, once again, focuses on a world of anthropomorphic animals. In this world, there is a village known as Snow Mountain filled with tons of sheep and are guards by dogs (who are really sheep in disguise) from a group of wolfs led by Linnux (Lewis Black). The only dog and main guard of the village, Khampa (J.K. Simmons) wants to have his son Bodi (Luke Wilson) follow in his footsteps. However, Bodi has trouble perfecting his fathers moves and is having trouble finding the flame inside of him as the film puts it. One day, Bodi discovers rock and roll after a radio falls from a biplane and instantly wants to become a musician. After some time his father decides to allow him to follow his dream and gives him a bus ticket to the city. He then heads to the city and tries to find his idol, a known rock star cat named Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard) so he can find his fire. Meanwhile, a group of wolves led by Linnux discover that Bodi is heading to the city and try to capture him so he can reveal the village secrets.

    I feel a little bad for the director of this movie. Ash Brannon has made plenty of good movies before including co-directing "Toy Story 2" and directing "Surfs Up" and somehow feels a little lost with this movie mainly because the film made me think of many elements that were used better in other movies. The Chinese elements reminded me of "Kung Fu Panda" while the anthropomorphic animal world reminded me of "Zootopia" and the music elements reminded me of "Sing". All three of these elements stand well on their own or with another, but putting all three together just made the movie a mess. As for elements like the story, I can say that is alright, but it just felt a little messy and uninspired. The animation is probably the best part of the movie. I love computer animation backgrounds as well as the traditional animation that was used in the intro. However, one element of the animation that I can't forgive is the fact that there is an unbalanced use of both Chinese and English on the city's signs. What I mean is there is an English advertisement in the background while the street names are in Chinese. As for the characters, there not really memorable. They have personalities, but don't have memorable names or are just rip offs of character's we have seen before. The one notable exception is Angus Scattergood. I thought he was a very funny character because he acted like a proper rock star and Eddie Izzard brought something I haven't seen in a character.

    As for the rest of the movie, it just didn't stand out. "Rock Dog" is a movie that had promise, but just didn't deliver. In all honesty though, it's a harmless movie. It's a movie that I think should have been released direct-to-DVD, because it really has no reason to be released in theaters. It's easily a movie that can be used as background noise which may or may not be a good sign.
  • I saw the trailer for this, which played along with the trailer for Sing, which I think may have hurt the ratings for this partially. Both cliché movie ideas that BOTH turned out to be well done in the end.

    I thought I wouldn't watch either, but did, but I do find I like this movie better than Sing- primarily because of Sing being another American Idol, Got Talent, etc reminiscent flick/show and piggybacking on that old hype. Rock Dog has clichés, but it's certainly more heartfelt and uplifting, you can't help but adore Bodi's cheerful attitude and blissful innocence.

    (The last couple end songs were pretty good, too, which is also surprising.)

    I give this movie a rating of 8 / 10 because I would have preferred perhaps a few different voice actors better suited and the animation models to have more variety within species- say, the crocodiles. Not that I expect it to be as diverse as the heavily funded Zootopia, which had each shown character/background character in the film with its own character sheet and specialized design/sculpt and even gait; I just wish there had been a bit more variation in some of the designs; it makes sense, I suppose, for the sheep to be over simplified to push the purposeful trope.

    I digress. . .

    It's a simple storyline that we've seen before with simple character models/sculpts, but it's heartfelt, sometimes comedic, with a bout of passion- it's a truly good feel movie that all ages can enjoy, I recommend it for a rainy day that needs a pep talk.
  • The film is entertaining and has positive messages of compassion shown by the Tibetan characters -including to their enemies- the wolves, however, all references to Buddhism were removed in the film. Creator Zheng Jun's original artistic vision is in the manga comic entitled "Tibetan Rock Dog". It is sad to me that "Tibetan" was removed from the title as well. As Zheng Jun is credited for the story as well as an executive producer I imagine it must have been difficult to see the culturally censored version be what was shared with the globe. Despite these issues which deserve to see the light this is an important film. I hope it will foster awareness of the Chinese Government's atrocities committed against native Tibetans. These continue to this day with no end in sight nor adequate help coming from countries which are able. The film shows Tibetan architecture, Tibetan rug making and even Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags which simply appear as colored flags without any Tibetan script or Buddhist symbols. Edited for artistic or political reasons? I hope viewers will "find their fire" and demand Tibetan Rock Dogs everywhere to Rock out for Tibet like Ad Rock showed us how. Get Rocking with this Tbetan Buddhist Manjushri mantra: Om A Ra Pa Ca Na Dhih ( Sanskrit) Om Ara Pa Za Na Di (Tibetan).
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I'm usually not the one to complain if a movie is unoriginal, but there is a limit. When a movie becomes so unoriginal, so cliched, and so dull, that I have to criticize. Sometimes it provokes anger, most of the time, it provokes bordom. Rock Dog is most certainly in the latter category. This 80 minute experience, felt 20 minutes longer than it should, and that's because Rock Dog is dull as hell. This movie is so unimpressive and so basic and bland, that even though the quality just might be mediocre, most people will dislike this movie. Even the animation feels like it was made for DVD, it's not Norm of the North bad, this movie is just boring and dull. Some positives? The music and voice acting is very good, so if you want to watch this movie for the cast, then I can't blame you, but as a movie to enjoy, it's not enjoyable and it's boring. There is one more thing I would like to talk about in this movie, that is one of the only things of note. The last 5 minutes, which is by far the worst part of the movie, and the only part that got a real reaction out of me. Where the main character, finds out he can shoot lasers out of his guitar, straight out of nowhere. He saves the day, dance party ending and done. This scene is completely out of place, and just left me confused. So overall, Rock Dog isn't terrible, it's not even bad, but it's underwhelming and boring. The Cast is good, the songs are good (and on YouTube) the ending is bad, and that's all I can remember.

    Recommendation Rating - Not Worth it Quality Rating - Alright Entertaining Rating - Boring

    Final Rating - 5/10
  • This film tells the story of a dog in a snowy mountain somewhere in Tibet. He has an aspiring dream to be a rock musician, but his military father does not approve of him pursuing his dreams.

    "Rock Dog" is the second Chinese produced animation I watched recently. In this animation, there a lot of Chinese elements portrayed in it. The Chinese elements are mostly signs in Chinese, and the design of some of the characters. However, the film still feels Western because the whole idea of pursuing your dreams a quite a Western thing to do. the story is quite funny, and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. The moment when the door is opened by the wolves made me laugh! the music is good as well. I enjoyed watching it.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    . . . China's ROCK DOG, I noticed that EVERY ONE of the 184 other seats (yes, I carefully counted them all when the lights came up) were EMPTY. That got me to pondering. What was it about this Chinese Assault on the American Multiplex that was scaring away U.S. Citizens--especially ROCK DOG's presumed target audience, families with children--in droves? WHY weren't Americans flocking to the cinema to savor this tale of sheep in wolves' clothing? My theory is that ROCK DOG hits too close to home for most of us, and as Jack Nicholson famously said of his compatriots, we "CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!" Which Ugly Truth does ROCK DOG select in which to rub America's snout? The key scene here comes at 49:12, when the Alpha Male One Per Center Predator Wolf revokes his Nation of Sheep's ObamaCare and Social Security in one off-hand Tweet. IF the Chinese truly want to make an honest nickel from the U.S. film market, they need to substitute Happy Escapist Fare for such misfires as Matt Damon's GREAT TRUMP WALL and Luke Wilson's ROCK UNDER DOG.
  • view_and_review11 December 2021
    "Rock Dog" is a little known animation that had an uphill battle to become noteworthy. It was made by a consortium of studios with a budget of $60,000,000. Compare that to other animations made in 2016 such as "Finding Dory" by Disney-Pixar with a budget of around $200,000,000, or "The Secret Life of Pets" by Illumination with a budget of around $75,000,000, or "Sing," also by Illumination, with a budget also of $75,000,000, "Rock Dog" just didn't have the bona fides to make it big.

    That's not to say it wasn't good, because it was, it was just going to struggle to be known. I, for one, am glad I found it.

    The main character of this animation was Bodi (Luke Wilson), a sheep herding dog who's father, Khampa (J. K. Simmons), wanted to groom him to take over the sheep protecting duties. Khampa was a legendary dog who used a powerful martial arts move to fend off wolves. Bodi just wanted to rock.

    Khampa granted Bodi his wish when he allowed him to travel to the city to chase his dream of being a musician. While in the city Bodi tried desperately to get the attention, and potentially music lessons from his musical idol Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard). As Bodi was pestering Angus for lessons, the wolf boss, Linnux (Lewis Black), had two of his minions trying to nab Bodi to use him as a means to get to the sheep.

    There were several overlapping themes in this musical movie. The most pervasive themes are oft-repeated ones: finding one's own talent and accepting a person for who they are. The movie would've been truly lame if those two themes were very dominant, but they weren't, they just were the most poignant. The music was good, the characters were funny, and it was all clean, therefore I liked it.
  • Yeah, just like what we say in our country on 'made in China', a poor and cheap quality product. It seems they never ever see the bright side in this business (making products). This is the Sino-US collaboration product and as usual the film was too poor. The animation was much better than some of the B animation features. But the universe was too small, or you can say restricted for certain enclosure makes it fall in as a bad film. That's when you observe the backgrounds, you would notice how substandard it is.

    Visually and basic storyline seems not much different from other animated flicks. Because it kind of reminded me many awesome films from the recent past like it either be ' Kung Fu Panda' or 'Zootopia'. All about chasing the impossible dream and an inspiring theme. But still I believe the little kids like under 6-7 might enjoy it. Yeah, this is definitely not for the grown ups like most of the modern animated films are. That's a sad part, yet some adult would find it better.

    The film was built on the most common clichéd platform. A young Tibetan sheepdog is not interested in what his kind destined to do. Instead, he's very much into the musics and after inspired by what the famous musician said, he embarks a journey that would decide his fate. So how his life going to change comes with the remaining parts. There were some nice comedies, but nothing tried hard to uplift film. From the beginning itself, it was so familiar, which did not give any space for a better improvement in the later parts. An average film, maybe below that, yet watchable one. Short film though, with the nice music.

    4/10
  • mszynisz10 June 2020
    I seriously expected this movie to be just bad, and I watched it just to see how bad it is. But it's actually quite good? Music is its strongest part, so are the main characters.

    The movie is not without problems of course, the storytelling could have been improved in a few places. Animation is not exceptional, although the designs are cute and memorable. And supporting characters are never fleshed out.

    Still it was a very enjoyable movie and a surprise indeed. Would definitely recommend!
  • So lets just Just jump right into the review Story: the story in this film is basically stealing ideas for other animated films like Zootopia and Kung Fu Panda but the huge Difference between those films and Rock Dog is that those films are good and even the parts of the film are just plain boring and predictable. Animation: the animation on this film is meh its not the worst but its definitely not good. Characters: the Characters are so bland i actually forgot them.

    So in Conclusion Rock Dog is a Bland Kids Film that's so predictable and boring. Personal Score 4/10

    Critic Score Story 3/10 Characters 3/10 Animation 5/10 Overall Critic Score 4/10 Seal of Bad
  • This wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, it has a good voice cast and pretty good animation and entertaining characters.

    There were a couple of funny scenes that came out of nowhere I laughed at making it entertaining.
  • Tibetan sheep dogs have protected their valley from the wolves over the years. Bodi (Luke Wilson) is expected to follow his father's footsteps. One day, a crate falls out of a passing plane. Bodi finds a radio among the stuff and he is taken immediately with the rock music idolizing rock god Angus Scattergood. He leaves the valley for the big city to follow his dream. Wolf leader Linnux orders his kidnapping.

    I didn't realize that this is a Chinese animation with the western looking DVD cover. I thought that this was a second tier kids' movie. I don't mind the Chinese village motif at the beginning and then Bodi leaves for a big generic city. That's when the possible interesting Chinese animation turns completely generic and forgettable. There is a bit of timeless fun and magic about the village, and later actual magic from his music. The movie would work much better to stay in the village and stay with the fun timeless magic. It should be one thing or another. Honestly, I didn't realize that the village exists in the modern world. It spends enough time building the world of the valley that it loses the fun once Bodi goes to the modern city. It's really two different world that exists in two different movies. Otherwise, it's a generic animation of generic characters doing generic things.
  • This movie was given no promotion whatsoever in Australia and so I watched this with my children (14 and 11) with no expectations.

    While the movie didn't break any new ground, it was entertaining, family-friendly and quite fun overall. The kids enjoyed it and there was enough humour to keep the parents happy too. When I came online to recommend it, I was quite shocked to see the low ratings and critical reviews - although the financial flop explains why it never made it to cinemas or even rated a mention locally.

    Rock Dog isn't brilliant - this isn't 'Kubo' or a Pixar classic. But it's fun, family entertainment and for that audience, it's definitely worth a watch.
  • stiansmerud16 July 2018
    Really nice movie. Bodi's neverending optimism is to be inspired by and his dynamics with Agnus Scattergood is great. Really love the character design in this movie, it really feels like 1930 cartoon design brought into 3D. I never understood the Fleetwood Yak character...he narrates sometimes and it really don't fit at all. There are points in the movie that feels like two separated movies. The sheeps are also at some point incredible stupid and I feel they try making them like the minions from despicable me but fails. So that is the reason for my 7 score, or else I would have given it up to 9-10.

    If you liked "Cats don't dance" I think you gonna love this one. If you love this movie you should go and see "Cats don't dance".
  • Two years ago, I had the opportunity to watch it in a cinema in my home country of Singapore where Rock Dog had a limited release. Going into the cinema hall, I was expecting it to be pretty bad, but after seeing it... It was ok.

    Sure, there were so many bad moments. For instance, the story was something we had seen before, there were a good amount of cliches, and the characters are not well-developed. However, considering there were other bad animated movies in 2017, it was relatively an ok one compared to the rest.

    Still, I enjoyed the fact that there was much charm and surprisingly decent animation for a low budget animated movie and the soundtrack was the best part of the movie. It needs more rock songs, however, but I am still listening to Adam Friedman's "Glorious" to this day.

    One more thing, if not for the movie's existence, I would not have written my first novel "Rock Dog: The Retold Story" on Wattpad and AO3, which is the re-telling of the movie, except with improvements made. It became a small hit and I fell in love with writing again. Thanks, Rock Dog.

    (Watched the movie at Shaw Theatres Lido, 9 March 2017)
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