If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A Masterpiece!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Coming after such great movies like The Secret of Nimh, American Tail and The Land Before Time it's baffling how Don Bluth could make something like Rock-A-Doodle. The film has things going for it, like some of the voice cast is pretty good, and the animation is nice but the story... most of the songs... Well the story is there's a rooster named Chanticleer (voiced and sung by country singer Glen Campbell) who's job is to crow every morning to bring the sun up. One morning he gets involved in a fight with some other bird sent by his nemesis The Grand Duke (voiced by the great Christopher Plummer) and he forgets to crow. He's cast out as a charlatan by his fellow farm animals and leaves for the nearby city.It turns out this was a story that was being read to a small boy named Edmund. He lives on a farm that is currently undergoing a terrible storm. Since he just read about Chanticleer leaving he assumes that's the reason the storm is happening and calls out for him. Okay but what about the rest of the day? Was it just raining all day or something? Anyway, The Grand Duke shows up and turns Edmund into an animated cat with his magic breath (don't ask) and tries to eat him. One of Chanticleer's old friends, Patou the dog (voiced by the late Phil Harris) saves Edmund and is joined by other animals from the farm. They resolve to go to the city and bring Chanticleer back so he can crow and bring back the sun.There's already a lot of holes in the story from the first ten or so minutes. Like if Chanticleer was really responsible for raising the sun, why did it come up that one time? Or why does Edmund assume the sun just isn't coming up, I mean he's a kid but he's not stupid. When they get to the city it gets a little more confusing when all the inhabitants are animals. Did they just show up when all the humans evacuated the city? Did the humans evacuate the city, are they all dead? Anyway, it turns out Chanticleer is now making a living as an Elvis impersonator named 'The King.' He's incredibly depressed and only feels good when he's on stage singing. His manager, Pinky, is in contact with The Grand Duke and is told to keep Chanticleer from meeting his old friends by distracting him with a chorus girl named Goldie. The two fall in love and Pinky manages to capture Edmund and the gang. Goldie tells Chanticleer his friends are here and they save them and after a lengthy chase return to the farm. While this is going on, The Duke sends his nephew, Hunch to try and kill Edmund but he keeps failing miserably. This all comes to a head when Chanticleer can't crow and The Duke hurts Edmund. This causes the animals to try and boost Chanticleer's confidence until he finally crows and brings up the sun, sending the owls flying and turning the Duke into a midget for whatever reason. Edmund turns back into a boy and then it turns out the whole thing was a dream, Wizard of Oz style. Or maybe it wasn't cause Chanticleer pops out of the book, and Edmund is now on their farm and... what? I'm not ashamed to admit I watched this movie a lot as a kid, but watching it now... what's going on? The animation is nice and some of the songs are decent but there's too much going on. I didn't mention the other two animals who accompany Edmund, a magpie named Snipes (voiced by Eddie Deezen of Dexter's Lab fame) and a mouse named Peepers. None of the characters get a lot of development and most of the story is told through narration from Phil Harris. Narration is good sometimes, but not to tell the audience everything that's going on at the moment. We're not stupid we can figure this out by ourselves.The songs also range from OK to just plain unnecessary. The Duke and his cronies don't get any good songs which is a shame since Christopher Plummer is a talented singer. Some toad bouncers get a song about bouncing people, make of that what you will, and most of Chanticleer's songs are talked over. Wasn't the whole purpose of getting someone like Glen Campbell to sing for the character to use his voice to attract an audience? Why talk over most of his numbers?This film is a mess, through and through. Is there anything here offensive for kids? Not entirely, I remember liking it when I was young but there isn't really much to offer them in return. Apart from some good animation and a decent cast this film isn't really for those looking for the high quality of Don Bluth's other movies.

Not as good as a grown up! The major issue is the storytelling, quite confusing or incomplete. How did the Duke be at the roof waiting to eat the farm animals in one shot, then appear to be at his lair making a call to Pinky (who we have no idea how he knows him) and then appear yet again at the rooftop on the next scene, quite weird. The narrator has to tell you too much so you know what is going on.The animation is great, as usual by Don Bluth. I've got to say the Duke's voice acting is great and greatly animated as well as Chanticleer's singing scenes. Nonetheless, most of the characters were quite lacking, especially Edmund. You can't really root for him....and as a child and grown-up, never did understand why the sun did shine when the Chanticleer didn't sing...

This is a great cartoon movie. My boys watched it over and over. It is colorful with great animation. it has a good story line that is easy for kids to follow. I truly enjoyed this movie. All the kids I showed it to enjoyed it. I am currently trying to get my hands on a copy for my grandchildren because I know they will love it too. The voices are clear and easy to understand and the music keeps the kids attention. This film ranks right up there with "Finding Nemo" and "101 Dalmations" in my opinion. There is funny stuff, serious stuff and sad stuff. The story teaches a good lesson in a positive way. I recommend getting this movie if you can find it.

I don't know what Don Bluth was thinking when he made this silly, nonsensical animated musical about a singing rooster, but I know what I'm thinking: "Why?" ROCK-A-DOODLE isn't as depressing or dreary as Bluth's previous ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN, but it's not much better.The film tells the story of Chanticleer, a barnyard rooster with a golden voice whose crooning -- sorry, crowing -- makes the sun rise every day. One morning, however, Chanticleer is attacked by a bully rooster; in the process he neglects his crowing duties and the sun comes up anyway. After being laughed at by his friends, the disgraced rooster heads off to the city. Then it starts to rain, and before long, all the animals are terrorized by both floods and the evil Grand Duke of Owls, who, it turns out, actually set up the whole thing simply because he dislikes the sun. In arguably one of the few memorable lines this movie offers, he also sneers, "I positively LOATHE rock and roll."Naturally, the animals head off to the city to find Chanticleer, who, by this point, has become a famous star dubbed "the King," with a greedy manager and a reluctant girlfriend, Goldie. If the animals can bring Chanticleer back to the farm, the sun will once again rise and the floods will stop. To prevent this, the Duke sends his clumsy (and unfortunately not very funny) nephew, Hunch (whose vocabulary mostly consists of rhyming with the word "annihilation") after the animals.The plot, such as it is, doesn't make the least amount of sense and is likely to baffle even the most intelligent of grown-ups. Working against ROCK-A-DOODLE as a whole, however, is the haphazard and confusing execution. It also suffers from the problem of a major identity crisis: on one hand it tries to be a simplistic fairy tale, on the other it attempts to be a musical parody of Elvis (Chanticleer's rock star persona and his songs are very closely modeled after the legendary singer, from the slick hairdo to the deep voice and the mannerisms). However, it ultimately comes across as a hodgepodge of ideas crashing into each other.Furthermore, the characters, in addition to being unattractively designed, are not particularly compelling. Chanticleer, while supplying a dead-on impression of Elvis Presley down to the voice and the singing (courtesy of Glen Campbell), is a two-dimensional lead. His barnyard friends, which include Patou, a droopy canine unable to tie his shoes, Peepers, a bespectacled and lisping mouse, and Snipes, a zany magpie, do little to emerge as anything memorable, although the first two are well voiced by Phil Harris and Sandy Duncan, respectively. Hunch, as mentioned, is unfunny, and useless. That leaves the character of Goldie, Chanticleer's love interest, who is supposed to be a tough girl that eventually falls in love with our hero, but the screenplay doesn't give her much to do. One suspects that she was included in this film just for the sake of a love interest. As for the Grand Duke, he's little more than your typical scary, nasty, scheming bad guy, despite having the voice of Christopher Plummer. And don't even get me started on where his supernatural powers (that enable him to grow to enormous size or transform anybody) came from.Where ROCK-A-DOODLE really falls apart is in its attempt to bookend the movie with live-action sequences. The idea is to include a real-life little boy, Edmond, as one of the story's major protagonists. Actually, he spends much of the film transformed as an animated kitten (a transition that feels very awkward and unnatural). And whining about how he is unable to do anything as a result of being small. Constantly. This subplot feels like it was tacked onto the story, hence one gets the feeling that it came out of nowhere.There are also two live-action/animation sequences in the movie, but unlike WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, they come across as very patchy and unconvincing--the real-life surroundings don't mesh well with the drawings, and it looks especially bad at the song and dance finale when the kid actor playing Edmond, Toby Scott-Granger, is brought back to the cartoon world. Speaking for the animation itself, it's pretty much below par, even for a Bluth production.Equally distracting is the narration that supplies most of the film. Phil Harris has a great voice and does a credible job (although some might find it strange that the dog is recounting the whole thing). The problem is that he narrates CONSTANTLY, even going far to chime in over some catchy songs sung by Chanticleer. Considering that this film is supposed to be a musical, having Harris chime in every two minutes proves to be very distracting. (The narration was apparently added on to prevent audiences from being confused, but why did they have to overdo it?)Probably the only things that come clean out of this mess are the voice work and the musical score by Robert Folk. Campbell, Harris, Duncan, Plummer, and squeaky Ellen Greene (as Goldie) all do the best they can with their characters, although Toby Scott-Granger's childish speech impediment does get in the way of his portrayal of Edmond (although considering how weak his character is, it's no surprise he doesn't give a memorable performance). The underscore, as mentioned, is also beautiful, far better than this movie has any right to be. T.J. Kuenster's dozen songs, on the other hand, are mediocre to bad, particularly the owls' Bach-style numbers, although the ones for Chanticleer are admittingly a lot of fun.As entertainment, ROCK-A-DOODLE is mostly harmless fare for younger kids. It has its funny moments, but anyone else older will find this to be uninspired and chaotic. Considering that this is from the director of THE SECRET OF NIMH, AN American TAIL, and THE LAND BEFORE TIME, its a disappointing endeavor.