Rock Dog Rocks Only Slightly
In Rock Dog, wannabe musician Bodi (Luke Wilson) moves away from Snow Mountain and away from the life of a guard dog to pursue his dream to become a musician. In the city, he meets world-renowned rock legend Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard) who’s desperate to write a new single in 3 days. Without any inspiration, he sees Bodi as an opportunity to use him to record his new single. An egotistical singer bonds with a true underdog and thus, a friendship is formed. Meanwhile, in Snow Mountain, Khampa (J.K. Simmons), Bodi’s father, must assemble an army of Sheep to protect the town from the Wolves, particularly its leader — Linnux (Lewis Black), who wants to kill Khampa and take over Snow Mountain.
The opening sequence of Rock Dog, presented with 2D animation at a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, is the film’s best sequence. The animation is visually arousing, the narration from Fleetwood Yak (Sam Elliot) is poignant, and goes incredibly well with the film’s beautiful animation. I was taken aback, visually, because I didn’t expect a film like Rock Dog to open with such a wonderful sequence. Then, the film opens up to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and switches to 3D animation. My initial reaction from seeing the opening 2D sequence was : “Wow. What a beautiful sequence”, and then to 3D: “Ehhhhhhhh”. The animation of the world of Snow Mountain (on 3D) feels empty and completely lifeless, compared to the 2D sequence, where Snow Mountain felt lively and imaginative. The 3D animation detracts a lot from the movie, and there are only two visually interesting sequences presented on 3D animation: When Bodi listens to Rock music for the first time on the radio, he’s taken to a “star-gate” (or Music-Gate) if you will in an olfactory experience, a little bit like Remy had in Ratatouille when he was tasting foodand fireworks popped in his head (but more trippy). The other is a chase sequence between Bodi and the Wolves, inside Rock n’ Roll Park. It’s fast paced, and the animation only benefits the fast pace of the action sequence. The rest of the film has bland animation and bland-looking sequences — especially when Bodi tries to enter Scattergood’s home. Visually unappealing and drab to look at. That’s problem #1.
Problem #2 is the predictability of the plot. It all starts at the beginning, when Khampa doesn’t want Bodi to become a musician, but a Guard Dog so he can find his “fire” (or “chi”, if you will). Guess what happens? His father obviously lets him become a musician and has a change of heart after he sees that Bodi finds his “fire” through music and defeats the Wolves through “music” — Khampa then softens up. Scattergood is rude to Bodi, and only uses him to write his new song. Guess what happens? Obviously, Scattergood ALSO has a change of heart and befriends Bodi (FOR REAL) and doesn’t use him for his own ego. The Wolves who are tasked to kidnap Bodi think it’s going to be an easy job. Guess what happens? Obviously, they fail all the time until the screenplay demands the Wolves don’t fail. Though I will admit that the Wolves bit were quite funny, classic slapstick done right and a great voice performance from Kenan Thompson.
Most of the COMEDY works very well, and that’s what kept me going. The vocal talents of Luke Wilson (who says WOW exactly like his brother a thousand times), J.K. Simmons, Matt Dillon, Lewis Black, Sam Elliot, Kenan Thompson and Eddie Izzard are fantastic, and director Ash Brannon uses the voice talents of every single actor I mentionned brilliantly. Eddie Izzard, Lewis Black and Kenan Thompson provide great comedy, while J.K. Simmons and Sam Elliot provide great dramatic levity to the movie. The voice cast lifts the so-so script to watchable territory, and as doing so, Rock Dog becomes a slightly enjoyable adventure to Bodi’s path at becoming a true rock legend, with the aid of his mentor. It’s a predictable script, yes, but it’s never corny and [only slightly] cringeworthy. Rock Dog soars at being just an average animated film, with great vocal performances and an OK script that makes it watchable.
Just skip the final scene. Ugh.
✯✯✯
