But those conditions, considered an anti-trust violation here in the States, and the fact that they threw a lot of money at a “Toy Story” director and International voice talent for the English language release, don’t save it.īecause there isn’t a laugh in it.
Rock dog full movie movie#
It’s one of the most expensive movies ever made in China, wholly financed by one of the Chinese studios that also owns Chinese movie theaters. How do we know it’s Chinese? Bodi, the strumming/singing Tibetan canine of the title, doesn’t quote the Dalai Lama or wear “Free Tibet” t-shirts. Once again, Chinese and American filmmakers pool their resources, only to find that having more money doesn't make it talk any more persuasively.A sheep dog abandons the family business - protecting the flocks of his Tibetan village - to seek fame and power chords in the Big City in “Rock Dog,” a Chinese cartoon based on a Chinese comic book. It should amuse adults who get the inside jokes, but is unlikely to interest kids who aren't '80s-rock buffs or Mandarin students. (Their boss is voiced by Lewis Black his most inept underling by Kenan Thompson.)ĭespite all the Chinese text, Rock Dog draws mostly from American archetypes, including funny-animal cartoons, VH1's Behind the Music, and father-and-son sitcoms. Together, dog and cat tangle with the wolves, who have gone urban and become gangsters. (Together, their names form that of the monk said to have brought Zen Buddhism to China.)īut there's no time for romance once Bodi meets Angus, a classic, classic-rock burnout (aside, that is, from any hint of drug use). She's Darma, which makes her the logical partner for Bodi. This seems modeled on Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, but the metropolis around it is an unnamed mashup of Beijing, New York, and Zootopia, with more signs in Chinese than English.īodi rushes there, and meets an arrogant snow-leopard guitarist (Matt Dillon) and a sympathetic female bassist who is literally a fox (Mae Whitman). The young dog hears rock 'n' roll for the first time, as well as an interview with reclusive British-accented superstar Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard), who turns out to be a thin white cat.Īngus explains that his career began with a visit to a city park where bands play and musicians network. (If that aligns him with the Taliban, he's really not such a bad sort.) Employing typical Hollywood logic, director and co-writer Ash Brannon underscores the music ban with a plaintive string section.īodi's ambitions are reignited when a radio falls from an airplane, much like the Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy.
The pup prefers zither plucking to guard duty, so his father bans music altogether. The sheep are menaced by wolves, and Khampa is preparing Bodi for a life of protecting them.
The story opens in a mountain village populated entirely by sheep, except for Bodi, Khampa, and narrator Fleetwood Yak (Sam Elliott).
The movie doesn't say where that is, but the graphic novel's title is Tibetan Rock Dog. So it's hardly a surprise that Bodi's climactic number is a U2-style folk-rock hymn about loving the place of your birth. Neither do most American parents, who are unlikely to buy tickets for a movie that might encourage their tykes to grow up to be Johnny Rotten. Chinese authorities don't encourage defiant music, of course. But Rock Dog's timid treatment of don't-step-on-my-blue-suede-shoes rebellion finds common ground. The cartoon is based on Chinese rocker Zheng Jun's graphic novel, yet was animated in the U.S., where it must draw big crowds to compensate for the meager business it did in the Middle Kingdom.Ĭhinese and American film producers might seem to have nothing in common, save for an eagerness to poach each other's audiences. But the action epic was also made there, and earned lots of money on that side of Pacific before flopping Stateside. Like The Great Wall, Rock Dog is a Chinese-U.S. Not that the movie has a political subtext: The only oppressor that Bodi (Luke Wilson) seeks to escape is his caring but rigid dad, Khampa (J.K.
Rock dog full movie free#
The awkward flirtation between the Chinese and American movie industries continues with Rock Dog, an amiable but generic talking-animal cartoon about a mastiff who dreams of rocking in the free world.
I Don't See A Lot Of Kibble Here: Bodi (Luke Wilson) attempts to impress Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard) in Rock Dog.
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