Rock & Rule

Plot

Mok Swagger, a once-legendary rock star whose fame is slipping away, is hunting for a specific voice whose frequencies can call up a powerful demon from another dimension. His goal is to destroy the world as revenge and make himself immortal. Back in his old hometown of Ohmtown, he finds Angel, a young musician playing with her band at a nightclub. Certain that Angel has the voice he needs, Mok invites the band to his mansion, then kidnaps her and takes her to Nuke York, where he plans to hold the summoning disguised as a concert.

Angel overhears Mok telling his computer about his scheme. The computer warns that the demon can only be stopped by “one voice, one heart, one song,” but when Mok asks who can do that, the computer says “no one.” Angel tries to flee while her band races to save her. After several failed rescue attempts, Mok moves the ritual to Ohmtown, where the local power plant can supply enough energy.

He forces Angel to sing, opening a portal from which a huge demon emerges and starts destroying everything. Omar, Angel’s bandmate and romantic interest, breaks her electronic restraints just before the demon can attack her. Angel sings to drive the demon back, but her solo voice only pushes it away. Omar joins her in harmony, and together they weaken the creature, injure it, and force it back into its own dimension.

As Mok is dragged into the portal, he finally understands: “no one” didn’t mean the demon couldn’t be stopped—it meant that no single voice could do it alone. Two voices and two hearts singing as one were required. The duo continues their song in victory, and the band is announced as the new super rock sensation.

Production

Rock & Rule was Nelvana's first animated feature film and the first Canadian animated feature produced in English. Production began in 1978 as a children's film titled Drats!, with a premise about a post-apocalyptic rock band of fuzzy mutant creatures evolved from rats after the human race was wiped out. In the original concept, Mok transformed Angel into a guitar and played her to summon the beast, but as the film evolved, the characters became humans with animalistic features, and the tone was skewed toward an older audience.

The film was produced without a well-defined script, with sequences developed and holes left for later story layers. The $8 million production cost nearly put Nelvana out of business, going $3 million over budget. Over 300 Nelvana animators worked on the film. The animation was of unusually high quality for the era, with special effects mostly photographic; computers were used for only a few images, and a computer-controlled multiplane camera system was developed to add depth. One effect, 'controlled streak photography,' combined backlit animation with a computer-controlled camera.

Release

Prior to its completion, Rock & Rule was picked up by MGM/UA in April 1983, but the studio gave it an extremely small limited theatrical release on April 15, 1983. Due to scenes involving adult themes such as sexuality and profanity, the film was uniquely marketed. The lack of release nearly bankrupted Nelvana, which sold half its interest in NAC to avoid total bankruptcy. Many major animators who worked on the film never returned to the studio; some remained for a few more years, but most went on to become well-known animators at Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, and other studios.

To recover, Nelvana turned to commercial fare, producing half-hour service jobs such as Strawberry Shortcake: House Warming Surprise, Herself the Elf, The Get-Along Gang, and Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins, which gave animation staff two months on each to stay financially alive. Nelvana was ultimately saved from bankruptcy by The Care Bears Movie, which became Canada's highest-grossing film that year and won the Golden Reel award at the Canadian Genie Awards.

This success spawned the Nelvana Care Bears franchise and led to successful children's series such as My Pet Monster, Beetlejuice, Mr. Microchip, Babar, and others, establishing Nelvana as a prolific animation company.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features songs from Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, and Earth, Wind & Fire. A proper album was never issued, presumably due to the film's limited release and the artists being under contract to different record labels, though a promotional cassette with nine songs was given to the press. Three songs by Cheap Trick were commercially released in their 1996 boxed set Sex, America, Cheap Trick; Earth, Wind & Fire's 'Dance, Dance, Dance' was released as a digital single in 2012; and Iggy Pop's 'Pain and Suffering' was included as a bonus track on the 2019 re-release of his 1982 album Zombie Birdhouse.

Debbie Harry revised the lyrics to 'Angel's Song' and retitled it 'Maybe for Sure,' featured on her 1989 album Def, Dumb & Blonde. LA Weekly called the soundtrack 'a mixed bag of rock songs' with the standout track being Earth, Wind & Fire's 'Dance, Dance, Dance,' while Keith Breese of Contact Music noted the soundtrack 'certainly feels contemporary,' highlighting Debbie Harry's 'Angel Song.'