The rooster on the farm, Chanticleer, has to sing every morning for the sun to rise. One morning, he is stopped from singing and the other animals discover that he's a phony - the sun rises anyway. He becomes an outcast and runs away to the city. However, the animals discover that this was a mistake, because the sun stops coming up and rain, which causes a flood, begins instead.Somewhere along the way, cartoons and Disney became almost synonymous. And yet, Don Bluth has forged ahead, with "American Tail" and "Land Before Time", among many others. This one, though forgotten by some, is beloved by others. Personally, I think it is just as good as any Disney film of the era, and you have to love the voice casting of Glen Campbell.If it hasn't already been done, someone ought to release a retrospective blu-ray set of Bluth's golden years.

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.

The last time I saw this movie, I was probably about 3-4. I actually just finished watching it on Youtube, so I thought I'd leave my comments.I loved Chanticleer (Glen Campbell) and the Grand Duke (Christopher Plummer) in this. I loved the majority of the musical numbers in this- Chanticleer knows how to rock and crow! The only really bad songs were the ones involving the owls in my opinion, and even then they were at least tolerable.As many people have mentioned, Edmund was completely unnecessary, and the live action footage was terrible. At the musical number at the end (spoilers), seeing the live action boy amongst the animated critters was poorly carried out.If it had just been Patou, Peepers, and Snipes on the adventure, I probably would have rated this higher. Any fans of Dexter's Lab will grin when they realize that Snipes sounds exactly like Mandark because they are voiced by the same actor. Anyone familiar with Disney (then again, who isn't?) will recognize Phil Harris's voice as Patou and the narrator, who also voiced Little John in Robin Hood, Thomas O'Malley in the Aristocats, and Baloo in The Jungle Book. It was his last film role, but he did a good job with it.If not for the poor live-action quality and Edmund's involvement in the story, I would've given this at least a 6.

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.