Rock Dog

This movie was given no promotion whatsoever in Australia and so I watched this with my children (14 and 11) with no expectations.

While the movie didn't break any new ground, it was entertaining, family-friendly and quite fun overall. The kids enjoyed it and there was enough humour to keep the parents happy too. When I came online to recommend it, I was quite shocked to see the low ratings and critical reviews - although the financial flop explains why it never made it to cinemas or even rated a mention locally.

Rock Dog isn't brilliant - this isn't 'Kubo' or a Pixar classic. But it's fun, family entertainment and for that audience, it's definitely worth a watch.

I went to go see rock dog, having very little knowledge and expectations of the movie. After sitting in my chair for 90 min I thought "Despite some clichés, it was better then I hoped for it to be." I saw the movie to be more fun and heartfelt then funny but it does have humor the whole family can enjoy.

This film tells the story of a dog in a snowy mountain somewhere in Tibet. He has an aspiring dream to be a rock musician, but his military father does not approve of him pursuing his dreams.

"Rock Dog" is the second Chinese produced animation I watched recently. In this animation, there a lot of Chinese elements portrayed in it. The Chinese elements are mostly signs in Chinese, and the design of some of the characters. However, the film still feels Western because the whole idea of pursuing your dreams a quite a Western thing to do. the story is quite funny, and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. The moment when the door is opened by the wolves made me laugh! the music is good as well. I enjoyed watching it.

So this movie was a little more than what I expected (Or just better than I expected).

It starts out with this cool 2D animation that tells the story of a sheep town being guarded by a kung fu dog being attacked by wolves. In order to keep the wolves from coming back he outlaws music, and of course his son Brody grows up wanting to be a musician so he goes to the big city to become a Rock Dog.

One of my favorite parts of the film is their concept of the rock park, a place in the city were musicians meet and perform. It's like a cross between Venice Beach and CBGBs. Really cool.

The animation was not that good nothing too great or unique, but I did love the story. The typical animation type of a animal that was met for one thing and is known for one thing, wanting to do something out of the norm, but that rock setting in which is goes over the clichés of Rock and Roll specifically that late 80s early 90s version in which the movie seems to be happening.

Plus a lot of real cool characters in the movie. My favorite being Angus Shattergood a cool cat voiced by Eddie Izzard who is the living persona of Rock and Roll.

My biggest pet peeve of the film is actually that the movie is really short. I mean really short. It was barely over an hour. Usually, when animated movies are that short they give us a animated short at the beginning of the film to make up for it. that did not happen this time. You can see the story coming to an end, and you think to yourself more is coming, but it does not.

So bland animation tells a great story so simple that it makes the movie seem short. For that I would wait for the DVD to come out to see it.

http://cinemagardens.com

The film is entertaining and has positive messages of compassion shown by the Tibetan characters -including to their enemies- the wolves, however, all references to Buddhism were removed in the film. Creator Zheng Jun's original artistic vision is in the manga comic entitled "Tibetan Rock Dog". It is sad to me that "Tibetan" was removed from the title as well. As Zheng Jun is credited for the story as well as an executive producer I imagine it must have been difficult to see the culturally censored version be what was shared with the globe. Despite these issues which deserve to see the light this is an important film. I hope it will foster awareness of the Chinese Government's atrocities committed against native Tibetans. These continue to this day with no end in sight nor adequate help coming from countries which are able. The film shows Tibetan architecture, Tibetan rug making and even Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags which simply appear as colored flags without any Tibetan script or Buddhist symbols. Edited for artistic or political reasons? I hope viewers will "find their fire" and demand Tibetan Rock Dogs everywhere to Rock out for Tibet like Ad Rock showed us how. Get Rocking with this Tbetan Buddhist Manjushri mantra: Om A Ra Pa Ca Na Dhih ( Sanskrit) Om Ara Pa Za Na Di (Tibetan).