Rock Dog: No Faro do Sucesso

Coming from a big lifelong animation fan, 'Rock Dog' may not be on par with the best films of the best major animation studios (i.e. Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli), nor does it ever try to be or be anything more than it is.

It's also much better than especially anything from Video Brinquedo and, although to me critics do not deserve anywhere near the over-the-top bashing they get on the internet, 'Rock Dog' is another case of liking it much more than they did and going against the grain. 'Rock Dog' is less than perfect, but for the imperfections there are it has its heart in the right place, it knows who to aim it at and really tries to appeal to all ages and it doesn't try too hard or attempt to do more than it needs to.

'Rock Dog' may not be ground-breaking in story, a good deal of it is derivative, and some of the plotting concerning the villain's plan is a bit strange and takes away at times from the rest of the story. The film is also too short, if it were twenty minutes longer it would have fleshed out the slightly underdeveloped lead character Boni more and done more with the disapproving parent cliché.

However, the animation may not be mind-blowing or imaginative but it's colourful and detailed enough and at least the characters don't look ugly. The music is truly amazing and along with the supporting characters steals the show. In particular "Glorious", which lives up to its name.

Writing is witty and heartfelt and while the story execution is less than perfect it goes at a bright and breezy pace, is fun, is inspiring, is well-meaning and has a heart of gold that comes over movingly. Although he could have been better fleshed out more, the lead character is an easy to relate to one. Stealing the show though is the hilarious character Angus Scattergood, a character so rich in personality and so much fun he is worthy of a solo outing of some kind. Fleetwood Yak (nostalgic adults will have a good chuckle at this) is fun too.

Voice acting is good, with the best contribution coming from a note-perfect Eddie Izzard. JK Simmons is perfectly gruff as well and Luke Wilson is a likable lead. On paper, Lewis Black didn't seem right to me for a villain but he won me over, making Linnus a suitably formidable and somewhat cool villain. Mae Whitman is charming.

Overall, didn't love it but liked it better than thought. 7/10 Bethany Cox

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.

It sucked lol it was just like 20 cliches compiled into one movie but it was funny. The best character was angus scattergood, i guess hes supposed to be ozzy osbourne. I liked it im looking forward to see how bad the next one it lol.

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.

Sure, it looked like a rip-off of animated movies came out from 2016, like Zootopia, Sing, or whatever, but it is actually worth watching it. It's a disappointing that everybody didn't like it, cause of the clichés, and it is predictable, but it's a movie that is good actually. Get the fact that this is a Chinese-American movie, and it is not made by the big companies and stuff like that. The story is a lil' bit flawed, but other than that, it's still good. And the song is great, though. (song name: Glorious)

My final rating 10/10. Great movie, maybe it's predictable and clichéd, but I guarantee it's a good movie for the whole family.