#59 - Rock a Doodle

When I said that Disney was trying to copy Don Bluth cartoons when they were making Oliver and Company, this is not what I had in mind. You see, Disney was copying the good and/or successful Bluth cartoons. This is and was neither. This is bad writing, overdone storyboarding, and a series of individually bad ideas that add up to a great big steaming pile of poo.

First, the writing, of which there are two egregious sins. To start off, what the hell kind of a name is Chanticleer? This is the hero of the whole movie. The guy who brings up the sun. The guy they go to the city to find so that they can save the world...or at least the barn. I shouldn't have to get on imdb.com to find out what the hell the hero of the movie is. Try something simple, like Buck, or Clucky, or Big ol' Chicken Guy. Hell, I would have taken Feivel over Chanticleer. And while we are on the topic of this hero, lets talk about his singing. Voiced by Glen Campbell, you would think that there would be a number of songs in the movie that Chanticleer would have, and there were. Problem is, EVERY song was covered up by a crappy action sequence as the rag tag farm animals tried to reach this dipshit. How do you do that? You go out of your way to get a legitimate musician, and then cut him off with crappy, overdone action sequences? Which leads me to the overdone sequences. Just because you have the capacity to draw and create massive, energetic, a hugely sweeping action sequences does not mean that you have to fill the entire movie with them. There had to be at least six or seven of the standard action sequences where animals are flying everywhere, things are breaking all over the place, close calls and narrow escapes are happing and all that usual crap. Maybe one or two beyond the obvious final sequence is neccessary, but COME ON!!! It was muddy. It was confusing. I had sensory overload. It took away from time that could be spent with an actual story. And another thing, can't you draw an owl any other way? The big ol evil owl looked WAY too similar to the Great Owl from Rats of Nimh. I can accept a drawing style that animators have, but when you have a villain from one movie look like a non-villain character from another, that just weak. You know what else is weak? The decision to make the main character a live action child turned into a cartoon cat by a cartoon owl walking on a real tree. What the hell was that? A real life barn is gonna be saved by a fake rooster in a cartoon world? Stupid. Oh yeah....I almost forgot....the main character....played by a little kid....

Whoever is responsible for this little kid needs to be punched in the face. That person needs to be pulled out of their beds in the middle of the night and beaten with reeds. I could not stand the annoying voice of this annoying little kid. It was okay when I thought he was just gonna be a live action kid at the begining and end of the movie. Imagine my dread to find out that he turns into a cartoon cat and is there the whole time. My head hurt and my bones shook every time I heard that kid pronounce his R's in that suppossedly cutesy kid way. It's funny if you are Homestar Runner. It's annoying as hell when you are a stupid little kid/cat thing. You know what else doesn't help? The fact that the writers didn't feel the need to give the kid anything more than a loud "Oh no!!" every time he was near impending doom. This is especially troublesome when he is in the middle of EVERY single overdone action sequence. I am thinking of taking a hammer to my head right nut just thinking about it. DAMMIT!! This movie was painfully bad.