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.

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.

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).

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.

I saw the trailer for this, which played along with the trailer for Sing, which I think may have hurt the ratings for this partially. Both cliché movie ideas that BOTH turned out to be well done in the end.

I thought I wouldn't watch either, but did, but I do find I like this movie better than Sing- primarily because of Sing being another American Idol, Got Talent, etc reminiscent flick/show and piggybacking on that old hype. Rock Dog has clichés, but it's certainly more heartfelt and uplifting, you can't help but adore Bodi's cheerful attitude and blissful innocence.

(The last couple end songs were pretty good, too, which is also surprising.)

I give this movie a rating of 8 / 10 because I would have preferred perhaps a few different voice actors better suited and the animation models to have more variety within species- say, the crocodiles. Not that I expect it to be as diverse as the heavily funded Zootopia, which had each shown character/background character in the film with its own character sheet and specialized design/sculpt and even gait; I just wish there had been a bit more variation in some of the designs; it makes sense, I suppose, for the sheep to be over simplified to push the purposeful trope.

I digress. . .

It's a simple storyline that we've seen before with simple character models/sculpts, but it's heartfelt, sometimes comedic, with a bout of passion- it's a truly good feel movie that all ages can enjoy, I recommend it for a rainy day that needs a pep talk.