Rock Dog 720p - (2016 Lang: English)

Heartwarming with a Message!

Cats and dogs instinctively do not like each other, and Bodi, the Mastiff, and a cat named Angus Scattergood, an aging rock star, were no exception at the beginning of their time together.

Bodi left his home on the mountain to pursue a career in rock 'n roll, and Angus, with an inflated ego and an emancipated underweight physique, dreaded writing a new song which was so desperately needed to revive his flailing career.

The animated film "Rock Dog" was not a Disney movie, nor a DreamWorks, nor any other big movie studio movie, but it worked like a dream in my eyes. Lying in our reclining seats two rows from the front, my beautiful 10-year old granddaughter (Hannah) and I laid our eyes for the next 80 minutes on the screen that projected before us.

At times I cried, at times I sang (quietly) and almost all the time I was dancing with my shoulders, my feet, my hands. I LOVED this movie more than she did.

Bodi's father was one that is characteristic... he wanted Bodi to follow in his footsteps, and his particular footsteps were walking back and forth guarding their mountain home from wolves. He tried and tried to train him, but Bodi wanted to be a rock 'n roll guitarist in a band. Finally, he gave in and told Bodi to go to the big city and follow his dreams.

His dreams eventually became reality and his adventures that preceded involved sharply dressed wolves, a low rider black Cadillac, a bunch of colorful characters and so much more.

The message of the movie was clear. Do what you need to do to make YOUR life what YOU want it to be. Don't just go with the flow or the status quo. Be yourself. Everyone exceeds at something. No two people are the same. Use your uniqueness and follow your dreams!!

Bodi (Luke Wilson) is a young Tibetan Mastiff who is expected to be the next guard of the village of Snow Mountain, succeeding his father Khampa (J. K. Simmons) after the latter has driven out a pack of gangster grey wolves led by the villainous Linnux (Lewis Black) years ago, but is sure they will return. Khampa has some of the local sheep dressed up as Mastiffs to give the illusion the village is being guarded by multiple Mastiffs to keep the wolves at bay, but Bodi has trouble perfecting his father's signature move the Iron Paw which projects a powerful blast that as Khampa states can only happen if Bodi "finds the fire." Khampa has also forbade music in the village since Bodi got distracted from his duties when he was younger.

After a disastrous training session, Bodi accidentally causes a nearby flying plane to drop a package. Among the items that fell out, Bodi becomes interested in a red radio and listens to some of the music on the stations, with his favorite being rock music and idolizes British rock legend Angus Scattergood. Bodi steals a traditional dramyin from a den of locked up instruments, adds additional strings to make it a conventional Western guitar, and begins neglecting his guard duties in favor of playing music, which puts him at odds with Khampa, especially since Bodi told him that he has decided to be a musician.

After Khampa and some of the guard sheep accidentally cause Bodi to unleash a false alarm on the village while dressed as wolves escalating into some fireworks being set off, the village elder Fleetwood Yak (Sam Elliott) convinces Khampa to let Bodi follow his dream and gives him a bus ticket to give to Bodi that will take him to a nearby city. Khampa gives Bodi the ticket, but makes him promise to give up music if his trip doesn't work out and the villagers say goodbye to him after he leaves with his guitar. At the bus station, Bodi is discovered by two of Linnux's henchman, the short and comical Riff (Kenan Thompson) and the tall and silent Skozz. Riff informs Linnux of Bodi's departure and Linnux orders them to kidnap Bodi, reasoning that Bodi is his chance to take over Snow Mountain.

When Bodi makes to the city, he heads to Rock and Roll Park since it's where Scattergood began his career. He attempts to join a band consisting of the down-to-earth fox Darma (Mae Whitman) and an eccentric goat drummer named Germur (Jorge Garcia), who are the only members and therefore don't have an audience. However, Bodi is humiliated after losing a guitar contest to an arrogant snow leopard guitarist named Trey (Matt Dillon), who is amused with Bodi. Trey, discovering his idolization for Scattergood, manipulates Bodi into convincing Scattergood (Eddie Izzard) to give him some guitar lessons at his mansion, though he knows a little secret about Angus' security set-up. At Scattergood's mansion, he is revealed to be a white Persian cat who wears black sunglasses all the time and is in a serious case of songwriter's block as he has three days to unleash a new song or his career will go down. His only companion is his robot butler Ozzie.

When Bodi tries to meet Scattergood, the latter is put off by Bodi's fanboy attitude and tries to evade him. Eventually, Bodi and Scattergood get lost in a back alley and Bodi decides to play music at Rock and Roll Park to get money for Scattergood to get back to his mansion. However, Riff and Skozz mistakenly kidnap Scattergood after they see Bodi at the park just when Bodi tries to convince a disbelieving Darma and Germur that he is with Scattergood. After Riff and Skozz realize their mistake, Linnux angrily sends them off to find Bodi again and they drop Scattergood off at his home. After Scattergood thinks that his career is over since he has less than a day to write a new song, he hears Bodi playing on his guitar and decides to use Bodi to create a new song. He invites Bodi into his home with the facade of a "guitar lesson" and together they create a new song called "Glorious".

Bodi later realizes that he was used after hearing Scattergood take full credit for the song via a radio and he becomes depressed. Soon afterward, Bodi finally gets captured by Linnux's henchmen and he accidentally reveals the fake Mastiff guards when Linnux interrogates him for information. Linnux and his gang head off to Snow Mountain while Bodi is put into a boxing match at Linnux's Fight Club, but Bodi cleverly has his opponent break the cage surrounding them so he can escape.

Meanwhile, Scattergood, after being guilt-tripped by Ozzie for exploiting Bodi for his own self-serving goals (Ozzie only needed to be recharged), uses his old tour bus to find Bodi and give him his old acoustic guitar with his autograph as a sign of gratitude. At Rock and Roll Park, Scattergood, along with Darma and Germur, discover that Bodi's been captured when they see his guitar covered in tranquilizer darts shot by Linnux's henchmen. Scattergood, with a change of heart, forgoes sending in his new song to rescue Bodi. After meeting with Bodi outside of Linnux's hideout, they take him to Snow Mountain to stop Linnux.

Linnux and his gang overpower Khampa and the whole village and attempt to devour them, but Bodi appears and after a climatic chase, Bodi subdues the wolves by "finding the fire" by playing Scattergood's guitar and making the wolves, the villagers, and his friends levitate. Khampa banishes Linnux with his Iron Paw and accepts Bodi's ambition to play rock music.

At the city, Bodi and his friends (including Scattergood, backed by the Yak and the Sheep) sing and play "Glorious" to the Snow Mountain Villagers and a redeemed Riff and Skozz at Linnux's old Fight Palace.

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.