Reading about this Chinese-American made film, one would think it would be a must see. “Rock Dog” is a computer-generated animation film about a bunch of lovable Tibetan Mastiffs that live on Snow Mountain. Their job is to guard the village sheep from a pack of wolves, led by a very tricky wolf named Linnux. The head Mastiff, Khampa, has banned all music, so as not to distract the rest of the dogs from their duties. Suddenly a radio falls from the sky and the pack leader’s son finds it. Now, Bodi, the son, has also found the love of music and wants to be a rock star.
‘Rock Dog’ geared to be fun family entertainment, falls short of expectations
This film should be a big hit, as according to Forbes, it might be the most expensive Animated Film ever to be produced, with an estimated budget of nearly $60 million. With that kind of budget, the audience should be wowed with an amazing film of animation, fun and delight. Forbes said it was anything but a great film. In their article, they referred to the film as “a cut-rate Kung Fu Panda/Zootopia/Yellow Submarine mash-up.”
The film is apparently all confused and can’t decide where the action takes place. Snow Mountain is supposed to be in Tibet, but as Bodi ventures into a city, to pursue his rock and roll dream, the city appears to be American even though a key inhabitant is quite English.
Forbes didn’t have much good, if anything at all, to say about “Rock Dog”, concluding by calling it, “inert, visually boring and never especially funny or exciting.”
Not a box office hit, more like a jumbled mess
Most movie reviewers agree that “Rock Dog” was not a big hit at the box office when it opened on February 24. St. Louis Today movie reviews gave it a two and a half stars and said it will soon be forgotten.
It seems like this animated film that started with a great idea, turned out to be anything but great once it hit theaters. What’s a mastiff, who wants to be a rock star, to do? The film was based and adapted from a book of the same name. Perhaps something was lost in the adaption for an animated film?
In this day of modern technology and computer animation, critics were expecting more from a film with such a large budget.
“Rock Dog”, according to the reviews, fell way short of what was expected. The official trailer makes it look interesting enough, but that’s only a little over a minute of watching. Do you plan to go see “Rock Dog?" Let us know what you think.
