Rock-a-Doodle is a 1991 independent animated musical comedy film produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios Ireland Limited and Goldcrest Films. Loosely based on Edmond Rostand's 1910 comedy play Chantecler, Rock-a-Doodle was directed by Don Bluth and written by David N. Weiss. The film features the voices of Christopher Plummer, Phil Harris (in his final film role before he died in 1995), Glen Campbell, Sorrell Booke (in his last film role before his death in 1994), Sandy Duncan, Eddie Deezen, Ellen Greene, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Toby Scott Ganger (in his film debut).
The film tells the story of an anthropomorphic rooster named Chanticleer, who lives on a farm and crows every morning to raise the sun. However, he leaves his farm to become a singer in the city after being tricked by the Grand Duke of Owls, whose kind hates sunshine, into thinking that his crow does not actually raise the sun. Without Chanticleer, rain continues to pour non-stop, causing a massive flood all over the country. The Duke and his henchmen take over in the darkness, and plan to eat all of the barnyard animals. Chanticleer's friends from the farm, along with Edmond, a young human boy who was transformed into a kitten by the Duke, take off on a mission to get Chanticleer to bring back the sun and save the country before it is too late.
Rock-a-Doodle was released in the United Kingdom on 2 August 1991 and in the United States and Canada on 3 April 1992. The film received mostly negative reviews and was a box-office failure, grossing $11 million on a budget of $18 million. Nevertheless, it would achieve greater success on home video.
Plot
Chanticleer, a rooster whose singing raises the sun every morning, gets into a fight with a stranger sent by the Grand Duke of Owls, whose kind hates sunlight. Chanticleer defeats his attacker, but forgets to crow, and the sun rises anyway. Ridiculed and rejected by the other animals, Chanticleer leaves the farm in shame, and the sun goes back down as Chanticleer had not crowed. Afterward, perpetual darkness and rainfall threaten the farm with flooding.
This story is a fairy tale read to a young boy named Edmond by his mother. Their family's farm is in danger of being destroyed in a storm, and when his mother leaves to assist the rest of the family, Edmond calls for Chanticleer's return. He is instead greeted by the Duke, who is angered by Edmond's interference and uses his magical breath to transform Edmond into a kitten with the intent to eat him. Edmond is saved by Patou, a Basset Hound from Chanticleer's farm, and Edmond manages to drive away the Duke with a flashlight. Edmond then meets several other animals from the farm, all of whom hope to find Chanticleer and apologize to him for their behavior. Edmond accompanies Patou, a cowardly magpie named Snipes, and the intellectual field mouse Peepers, to the city, while the rest of the animals remain at Edmond's house.
The Duke sends his pygmy nephew Hunch to stop Edmond and the others from finding Chanticleer. The group narrowly escapes him and enters the city through an aqueduct pipe. Chanticleer, now under the name of "The King", has become a famous Elvis impersonator under his manager Pinky, a fox who is secretly employed by the Duke to keep Chanticleer in the city and prevent his friends from finding him. During a concert, he is introduced to Goldie Pheasant as a distraction in case Chanticleer's friends come to find him. Goldie soon grows genuinely attracted to Chanticleer, and realizes Pinky's true intentions when he captures Edmond and the others trying to get a letter to Chanticleer. Meanwhile, the Duke and his party stalk the farm animals at Edmond's house, who continually use Edmond's flashlight to drive them off as long as the batteries hold out. Realizing that she is in love with him, Goldie confesses to Chanticleer that his friends have come to see him. Pinky blackmails Chanticleer into attending his show by holding his friends hostage. Hunch inadvertently frees Edmond and the others, and they help Chanticleer and Goldie make a grand escape in a helicopter, which they use to return to the farm.
After their batteries run out, the denizens of the farm are nearly made a meal of by the Duke and his minions when they are driven off by the helicopter's spotlight. Edmond and the others try to get Chanticleer to crow, but his ongoing sense of dejection limits his ability. The Duke taunts Chanticleer and tries to drown him, but Edmond starts chanting Chanticleer's name in hopes of reviving his spirit, enraging the Duke into strangling Edmond unconscious. Inspired by Edmond, the other animals begin chanting Chanticleer's name, driving an angry Duke to transform himself into a tornado. Chanticleer finally regains his confidence and crows loud enough to raise the sun, diminishing the Duke into a harmless miniature version of himself. The floods begin to subside and Edmond transforms back into a human. Edmond awakes in the real world, where the sun is shining outside, and the floods have ended, but Edmond's mother assumes that his adventures were only a dream. Nevertheless, Edmond picks up Chanticleer's book and thanks him for coming back before he is magically transported into Chanticleer's world, where he witnesses the rooster singing to make the sun shine.
Cast Glen Campbell as Chanticleer, a rooster who lives on a farm with many other animals, who love him and are fond of him. When the sun rises without his crowing, his friends, believing he was lying to them about his crowing bringing up the sun (a fact he himself thought was true), reject him. In a miserable state, he goes to the city and becomes a popular singer. This was Campbell's final film role before his death in 2017. Ellen Greene as Goldie, a golden pheasant and singer who is in Pinky's employment. She is initially jealous of Chanticleer for stealing her spotlight but falls in love with him upon becoming more acquainted with him. Christopher Plummer as the Grand Duke of Owls, a magical owl who despises Chanticleer. The Duke is a malevolent powerful creature of the night, with a penchant for eating smaller animals as meals and commanding other villainous owls to do his bidding. The Duke possesses magical breath that can transform anyone into any creature. Toby Scott Ganger as Edmond, the 8-year-old son of a human farmer who is being read the story of Chanticleer by his mother, Dory. He is transformed into a kitten by the Grand Duke after trying to summon back Chanticleer. Phil Harris as Patou, a Basset Hound who is a good friend to both Chanticleer and Edmond, and is the narrator of the story. He despises the Grand Duke and is dedicated to Edmond's cause to bring Chanticleer back home. This was Harris's final acting role before his retirement from acting and his death in 1995. Eddie Deezen as Snipes, a black-billed magpie. Snipes has claustrophobia and despises garbage and dirt. Sandy Duncan as Peepers, a mouse. She is initially terrified of Edmond and tries to convince everyone that he used to be a human. Charles Nelson Reilly as Hunch, the Duke's pygmy nephew and lead henchman. He carries an all-purpose Swiss Army Knife in a lidless soda can strapped to his back and uses its various bladed objects, tools, and household objects (such as a flyswatter) as weapons. Sorrell Booke as Pinky, a fox who loves money and works as Chanticleer's manager in the city. He intends to make sure that Chanticleer never feels the compulsion to return home by convincing him that his friends hate him, making it easy to profit off of Chanticleer's singing skills. This was Booke's final film role before his retirement from acting and his death in 1994. Will Ryan as Stuey, a chronically nervous pig from Chanticleer's farm. Louise Chamis as Minnie, a rabbit from the farm. Bob Gallico as Radio Announcer Jake Steinfeld as Farmyard Bully, a rooster and minion of the Duke sent by him to stop Chanticleer from crowing. Steinfeld also voices Max, the leader of a group of bouncer frogs who are Pinky's henchmen. T. J. Kuenster, Jim Doherty, John Drummond, and Frank Kelly as the Duke's owl henchmen. Kathryn Holcomb as Dory, Edmond's mother who is overprotective of keeping her youngest child safe from the storm. Stan Ivar as Frank, Edmond's father who is a farmer. Christian Hoff as Scott, one of Edmond's older brothers. Jason Marin as Mark, one of Edmond's older brothers.
Production Development Plans for an animated version of the Chanticleer tale dated as far back as the early years of the Disney studios, where several of its artists were interested in combining elements of the story with those about an anthropomorphic fox named Reynard. Though character designs by Marc Davis survive, Walt Disney personally rejected the pitch in 1961, eventually passing on the project in favor of The Sword in the Stone. Eleven years later, Don Bluth, himself a former Disney animator, had begun pre-production on an fully animated film based on Chanticleer in 1982, before the release of The Secret of NIMH. In 1985, the film was mentioned as being in development limbo. Three years later, as a response to the success of the groundbreaking live-action animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bluth ultimately revived his proposal, intending to tell the rooster's story through live action and animation. Originally, the story's first and last scenes were to be shot in black and white, similar to 1939's The Wizard of Oz. The film's opening, which took place on a farm, had Edmond's mother reading the book The Story of Chanticleer to him. Victor French, who had directed several episodes of Get Smart and Highway to Heaven, was set to direct these sequences, but terminal lung cancer forced him out of production. Bluth, who had never done anything in this field, took over from this point, but very little of this footage made it in the final cut.
In a 1990 magazine article, Bluth described the plot of the film thusly: In the final film, however, it is never explained why the sun rises even though Chanticleer does not crow, despite how much the narration of the film tries to explain many things.
Filming The live-action sequences were done at Ardmore Studios in Dublin, Ireland. When the live-action footage was finished during production, Goldcrest Films recruited Sullivan Bluth Studios to animate the rest of the film. Animation took place in both Burbank, California and Dublin, Ireland. Chanticleer's girlfriend, Goldie the Pheasant, was designed to have attributes similar to Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit (as seen in the original trailer). In response to reactions from mothers during test screenings of her scenes, Goldcrest requested that Sullivan Bluth reanimate the scenes by covering her chest with feathers as cel overlays, or simply painting her cleavage out.
Aspect ratio The live-action and animation sequences were filmed in two separate aspect ratios. The animation was shot on an open-matte full-screen negative, meaning the top and bottom of the image was cropped to fit the theatre screen along with the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases. The live-action scenes, including all animated elements, were shot in hard-matted widescreen. When viewed in full-screen (except the theatre screen and the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases), all the animated sequences (except for parts of the finale) can be seen in full, but the live-action segments lose information on the sides.
Post-production