originally posted on tumblr, Apr 12th 2026  

Movie-A-Day-Thon #48: Rock and Rule (1983)

Listen, I'm not that big of an animation buff. I love it, don't get me wrong, but I haven't watched as many as I would like. So I've looked at animations that weren't by any of the big three (Disney, Don Bluth, Dreamworks) and man, most animated movie had the budget of two lint balls, some bags of crack and a dream. Apparently this one almost never got finished several times for several reasons, so fuck yeah, let's enjoy the fruits of the maker's sacrifices.

The sheer 80s-ness dripping from this movie cannot be overstated, by the way. Just everything about it is so.... mwah! It's kind of on the nose when they rotoscoped some of the character acting, and when they used reference or freehanded instead? But I don't know, I find it charming. Especially the backgrounds, when you can see the airbrushing used? I just like pre-computer animations, they are so cool!

The city from above shot was so juicy, too! I think I rewinded it several times just so I could figure out if it was a matte painting or an actual miniature!

I don't know how to properly explain how much I love how trippy this movie is, or how rad all the light effects are on this. Also Mok's design is wild, so gender ambiguous 80s yet his face reminds me of the ass judge character in the animated bits The Wall. I think it's the lips?

The demon design is fucking GREAT too, the way it shifts and changes and becomes... it's the kind of shit that would traumatize you as a kid. Makes me think of The Wall again, or a hardcore pink elephants segment. It's fucking METAL.

The story itself is a bit all over the place and redundant or drags in certain places. The animation is fun enough to carry it for the majority of of the issues it has, in my opinion. Unfortunately there was no ear worm song (for me) in a rock and roll movie, and that's tragic if you ask me.

If you want a cool ass animation and got an hour or so to burn, definitely check it out!