Background: The year was 1983, perhaps best known by movie buffs for releases like Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Risky Business or Flashdance. I was attending college in the Boston area and a lot of buzz was being generated by the alternative radio stations and press about a new movie set to premiere locally, Rock & Rule. The street credibility of the movie’s soundtrack was impressive in that it had original songs by Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick, Blondie, and others but the movie was also being billed as “what Heavy Metal could’ve been” by more than one source. Rock & Rule was an adult oriented animated feature, not like the sexually perverse Fritz the Cat or the conceptually nebulous Yellow Submarine, but more like a fun version of American Pop or a more focused Heavy Metal. Like most of those around me, I was definitely ready for something more geared to my tastes than what Disney had to offer and the un-bastardized wave of anime that came out of Japan years later would eventually satiate. “Cartoons” or animation had long been a staple in the American market and this looked like it might be exactly what I needed to see that dreamy night a few friends tore me away from studying to see. Rock & Rule was the product of a Canadian company, Nelvana, that had already produced a few successful shows aired around the holidays on broadcast television, the most important (to me) of which was Star Wars: Thanksgiving TV Special, which introduced bounty hunter Boba Fett to the Star Wars universe. Could a company known for fluffy holiday pieces really make a kick ass flick full of dark imagery, drugs, and most importantly, “real” rock & roll? I had to find out for myself and to this day I don’t recall which class I was taking during the summer session but I remember the movie like it aired yesterday.

Movie: Rock & Rule was a story about light versus dark, good versus evil, and truth versus trickery as much as the backdrop for a great soundtrack. The opening prologue spelled it out like this: “The war was over… The only survivors were street animals: dogs, cats and rats. From them, a new race of mutants evolved. That was a long time ago… MOK, a legendary superocker, has retired to OHMTOWN. There his computers work at deciphering an ancient code which would unlock a doorway between this world and another dimension. Obsessed with his dark experiment, MOK himself searches for the last crucial component – a very special voice.” The alternative version’s opening was slightly different but basically the same for those who care.

MOK Swagger, truly one of cinema’s best villains and “the greatest thing since world war three”, was a combination of Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie during his alien phase; from looks to the personality traits he displayed. Desperate to make a comeback and secure his immortality, he moves beyond the theatrical magic of his concerts to attempt calling a demon into this universe to serve his wishes as well as granting him power that his vast wealth can’t buy. As his computers translate the text for the invocation of the demon, MOK goes to small clubs with his henchmen in hopes of finding the voice needed to finish the spell. When MOK finds what he’s looking for in the form of Angel, a young and aspiring vocalist in a crummy band, he invites the band to his mansion to make her an offer to join him in a comeback concert, failing to tell her the details of his dark plan.

Mok refuses to take no for an answer and casts a spell (of sorts) on the band, taking Angel under his wing with the help of his usual tricks, offering her not anything but everything she could dream of. When that doesn’t work, he resorts to old fashioned methods that have stood the test of time. The movie then springs into a variation of the usual band saving their friend from the clutches of MOK as he makes a failed attempt at bringing forth the demon.

The story is a metaphor about selling ones soul in hopes of achieving success, albeit with some interesting variations on the time tested theme. Angel’s purity is sought by the decadent MOK as much as her voice and she proves quite the heroine as she takes care of business on her own rather than waiting for her prince charming to rescue her. The movie was made over the course of three years and underwent numerous changes in plot, characters, and even animation techniques (that were crud compared to current standards). Yeah, the story had plenty of flaws and a coherent script might’ve helped Rock & Rule make it big but even director Clive Smith admitted that they were making it up as they went along. The concept of “One Voice, One Heart, One Song” having the power to reverse the spell against the idea that “No one voice can send it back” was reminiscent of various fantasy anthologies but it was a cute twist in an often clever set of insider jokes.

MOK’s character was easily the most complex of the show and anyone dealing with the music industry has met someone with traits like his (trying to put on an act making them look more powerful, self importance, and willing to do anything to achieve his goals). Angel, on the other hand, was more the archetype of the loyal girlfriend who was incorruptible except by extraordinary means. The other characters were less well developed and the story did suffer for this fact but the roots of Rock & Rule remained fixed in the rock & roll mythology (let’s face it, rock and roll rarely follows a linear path as the chaos it presents gives it the raw energy to give some deeper meaning). The movie wouldn’t be made today since the drug use, open sexuality, and satanic references would likely give the censors fits yet it never went as far as it should have to truly reach that adult audience it sought so many years ago before falling off the map to become the cult classic it is today.

Fans of the movie will find this one as close to a DVD Talk Collector Series release as they’ve ever seen based as much on the incredibly solid package of extras contained in the Collector’s Edition release (which were surprising given the age of the release and how poorly it did in its limited run as much as how a fire destroyed many elements needed to fill out the package) as the movie itself. If you opt for the single disc version instead, consider it as a few notches down the pecking order but the inclusion of the Canadian broadcast version, complete with different lead vocals for Omar (Angel’s boyfriend and the lead male protagonist), extra footage, and alternative ending; and the conceptual basis for the story, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, and a host of great extras made the Collector’s Edition a must have for fans of animation in general, not just those acquainted with the movie itself.