ROCK & RULE
© Unearthed

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The RULE of the Rock

There's something strange about cult animated films from the '80s. Generally their home video release has been delayed by decades due to circumstances out of their control. Heavy Metal took forever (mainly due to music rights that weren't cleared for the home video after-markets), but the journey of Rock & Rule from obscurity to DVD was a far murkier road.

Made by Nelvana in conjunction with MGM/UA in the early '80s, Rock & Rule is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a has-been rock star, Mok, kidnaps Angel, the pretty young singer of a rising band to use her voice to summon a demon from another dimension that will allow him to rule the world.

"The film fell between the demographical cracks," admits the film's director Clive A. Smith. "This was not an adult story, nor was it for a young audience. In 1983, there really was no market for animated features outside of Disney."

Another problem was that the film missed its original release date and was ultimately abandoned by both companies when the time came to give it a formal marketing push.

"The film took longer than originally scheduled, and I think we were punished by MGM/UA for that," says Smith. "Also during the over-run, our contacts at MGM moved on, so we really had no one there with a real commitment to the picture when it was finally delivered. There was minimal promotion and a minimal number of prints. The film was 'test marketed' in six markets during school break, which resulted in virtually no one seeing the film."

This included very little home video traction, too, even though Smith says VHS and laserdisc copies were made.

"It did get released on video, but without the theatrical release and no marketing effort behind it, it was lost to all but a few die-hard animation buffs that knew of the film through word of mouth in the industry," says Smith. "It was also released on laserdisc when there were only three people in the world with laserdisc players. The format never caught on, and I think I might have one of the few laserdisc copies remaining."

Nearly 20 years later, enter Stephen Biro, president of Unearthed Films who finally unraveled all the home video rights and now brings it to DVD in a deluxe package (including a limited edition 2-disc set with a slightly modified work print version of the film).

"I don't think Nelvana wanted to actually put it out," says Biro. "It was just sitting there, gathering dust. That's when my partners and I figured it was a great gamble to buy the rights for Rock & Rule for release in North America and for overseas territories. It still took us three years to release it, but that's due to the amazing amount of work we had to put into it to make the DVD a reality. I think the film is more then worth it."

It was worth it, but it certainly wasn't easy, according to Biro, since finding a complete master of the film was impossible.

"Nelvana gave us a print that had the workprint ending on it," explains Biro. "The last reel was unfinished and the first four reels where horrible. It took us a year to track down a complete print and it wasn't even a full print. It was three different prints put together to make the whole film. We had to do a lot of color correction and, luckily, Clive was around to help us out."

A similar situation occurred when it came time to find the original trailer for the film.

"The audio from the trailer is actually the trailer that was floating around the Internet for the last 10 years," he reveals. "So we took it off the Internet, enhanced the audio a little bit and Dave Hood, our audio and visual guru, spliced and cut the new restored version and made it into the trailer it now is."

Cleaning up scratches and imperfections was also time consuming. About four months were required to completely restore the film, says Biro, who also had to make judgment calls of not making the film look too perfect, either.

"We didn't know what to do when we actually found mistakes in the film," admits Biro. "Since it was all hand painted and drawn, you can see paint brush strokes and actual cell reflections from the still photography while it was painstakingly shot frame by frame back in the 80s. We decided to leave the actual brush strokes and certain mistakes in the animation because, personally, it gives it an actual feel that it was made by human hands. It enhances it sort of like the film actually has a soul. To correct the brush strokes, making the solid colors too solid it takes away from the personality of the film. Rock & Rule has a personality and is probably one of the last films that was made by hand. I don't think we will ever see a film like this again."

Rock & Rule was released on DVD in June 2005.