Rock & Rule
Music Mayhem continues!
Ep. 212 is live!
Music Mayhem continues its rule of March, and we continue our work with yet another animated cult classic. This one, however, flies WILDLY under the radar for most. Personally, I have only the vaguest of memories of it, the vaguest recollection of it being rented for me when I lived with my mom. Initial apologies at the top, this write up will be a spot shorter, and it's very likely next week's will be brief as well. March is a tricky month for me, acting almost as a "Peak 2: Electric Boogaloo." Folks are getting their tax returns, spending them immediately...Easter is a big deal in our house as well, we always go back to Chicago to celebrate with Shawna's family. Most importantly, it's also Henry's birthday! Our little man turns five this year, and he is VERY excited! We are also taking him on a special little day trip for his birthday this year. That said, I am busy as hell at home, work, and working on some things behind the scenes. Still, I'd like to have a little something up regarding this wonderful Canadian import from Nelvana in 1983. Let's get into it, shall we? I'm going to lead with getting some of the negative out of the way from jump street, and that would be the general plot. The story sees a post-apocalyptic US populated by humanoid animals, and the plot centers around aging rocker Mok Swagger, angry over his waning popularity, plotting to unleash an otherworldly demon during a massive concert to clinch his immortality while enacting vengeance on the masses. In order to do this, he needs the perfect voice to free the beast. Enter Angel and her band consisting of Omar, Dizzy, and Stretch. From here Mok discovers that Angel's voice is the perfect voice, so he seeks to separate her from her band and entice her away from the band. When she refuses, he opts to kidnap her for his plan. Meanwhile, Omar, Dizzy, and Stretch set out to find her, along the way Omar is tricked into believing Angel chose to join Mok. Dizzy and Stretch try to reason with Omar, but he refuses to join them in rescuing her. Meanwhile, Mok asks his supercomputer if there is any way to stop his plan, prompting the computer to tell him one heart, one voice, one song. When asked who is capable of such a thing, the computer says "no one." In the final act of the movie. ANgel is forced into singing, the beast comes forth, wrecking havoc...only for Omar to arrive. He proceeds to sing with Angel, which begins to close the portal on the beast. It is at this moment Mok realizes "no one" means it will take two hearts and two voices acting as one to drive back the beast. The portal closes, draggin Mok into it...the band is immediately branded the new sensation, and that is the movie. The negative? This is a very thin plot. When you're a kid and watching this all play out, it's pretty cool, there's adventure, there's stakes. Looking at it many years later, it is a little weak. However, you have some stellar animation and a phenomenal soundtrack doing some heavy lifting here. Produced by Nelvana, they opted to do this over Heavy Metal, the property we discussed last week! Poor marketing, that was likely a lack of faith, certainly didn't do this movie any favors. Which is sad, because this animation is so great! very "Bakshi" in nature. The soundtrack features Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop, and the tracks are BANGERS. "Born to Raise Hell"...do yourself a favor and blast that one. Yet another disservice to this movie was a lack of a soundtrack release! If you want a physical copy you have to go the boot leg route. And compounding the issue of this movie being more well known was its very limited home release in the last few several years. The DVD and BluRay options have been out of print for some time, resulting in higher prices on the secondary market. Thankfully, friend and patron "Johnny Boy" managed to rip copies of this so we could check it out. In time, I'd like to get an actual copy of it. That said, if you ever have the means to watch, please do. You won't regret it! Just look at some of this art! That is going to bring this week's write-up to a close, but come help us close out March with a celebration of Weird Al Yankovic! He is a favorite of all three of us, so this will be a fun one. Thanks as always for reading, we'll see you next week!
