Rock Dog

Plot

Bodi is a young Tibetan Mastiff who is expected to be the next guard of the village of Snow Mountain, succeeding his father, Khampa, after the latter has driven out a pack of gangster grey wolves led by the villainous Linnux years ago, but is sure they will return. Khampa has some of the local sheep dressed up as Mastiffs to give the illusion the village is being guarded by multiple Mastiffs to keep the wolves at bay, but Bodi has trouble perfecting his father's signature move, the Iron Paw, which projects a powerful blast that, as Khampa states, can only happen if Bodi "finds the fire". Khampa has also forbade music in the village since Bodi got distracted from his duties when he was younger.

After a disastrous training session, Bodi accidentally causes a nearby flying plane to drop a package. Among the items that fell out, Bodi becomes interested in a red radio and listens to some of the music on the stations, with his favorite being rock music and idolizes British rock legend Angus Scattergood. Bodi steals a traditional dramyin from a den of locked up instruments, adds additional strings to make it a conventional Western guitar, and begins neglecting his guard duties in favor of playing music, which puts him at odds with Khampa, especially since Bodi told him that he has decided to be a musician.

After Khampa and some of the guard sheep accidentally cause Bodi to unleash a false alarm on the village while dressed as wolves, escalating into some fireworks being set off, the village elder, Fleetwood Yak, convinces Khampa to let Bodi follow his dream and gives him a bus ticket to give to Bodi that will take him to a nearby city. Khampa gives Bodi the ticket, but makes him promise to give up music if his trip doesn't work out, and the villagers say good-bye to him after he leaves with his guitar. At the bus station, Bodi is discovered by two of Linnux's henchman, the short and comical Riff and the tall and silent Skozz. Riff informs Linnux of Bodi's departure and Linnux orders them to kidnap Bodi, reasoning that Bodi is his chance to take over Snow Mountain.

When Bodi makes to the city, he heads to Rock and Roll Park since it's where Scattergood began his career. He attempts to join a band consisting of the down-to-earth fox Darma and an eccentric goat drummer named Germur, who are the only members and therefore don't have an audience. However, Bodi is humiliated after losing a guitar contest to an arrogant snow leopard guitarist named Trey, who is amused with Bodi. Trey, discovering his idolization for Scattergood, manipulates Bodi into convincing Scattergood to give him some guitar lessons at his mansion, though he knows a little secret about Angus' security set-up. At Scattertgood's mansion, he is revealed to be a white Persian cat who wears black sunglasses all the time and is in a serious case of songwriter's block as he has three days to unleash a new song or his career will go down. His only companion is his robot butler Ozzie.

When Bodi tries to meet Scattergood, the latter is put off by Bodi's fanboy attitude and tries to evade him. Eventually, Bodi and Scattergood get lost in a back alley and Bodi decides to play music at Rock and Roll Park to get money for Scattergood to get back to his mansion. However, Riff and Skozz mistakenly kidnap Scattergood after they see Bodi at the park just when Bodi tries to convince a disbelieving Darma and Germur that he is with Scattergood. After Riff and Skozz realize their mistake, Linnux angrily sends them off to find Bodi again and they drop Scattergood off at his home. After Scattergood thinks that his career is over since he has less than a day to write a new song, he hears Bodi playing on his guitar and decides to use Bodi to create a new song. He invites Bodi into his home with the facade of a "guitar lesson" and together they create a new song called "Glorious".

Bodi later realizes that he was used after hearing Scattergood take full credit for the song via a radio and he becomes depressed. Soon afterward, Bodi finally gets captured by Linnux's henchmen and he accidentally reveals the fake Mastiff guard's when Linnux interrogates him for information. Linnux and his gang head off to Snow Mountain while Bodi is put into a boxing match at Linnux's Fight Club, but Bodi cleverly has his opponent break the cage surrounding them so he can escape.

Meanwhile, Scattergood, after being guilt-tripped by Ozzie for exploiting Bodi for his own self-serving goals (Ozzie only needed to be recharged), uses his old tour bus to find Bodi and give him a guitar as a sign of gratitude. At Rock and Roll Park, Scattergood, along with Darma and Germur, discover that Bodi's been captured when they see his guitar covered in tranquilizer darts shot by Linnux's henchmen. Scattergood, with a change of heart, forgoes sending in his new song to rescue Bodi. After meeting with Bodi outside of Linnux's hideout, they take him to Snow Mountain to stop Linnux.

Linnux and his gang overpower Khampa and the whole village and attempt to devour them, but Bodi appears and after a climatic chase, Bodi subdues the wolves by "finding the fire" by playing Scattergood's guitar and making the wolves, the villagers, and his friends levitate. Khampa banishes Linnux with his Iron Paw and accepts Bodi's ambition to play rock music. At the city, Bodi and his friends (including Scattergood, backed by the Yak and the Sheep) sing and play "Glorious" to the Snow Mountain Villagers (and a redeemed Riff and Skozz) at Linnux's old Fight Palace.

Voice cast

Production

The film was animated by Reel FX, who produced Free Birds (2013) and The Book of Life (2014).

The film cost $60 million to make, and thus making it the most expensive Chinese-financed animated productions. Rock Dog is based on a graphic novel, written and illustrated by Chinese rockstar Zheng Jun.

Release

The film premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival, which took place between June 11 and June 19, 2016.

It was released in China on July 8, 2016.

In the United States, the film was theatrically released on February 24, 2017, by Lionsgate through its Summit Premiere label.

Box office

As of March 14, 2017, Rock Dog has grossed $8.6 million in the United States and Canada and $11.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $20 million, against a production budget of $60 million.

In the United States and Canada, Rock Dog was released alongside Collide and Get Out, and is expected to gross $6–7 million from 2,050 theaters in its opening weekend.

Earning $5.7 million, the film has been a box office failure in China. It has been suggested that the largest Chinese theater chain, Wanda Cinema Line, attempted to limit the amount of screens the film would be shown on. The film was shown only on seven Wanda's screens — 0.3 percent of all its screens in China. Huayi Bros., the film's production company and an owner of a competing theater chain, poached Wanda's executive Jerry Ye a few months before the film's release and made him CEO of its film division.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 42% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Rock Dog is amiable enough, but its second-tier animation and uninspired story add up to a movie whose meager charms are likely to escape all but the youngest and least demanding viewers." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 48 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.