The 1983 film "Rock and Rule" is one of those movies where the production story behind the scenes is significantly more interesting than the movie itself. Despite the thoroughly 80's American punk-rock aesthetic, this is actually a Canadian movie, arguably at the height of the country's influence in the animation industry. It was produced by Nelvana, a company most Canadian families are familiar with. Known exclusively as a producer of children's television, this film was Nelvana's first feature-length movie at the dawn of the company's life, and due to production issues and lackluster returns at the box office, it nearly bankrupted them. Only through doubling down on children's programming could the company claw their way back to profitability, likely still a sour point to the film's director and producers (the founders of Nelvana), despite the company's success today. There's also a story behind the uncut version: the American release uses a completely different voice actor for the lead character, and edits a couple minutes from the runtime, while the Canadian version (broadcast on CBC, again consdiered a family-friendly government-funded channel) remains true to the full original edit."Rock and Rule" also features fascinating content. Not unlike other underground animated features of that decade, the film tries to be edgy, with foul language, portrayal of drugs, and sexually suggestive imagery (although such content probably makes up less than five minutes of the total runtime... simple edits could make the film G-rated, but even unedited the film isn't completely unsuitable for children). The core plot of the movie is about a satanic summoning of a great beast from another dimension. But the character designs look like rejected art from Disney's "A Goofy Movie," with anthropomorhpic dogs, cats and mice, human cartoons with animal noses, snouts and ears. It might be less impressive had "A Goofy Movie" not be released over a decade AFTER "Rock and Rule." Or if the impressively fluid animation, exaggerated in a manner similar to Don Bluth's style of work, not been in development before the release of Bluth's first films. This is a maverick movie with character designs of Disney, animation of Bluth, and the middle-finger attitude of Ralph Bakshi, all at a time BEFORE all of these things were relevant. And all from a relatively unknown group of passionate animators in Canada. That's impressive.The story is less impressive, and represents both the best and the worst of memories of the 80's. The protagonists are Omar and Angel, two members of a struggling four-member rock band, each eager to reach success, but with Omar in particular having trouble playing along. Angel's singing voice catches the attention of Mok, a legendary rock star with a secret agenda to summon a powerful demon, only possible with the power of "a special voice." Angel and Omar have to overcome their differences and misunderstandings when it appears they each don't care if the other remains in the band, to ultimately fight off the end of the world by singing... a duet! Yes, the adventure is corny, and the series of events to get to the ending are largely just setups to character development: this could have been edited down to a single 20-minute short film with no story lost.I do give credit to Mok, the movie's showing villian. While he doesn't seem to have in particular motivation to destroy the world, he is still a very memorable character, with a face and voice that seems like an unholy merger of David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, aged to a being seemingly over 300 years old. But Omar, the main character and hero, brings the story down. He is arrogant and selfish, clearly the single problem causing strife to the band, and not a very good rocker either. And I don't think he learns anything by the end of the movie: he might be willing to share the stage, but still cannot accept anything less than the spotlight, hard work or fairness be damned. It feels like Omar is only left alive at the end of the movie to be a poster character, to help sell tickets to boys who wouldn't be satisfied with a female lead. 
You would think a movie entirely centered around rock and roll would have a great soundtrack. The credits are impressive, citing movie-original songs by Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, and other stars from the era. But most of the music is not good. I would even go so far to say it is sometimes quite bad. I thought I liked rock and roll, but if this is what real music was in the 80's, I question myself. It wouldn't be so much a problem if the movie didn't drown more than half of the runtime's audio to the songs. The only time the music came together was for the encore finale duet at the climax. The rest? The movie would genuinely be better had the music been cut out entirely. The voice acting, on the other hand, is as solid as the visuals: cartoony and squeaky at times, but matching the movie's tone, and giving a slight amount of acceptance to Omar's attitude.The definition of classic can mean more than simply being "good." It could be simply standing the test of time, or even the opposite: being so aged or so full of problems that it is an oddity in the continuum of space time. If it wasn't for "Rock and Rule" 's genuinely impressive character animation, and for the time when that animation was produced, I think the cult status of the movie would be entirely for being "so stupid it's good." But that animation stands for a lot. Canada's entire animation industry seems defined by sub-par children's content in the modern day. The hey-day of output is gone, even the NFB's short films don't come close to the classic art from generations prior. It's a shame, since there exist some great Canadian animators, and there always will. It would be nice to see the band get back together.