Trivia / Rock and Rule

• Acting for Two: Nelvana animator Greg Duffell voices both Stretch and one of Mok's henchmen Zip.
• Box Office Bomb: Only made about $33,000 on an 8 million budget thanks to MGM acting as if it never existed. It's one of the biggest animated movie bombs in history, rivaling that of Delgo and A Troll in Central Park. Unlike those movies, however, it still has its share of fans.
• Creator Killer: Barely averted. Nelvana almost went bankrupt until the runaway success of The Care Bears Movie saved them.
• Descended Creator: Screenwriter John Halfpenny voices Uncle Mikey.
• Executive Meddling: Before releasing the film to US theaters, MGM completely redubbed Omar's voice, partially rewrote the Opening Scroll explaining the animalistic appearance of the characters, made a few changes to the ending, among many other differences across the film, and changed the title to "Ring of Power". Never mind that the only ring in the entire film appears, serves its purpose, and dutifully vanishes within the first 10 minutes.
• Fake American: British-Canadian actor Chris Wiggins voices the Brooklyn-accented Toad.
• He Also Did: Toad and Mylar's voice actors were also in Nelvana's earlier production The Devil and Daniel Mouse as B.L. Zebub and Weez Weezel respectively.
• Invisible Advertising: MGM never promoted its theatrical or home video releases, attributing to how little the movie made in sales.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Because of the film's small budget, no soundtrack album was ever even planned, let alone released, and only a handful of the songs have ever gotten properly released on the artists' respective albums. Also, the Canadian cut of the film, featuring Omar's original voice actor, has never been officially released in the US.
• Misattributed Movie: The movie picked up its cult following via bootleg videotapes that were circulated at comic book conventions, but these tapes stated on the cover that Ralph Bakshi was the director, which he was not. Might also be an All Animation Is Disney-esque case of "All Adult-Oriented Animation is Ralph Bakshi", since Rock & Rule contains absolutely none of Bakshi's trademarks or style except for their shared target audience.
• Non-Singing Voice:
  • Omar's singing voice was provided by Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander.
  • Angel's singing voice was provided by Blondie singer Deborah Harry.
  • Mok's singing voice was provided by both Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.
• Playing Against Type: An example applying to a whole studio. It's so odd to see Nelvana, the same studio that would later become famous for making children's productions like Care Bears, Little Bear, and Franklin, making something as mature as this film.
• Recycled Script: The plot is heavily derived from a previous Nelvana product The Devil and Daniel Mouse, which was essentially an animated, kid-friendly adaption of the story of Doctor Faustus.
• Rereleased for Free: The film was eventually uploaded (though later privatized) on Nelvana's Retro Rerun channel in November 2019, under its original title, although in 4.3 and with the edits from the US Ring of Power edit (such as the Opening Scroll and Paul Le Mat as Omar).
• Screwed by the Network: MGM underwent a management reshuffling following its merger with United Artists, and the new executives were apparently not thrilled with Rock & Rule. Consequently, MGM canceled the film's North American release shortly after it was completed, and opted to give it a limited release in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Spared by the Cut: The Canadian cut has Zip survive his Heroic Sacrifice, whereas it was cut from the American versions.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film was originally conceived to be more child friendly but as production went on, Nelvana changed the film to be more adult.
  • Instead of strapping Angel to the soundboard and forcing her to sing the incantation, Mok was meant to transform Angel into a guitar and play her in order to summon the demon.
  • Howie Mandel was originally going to voice Stretch, but he moved to Los Angeles before recording could begin.
• Working Title: It started production with the title, Drats!.
• Write What You Know: Clive A. Smith, the director of the film, actually played in rock bands when he was in college.

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