Rock-a-Doodle

With a gob-smacking opening zoom, Bluth grabs his audience and transports them from outer space to an earthbound farmyard. Here, Chanticleer the rocking rooster (voiced by velvet-larynxed Campbell) is humiliated in front of his animal chums when the sun rises one morning without his usual boisterous bidding. Dismissed as useless, Chanticleer trudges off to seek stardom in the big city, whence he is pursued by his erstwhile pals and by the evil emissaries of the fiendish Grand Duke Owl (Plummer), who now threatens to devour the rain-drenched farmyard. As with so much of Bluth's work, the narrative strengths necessary to support his fiesta of colourfully frenzied animated action are sadly absent. The film's dizzying pace leaves one longing for the plodding reliability of a sturdy Disney storyline. Bluth remains a rebellious visual talent to be reckoned with, but the overall effect is messy.