Rock Odyssey (found Hanna-Barbera animated film; 1987)

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Revision as of 16:55, 27 November 2018 by YoshiKiller2S (talk | contribs) (Added Notelu's restoration)
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Title .jpg

Title card.

Status: Partially Lost

In 1981 Hanna Barbera had come up with the idea of an animated TV special for ABC titled Rock Odyssey. Though the film would later be shelved due to its violent and graphic imagery, until the mid-1980s where the project would resume production. The film would feature many popular songs by Jerry Lewis, The Beatles, and Wham! Being covered by their own singers. It takes you through a tour with the history of rock, The Jukebox voiced by Scatman Crothers is your host. Overall it's a very confusing, pretty, and psychedelic animated movie that not many know of. Surprisingly, though uncredited Rock Odyssey was co-directed by Robert Taylor. The same man who directed the 1972 R-Rated animated film, The Nine Lives Of Fritz The Cat.

The Music

Many songs are highly recognizable; some are by artists like The Beatles, Elvis Presley etc. There was a small argument over whether or not the film should use the original songs. But in the end, Robert Taylor had decided to do something "fresh" and record covers of the songs himself with a hired band. The film received “negative” reviews and has never released on VHS or DVD. It was never aired on television in the US again; it was rebroadcasted in other countries with the last rebroadcasted being on Boomerang Southeast Asia in 2010.

Availablity

There is a copy of this film available for viewing in the Library of Congress, but there is no place to buy or watch it publically. There are copies of the movie on YouTube and Dailymotion, but they are both in low quality, split into pieces, and dubbed into Spanish (due to them being recorded from a TV airing, although the songs are still in it’s original English audio.) However, on August 25, 2018, LMW user EL_PRESIDENTE found the movie in a higher quality (but still in Spanish). The full 90 minute English version remains lost, though there is a low-quality English version available, made from various sources by LMW user Ziggy Stardust. It is made from as many available online scenes as possible but was edited together before the Spanish dub's discovery, so the quality is less than satisfactory. On October 16th, 2018, LMW user Notelu had finished working on a serious restoration/remaster of the film and uploaded it to Archive.org and Myspleen. Notelu's cut of the film is the closest anyone has gotten to an English, high-quality cut of the film. It is highly unlikely that Rock Odyssey will ever see an official release.

Videos

Notelu's restoration

Gallery

A still from the movie

External Links

Refrences