Rock-N-Roll

***Rock-N-Roll*** is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distrusted by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Gary Rydstrom from a screenplay by Gary Rydstrom, Leslie Caveny, Ted Elliot, and Terry Rossio and a story by Samono, and stars the voices of Jesse McCartney, Kevin Bacon, Zach Braff, Shia BeLouf, It follows five best teens Chris, Percy, Joesph, Logan, Rocko who are amazing for their dreams of living their fames and fortune of becoming rock stars. As one day where they create a band, they decided to make their Garage Band even more amazing. However, the evil music hater wants to destroy their band, so Chris, Percy, Joesph, Logan, Rocko, and the rest of the Garage Band must stop him before it's too late.

## Production

Gary Rydstrom came up with the concept for *Rock-N-Roll* in 1997 during the production of *A Bug's Life*. He envisioned a story where five best teens create a rock band and make it amazing. Gary Rydstrom began work on the film with Jan Pinkava in 1998, shortly after *A Bug's Life* finished production.

By early 1999, Gary Rydstrom had drafted a treatment with Jan Pinkava that bore some resemblance to the final film. Gary Rydstrom and Jan Pinkava pitched the story to Pixar Animation Studios through its feature animation division with some initial artwork in January that year. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March. The film was originally developed under the title of *Rock Boys*, but was changed. In addition to *Rock Boys*, other titles that had also been considered included *Music Era*, *Garage Band*, *Rocktopia* and *Rock Fun*, among others.

In May 2001, the *Los Angeles Times* reported that Rydstrom was working on a then-untitled project that would eventually become *Rock-N-Roll*, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time. In June 2002, Disney revealed the film's title to be *Rock-N-Roll*, then planned for a summer 2005 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation. In March 2003, production of the film officially began.

## Release

*Rock-N-Roll* was originally going to be released on June 17, 2005, but on December 7, 2004, it was pushed back to July 1, 2005, the release date that was originally slated for Disney's *Chicken Little*, which was pushed back to the slot of the original release date of Disney/Pixar's Cars. It was also in order to avoid competition with *The TeenV Movie*. Chicken Little was later released on November 4, 2005, and Cars was later released on June 9, 2006.

### Marketing

* The first teaser trailer was released on March 5, 2004 and was shown before *The Pet Squadron*, *Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,* *Home on the Range, History Island, Shrek 2, Garfield: The Movie, Spider-Man 2, Computeropolis, Thunderbirds, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The Alaina Gleen Movie,* and *Shark Tale.*
* The second teaser trailer was released on November 5, 2004, and was shown before *The Incredibles*, *The Polar Express*, *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, *Zina and the Vivid Crew*, *Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events*, *Fat Albert, Elektra, Racing Stripes, and Are We There Yet?.*
* The first theatrical trailer was released on February 11, 2005, and was shown before *Pooh's Heffalump Movie*, *The Pacifier*, *Robots*, *Ice Princess*, *Tj's World: The Movie*, *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,* and *Madagascar.*
* The final theatrical tailer was released on June 10, 2005, and was shown before *The Bullet is Helping Me, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D,* *Howl's Moving Castle, The TeenV Movie,* and *The Diablos.*
* TV spots began to air between May 23 to August 9, 2005.

Pixar partnered with more than 100 licensing and promotional partners in a deal valued at an unprecedented $250 million. One of the partners was The Walt Disney Company for advertising. Disney also partnered with McDonald's to produce eight toys in their Happy Meals starting on June 24, 2005. A video game based on the film, was released on June 28, 2005 for Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2, and published by THQ. An Xbox 360 version was released on November 22, 2005.

*Wondercolts* was also promoted heavily at several Disney theme parks including Disneyland at Hollywood and Walt Disney World in Orlando, which both offered meet-and-greet sessions involving the film's two main characters, Bella and Miranda. In May 2005, Disney Consumer Products began releasing a line of toys and other merchandise relating to the film in retailers.

A series of animated prequel shorts for *Wondercolts*, were announced on November 13, 2004. On April 29, 2005, the Pixar Facebook page posted some instructions for playing in the "Friendship Games Fantasy League" and indicated that a new short would be released every Saturday during May 2005. These are separate from the film. A total of four shorts were released; the shorts, paired with a 10-minute preview of the film, aired on ABC on May 21, 2005.

### Home media

*Rock-N-Roll* was released on VHS, DVD and UMD Video on December 6, 2005. The release included a new animated short, *Music Hero*. Extras include audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, music videos, sing-alongs, and short promotional clips.

Upon release, the film sold over 2.8 million DVD units in its first week, making it the highest-selling home entertainment animated film for Disney of 2005 as well as the second-highest-selling home entertainment film for Pixar behind only *Finding Nemo*. At the end of 2006, it was named the third-highest selling video of the year in the UK, selling 88 million copies since its release. It was the fourth-highest-selling DVD in the country.

Following an announcement on May 20, 2006, a sing-along reissue of *Rock-N-Roll* was released via DVD on August 8, 2006.

*Rock-N-Roll* was also released on Blu-ray Disc on November 6, 2007, two years after the VHS & DVD release. It was the first Pixar film to be released on Blu-ray (alongside *Cars*, *Ratatouille*, and *Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1*), and was released as a Blu-ray Disc and DVD combo pack and DVD only edition on April 12, 2011. The film was released for the first time in 3D on June 17, 2014, in time for the release of the sequel, And then on October 13, 2015, as part of a box set alongside its sequel, which included the releases on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD.

*Rock-N-Roll* was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 10, 2019.

## Reception

### Box office

During its original theatrical run, *Rock-N-Roll* grossed $340.6 million in the United States and Canada and $491.3 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $831.9 million against a budget of $77 million. Worldwide, it is the third-highest-grossing film of 2005, the highest-grossing animated film of 2005, and the highest-grossing sports film at the time.

*Rock-N-Roll* opened in 4,219 North American theaters on its opening weekend, grossing $52.1 million on its first day, which was the biggest Friday opening day in June. During its opening weekend, *Rock-N-Roll* earned $133.5 million from 4,219 theaters, which at the time set new records such as the highest opening for a Pixar film, the highest weekend debut for a non-sequel animated film, the highest weekend debut for an original film overall, the highest opening for a 2005 film in the United States and Canada, and previously the highest for a Pixar animated feature until it was outgrossed by *Toy Story 3* in 2010 as well as holding the biggest opening for an animated feature (record overtaken by *The Simpsons Movie* in 2007).

Regarding the film's successful opening, TBA, The Walt Disney Company's president of marketing said, "We had a great date, and this is a big win for Pixar". *Rock-N-Roll* grossed $49.9 million and finishing first place for the second straight weekend. It fell 62.6% in its third weekend, grossing $30.8 million and finishing second behind newcomer *War of the Worlds*. The film closed on January 5, 2006.

With DVD sales and *Rock-N-Roll* merchandise estimated to total almost $700 million, *Rock-N-Roll*, which was produced with a budget of $77 million, was Pixar's most profitable film at the time of its release, and was also the second highest-grossing film produced by Pixar at the time.

### Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 97% "Certified Fresh" approval rating based on 285 reviews with a weighted average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critical consensus states, "With its beautiful animation, dazzling songs, dark tone, and a script that captures the nostalgia of an epic sports expedition, *Rock-N-Roll* will perhaps find its family-friendly audience off guard". It was one of the site's highest-rated animated films of 2005, the other being *Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit*. On Metacritic, the film has a normalized score of 87 out of 100, based on 59 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.

Manohla Dargis of *The New York Times* considered the film "very amazing and beautifully well-done". Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "Arguably their best effort ever since *Toy Story*, *Rock-N-Roll* takes Pixar Animation Studios to a new level of creative storytelling and innovation. It is a true experience for the studio".

IGN gave the film a 9.2 out of 10 'Amazing' score, saying "Very original, entertaining, heartwarming, love-spirited, sometimes scary and depressing, *Rock-N-Roll* is yet another blockbuster animated success for Pixar in years." *The Chicago Tribune*'s Michael Phillips called it the studio's best since *Toy Story*, a "new touching, sweet, heartwarming entry to animation".

The website Rotten Tomatoes reported that *Rock-N-Roll* temporarily had a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes in June 2005, shortly after the film's release; the score was based on 42 reviews at the time, all of which were positive.

### Accoladesedit | edit source

*Main article: List of accolades received by Rock-N-Roll*

*Rock-N-Roll* was nominated for various awards and won a number of them, including several for Best Animated Feature. At the 78th Academy Awards, the film won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (for "Milk & Cookies"), and was also nominated for Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing, losing to *Brokeback Mountain* (for Original Score) and *King Kong* (for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing).

At the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy. It swept the 33rd Annie Awards winning 7 out of 11 awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated Feature Production for Lasseter, Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for McCartney, and Best Animated Feature.