ROCK DOG 2 – ROCK AROUND THE PARK
If you were one of the millions who didn’t turn up to cinemas for the first Rock Dog, here’s a sequel that you can ignore at home.
The voices of Eddie Izzard, Luke Wilson and JK Simmons didn’t stop the 2016 Chinese-us co-production from flopping hard at the box office. So the encore takes a different tack with non-celebrities, cheaper animation and a more convoluted plot.
Tibetan pooch Bodi (Graham Hamilton) has left his mountain-top village to become the frontman of up-and-coming band True Blue.
The beams shooting out of his guitar (apparently a sign of his passion) attract the attention of a villainous sheep music impresario launching a barely comprehensible scheme to destroy Rock’n’roll Park, a mecca for the franchise’s soft-rock-loving critters.
Grown-ups are served with dated and mostly unfunny references to Wayne’s World and Bill And Ted films, and a half-hearted satire about selling out.
Kids will have to make do with a couple of catchy tunes, silly costume changes and the bright, breezy but decidedly blocky animation.