"Rock Dog" is a little known animation that had an uphill battle to become noteworthy. It was made by a consortium of studios with a budget of $60,000,000. Compare that to other animations made in 2016 such as "Finding Dory" by Disney-Pixar with a budget of around $200,000,000, or "The Secret Life of Pets" by Illumination with a budget of around $75,000,000, or "Sing," also by Illumination, with a budget also of $75,000,000, "Rock Dog" just didn't have the bona fides to make it big.

That's not to say it wasn't good, because it was, it was just going to struggle to be known. I, for one, am glad I found it.

The main character of this animation was Bodi (Luke Wilson),a sheep herding dog who's father, Khampa (J. K. Simmons),wanted to groom him to take over the sheep protecting duties. Khampa was a legendary dog who used a powerful martial arts move to fend off wolves. Bodi just wanted to rock.

Khampa granted Bodi his wish when he allowed him to travel to the city to chase his dream of being a musician. While in the city Bodi tried desperately to get the attention, and potentially music lessons from his musical idol Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard). As Bodi was pestering Angus for lessons, the wolf boss, Linnux (Lewis Black),had two of his minions trying to nab Bodi to use him as a means to get to the sheep.

There were several overlapping themes in this musical movie. The most pervasive themes are oft-repeated ones: finding one's own talent and accepting a person for who they are. The movie would've been truly lame if those two themes were very dominant, but they weren't, they just were the most poignant. The music was good, the characters were funny, and it was all clean, therefore I liked it.

Tibetan sheep dogs have protected their valley from the wolves over the years. Bodi (Luke Wilson) is expected to follow his father's footsteps. One day, a crate falls out of a passing plane. Bodi finds a radio among the stuff and he is taken immediately with the rock music idolizing rock god Angus Scattergood. He leaves the valley for the big city to follow his dream. Wolf leader Linnux orders his kidnapping.

I didn't realize that this is a Chinese animation with the western looking DVD cover. I thought that this was a second tier kids' movie. I don't mind the Chinese village motif at the beginning and then Bodi leaves for a big generic city. That's when the possible interesting Chinese animation turns completely generic and forgettable. There is a bit of timeless fun and magic about the village, and later actual magic from his music. The movie would work much better to stay in the village and stay with the fun timeless magic. It should be one thing or another. Honestly, I didn't realize that the village exists in the modern world. It spends enough time building the world of the valley that it loses the fun once Bodi goes to the modern city. It's really two different world that exists in two different movies. Otherwise, it's a generic animation of generic characters doing generic things.

. . . China's ROCK DOG, I noticed that EVERY ONE of the 184 other seats (yes, I carefully counted them all when the lights came up) were EMPTY. That got me to pondering. What was it about this Chinese Assault on the American Multiplex that was scaring away U.S. Citizens--especially ROCK DOG's presumed target audience, families with children--in droves? WHY weren't Americans flocking to the cinema to savor this tale of sheep in wolves' clothing? My theory is that ROCK DOG hits too close to home for most of us, and as Jack Nicholson famously said of his compatriots, we "CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!" Which Ugly Truth does ROCK DOG select in which to rub America's snout? The key scene here comes at 49:12, when the Alpha Male One Per Center Predator Wolf revokes his Nation of Sheep's ObamaCare and Social Security in one off-hand Tweet. IF the Chinese truly want to make an honest nickel from the U.S. film market, they need to substitute Happy Escapist Fare for such misfires as Matt Damon's GREAT TRUMP WALL and Luke Wilson's ROCK UNDER DOG.