[3] Loosely based on Edmond Rostand's 1910 comedy play Chantecler,[4] Rock-a-Doodle was directed by Don Bluth and written by David N. Weiss.

The film tells the story of an anthropomorphic rooster named Chanticleer, who lives on a farm and crows every morning to raise the sun.

However, he leaves his farm to become a singer in the city after being tricked by the Grand Duke of Owls, whose kind hates sunshine, into thinking that his crow does not actually raise the sun.

[5][6] In 1957, Chanticleer, a rooster whose singing raises the sun every morning, gets into a fight with a stranger sent by the Grand Duke of Owls, whose kind hates sunlight.

Impressed by Edmond's bravery, the other animals begin chanting Chanticleer's name, driving an angry Duke to transform himself into a tornado.

Chanticleer finally regains his confidence and crows loud enough to raise the sun, diminishing the Duke into a harmless miniature version of himself.

Plans for an animated version of the Chanticleer tale dated as far back as the early years of the Disney studios, where several of its artists were interested in combining elements of the story with those about an anthropomorphic fox named Reynard.

Though character designs by Marc Davis survive, Walt Disney personally rejected the pitch in 1961, eventually passing on the project in favor of The Sword in the Stone.

The animation was shot on an open-matte full-screen negative, meaning the top and bottom of the image was cropped to fit the theatre screen along with the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases.

When viewed in full-screen (except the theatre screen and the new Olive Films DVD and Blu-ray releases), all the animated sequences (except for parts of the finale) can be seen in full, but the live-action segments lose information on the sides.

To avoid a potential PG rating, Bluth edited out the showing of The Duke's "skunk pie" (the pie is not seen in full view in the final version), the animators had to replace Chanticleer's glass of wine with a transparent cup of soda in the "Kiss and Coo" sequence, and had to draw colored effects into The Grand Duke's breath to make him less scary for young audiences.

Test audiences also felt confused by the storytelling so the filmmakers decided to include narration told by the dog character, Patou, voiced by Phil Harris.

The film took in $11,657,385 at the US box office after an opening weekend gross of $2,603,286,[1] which forced Bluth's studio into liquidation half a year after its release.

Moreover, a Hong Kong company, Media Assets, purchased Bluth's next three films, Thumbelina (1994), A Troll in Central Park (1994), and The Pebble and the Penguin (1995).

[14] In a positive review, The Washington Post wrote: "The young ones, who certainly don't give a sticky-fingered hoot about animation production values, are likely to have a good time with this.

[15] Empire found it more compelling than Bluth's previous effort All Dogs Go to Heaven, labeling Chanticleer "good-natured kitsch" and praising the film's "successful if unspectacular" live-action/animation mixture and the use of the real-life Jordanaires as backing vocalists.

[18] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune criticized the film's overwhelming amount of characters and subplots as well as its "frantic" altering in pacing and tone, but acclaimed the hand-drawn animation, calling it superior to the "shabby rotoscoping techniques" of Beauty and the Beast (1991).

[20] Charles Soloman, a critic for the Los Angeles Times, disliked the film's writing, reasoning that it was filled with plot holes, forced "fun" elements, and rejection of the source material's "powerful message about the importance of self-knowledge".

He also criticized its cheap-looking special effects: "The Grand Duke's magic breath sprays twinkling stars and crescent moons that look like the glitter sold by the scoop in card shops.

[21] Entertainment Weekly panned Rock-a-Doodle's "limp rock homages", forgettable song, "washed-out" colors, and the "cheap" look of the live-actions sequences.

[22] Joly Herman of Common Sense Media gave this film a rate four stars out of five, saying "Colorful tale of singing rooster has perilous moments.

The soundtrack for Rock-a-Doodle was composed by Robert Folk and performed by the Irish Film Orchestra, with songs written and produced by T.J. Kuenster, one of the songwriters for All Dogs Go to Heaven.

The tracks "Sun Do Shine", "Come Back to You", "Rock-a-Doodle", "Treasure Hunting Fever", "Sink or Swim", "Kiss 'n Coo", and "Tyin' Your Shoes" contained background vocals by The Jordanaires.

[25] The soundtrack was recorded at The Music Mill, Nashville; Ropewalk Studios, Dublin, Ireland; and Devonshire Audio, Los Angeles.