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

Title card.

Status: Found

Date found: 13 May 2023

Found by: jericod007 and Notelu

In 1981 Hanna Barbera had come up with the idea of an animated TV special for ABC titled Rock Odyssey. The film would be shelved (most likely due to its violent and graphic imagery) until the mid-1980s when the project would resume production. The film would feature many popular songs at that time by such artists as Jerry Lewis, The Beatles, and Wham!, which were all being covered by their own singers. The film takes the viewer through a tour into the history of rock, with a jukebox voiced by Scatman Crothers as the host. The special was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Rock Odyssey was co-directed by Robert Taylor (though he wasn't credited), known for co-directing the 1974 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. In the end, Robert Taylor decided to do something "fresh" and record covers of the songs himself with a hired band. The film received negative reviews and has never been released on VHS or DVD. It was never aired on television in the US and was only screened once at the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration in 1987. However, Hanna Barbera did make the film available for international television and it was aired in other countries. The last airing of the film was on Boomerang Southeast Asia in 2010.

Restoration

On October 16th, 2018, Lost Media Wiki user Notelu had finished working on a serious restoration/remaster of Rock Odyssey and uploaded it to Archive.org. Notelu's cut of the film uses a combination of the high-quality Spanish VHS tape and a low-quality English cell phone recording of the film. He did this by splicing in the Spanish VHS tape for the music and visuals and the cell phone recording for the dialogue (as well as improving the quality). It was the closest anyone has gotten to a high-quality English cut of the film but has since been taken down. But, given that uploads of the film get taken down off archive.org and youtube all the time, that's a good way to tell that Warner Bros still knows this film exists. They haven't forgotten about it, they just don't seem to care enough to make any real statement.

Availablity

There is no place to buy or watch this film 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 its original English audio.) However, on August 25th, 2018, LMW user EL_PRESIDENTE found the movie in 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 May 12th, 2023, Lost Media Wiki Discord user "jericod007" posted preview photos of the Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network VHS tapes they were transferring. Among them was a tape containing Rock Odyssey. However, before jericod007 released their transfer, Lost Media Wiki user Notelu received and uploaded a full English UK broadcast of the entire film rendering it 100% found. According to them, the tape came from someone in the comment section on their video of the film who claimed to have a copy of the film from a Sky TV broadcast in 1993.