Fritz the Cat (1972)

Trippy, funny, smart, political, and hot. i was impressed with how much i liked the film given the meh ratings. the proto furryism in the movie was interesting to.

Fritz the Cat (1972): Dir: Ralph Bakshi / Voices: Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Judy Engles, Ralph Bakshi: Based on the Robert Crumb underground comic of the 1960's and becoming the first feature animation to receive an X rating. It contains many animated pornographic images but it is the human characteristics of the animals that viewers will likely relate too or understand. Oversexed Fritz is fed up with college but eventually gets plagued as a fugitive after a doped up drunken orgy is raided by police. He wishes to start a revolution and befriended by a "black" crow. Many of the characters are ignited through stereotypes. Other characters include pigs as cops, a stoned rabbit whose careening is only diverted through the gleam of a needle, and a slick lady lizard out for destruction. Director Ralph Bakshi captures the era that may have done better without the concluding sexual romp. Bakshi is also uncredited providing a voice, with Skip Hinnant famously voicing the sexual feline himself. Creative animation particularly during a sequence involving blood and pool balls. Great comic animated appeal that takes refuge in an era of racial struggle, sexual freedom, the carefree attitude of youth, and the eventual destruction caused through drugs and alcohol. There are graphic pornographic images but it showcases a freedom that would come to an abrupt end. Score: 8 / 10

Early 70's cynicism with the way of the world is captured in Fritz the Cat. It's a cartoon based on an underground comic created by Robert Crumb (although against his wishes apparently). It's probably most famous now for being the first X-rated animated movie. Up to that point in time, cartoons had more or less all been kiddy-friendly family films; Fritz the Cat was to challenge this and show that there was another way to go with this kind of thing. It was the first feature length animated movie from director Ralph Bakshi, who would go on to make several cult cartoons throughout the 70's, including the fantasy films Wizards (1977) and The Lord of the Rings (1978).Set in New York City, Fritz is a counter-cultural cat that lives a life of sexual and drug-taking excess. Police aggression results in him fleeing the city and going on a road trip. To be honest, the story-line is pretty minimal and not ultimately very important. Where this one scores is in its combination of irreverence and psychedelic visuals mixed in with anti-establishment social commentary. The animation is pretty crude, although the painted backdrops are nice, but there are some scenes that display an original approach. My favourite being the extended sequence that features the Bo Diddley tune. It does overall have a definite feel that works to its advantage though. The mean back-streets of NYC are depicted quite effectively and its denizens all have a certain undeniable character – we have the crows from Harlem (black people), the pig cops and, latterly, a spaced out, oddly threatening, heroin addicted biker rabbit. The soundtrack seems to continually churn out urban funk to set the scene. So, on the one hand this doesn't have the most engaging story and it has pretty rough animation, but on the other hand it's so of its time and sufficiently daring to ensure that it remains a very interesting watch all the same.

What a weird hairball of a movie! Animator/ director Ralph Bakshi vomits this film based on the character from Robert Crumb comic strip call Fritz the Cat. Skip Hinnant voice Fritz the Cat, an anthropomorphic cat in 1960s New York City. The film loosing follows a satire plot about hedonism, sociopolitical consciousness, revolution, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics. By the word loosing, the plot is little or none, characters come and disappears, there is a ton of music filler scenes that lead nowhere, and no sense of morality change. It has a lot of crude dry humor that purrs its way throughout the film. There is a lot of sex, drug, and violence in most of the film. The violence in the film can be disgusting and downright wrong at times, most likely in shock value scenes dealing with street gang, violent against women, and rape. The sex unleashed one of the influenced to the furry fandom through sexualized anthropomorphic animals. A lot of nudity—for a cartoon movie, that gather a cult following. The use of drug use is kinda disturbing too, as Fritz is too stone to care about others—mostly in what happen to Duke (Fritz's friend) mid movie. Fritz the Cat is mostly on the run from the law, and this is where the movie gets most of its meat and cheese. Bug out. Bug out. The semi-characters are interesting. Duke is a lot of fun when he's on screen. Winston plays Fritz on and off girlfriend whom personality changes from the start of the movie till mid-thru without giving us reasons why. Blue the Rabbit is a heroin junkie biker who literally steals the scene and nearly the movie from him bringing the film to its darkest point as Fritz is forced to become more and more anarchism in the film. The animation in the film really does follows very close to Robert Crumb's semi-controversy artwork of the comic strip. Robert Crumb did not enjoy the film, hated this movie so much, he killed off the character Fritz in his comics. The voice over of the animals by both actors/non actors follow by sounds of city life, sound like real people in the street talking because it's technically recorded in the streets and bars. Still sometimes, the animation on film doesn't follow the word, or body language or scene. In the end the film became the first animated film to be given an X-rating due its harsh subject matter. It's not really that good, as Fritz doesn't change one bit, and it's really doesn't lead you anywhere, but feeling you went on an acid-trip watching 1960's cartoons. It's just that—a shock value satire animation film.