Fritz the Cat

That is how the 1960s were described by the narrator in the beginning of this film. Fritz the Cat is a famous movie for a number of reasons, most stemming from it being the first feature-length adult cartoon and having an "X" rating. There were controversies surrounding its creation with director Ralph Bakshi and character creator Robert Crumb. The film is like nothing I have ever seen before. It has a unique animation process that makes everything reek seediness, despair, and cry for social change. Bakshi wrote the script which really is nothing more than the knife that cuts through all the 60's BS - from existentialism to the drug culture to the love generation to African-American perspectives to militancy. Nothing is spared as the counterculture is laid bared and examined through the eyes, ears, fears, and desires of Fritz the Cat. Along the way, Fritz experiments with just about anything - including lots of sex, drugs, and sex. While the film definitely is quite vulgar in many ways with some of the most odious characterizations of otherwise cute and cuddly animals and depicting lots of strong sexual situations(though in no way deserving the "X" by today's standards), Fritz the Cat is also an intelligent look at one character's drive to find himself and meaning in his life - perhaps a symbol for the whole decade the film is examining. The end result is nothing conclusive - also perhaps a symbol. Bakshi's script is in some ways profound and thought-provoking and in some ways infantile and vile - his obvious dislike of police just one example. But what had my attention more than anything else was the animation - particularly in exterior shots not containing characters. There is one scene where the slums of Harlem are integral to the story. Bakshi uses his camera to zoom in on quite an impressive animated background shot of a field lost amongst the slums of Harlem. It is the very essence of seedy existence in an uncaring world. There are many other shots too that have that same power, but let's not forget that even with the intelligent at times script and the animation, much of Fritz the Cat is used solely to arouse - either arouse some primal feelings or arouse offense. A landmark film at any rate whether for good or for bad.

I'm not particularly a cartoon-fan. I saw " Fritz the cat" in an obscure movie theatre in Ghent (Belgium)in the early seventies. There were about 5 people in the theatre and 2 left after half an hour.

I enjoyed the story: it's about a young guy who discovers the "real" world with all his odd aspects, as the situation was in the late sixties.

The music in this film is super: I discovered the great Charles Earland (Black talk), Duke's Theme from Ray Shanklin, Mamblues (Cal Tjader), Bertha's theme (Ray Shanklin) and even Billy Holiday 's wonderful "yesterdays".

Those who believe there are racist tendencies in the movie don't dig anything about "Jewish" humour.

After having watched this movie, I left the cinema with the conviction:" Hey, in fact I am Fritz the cat ", and believe me, at that time, I was!

The idea of taking certain concepts to the extreme has been happening forever and it's no stranger to the film industry. Originally, the thought of making animated movies was scoffed at, until Disney made theirs. Then as time progressed, people began to treat animated features with more relevance towards adults. However, it wasn't until the experimental era of rock, fornication and drugs did that particular push come into play. Classic cartoons that came before the 1950s were considered for adults, but they didn't contain blatant drug abuse and graphic sexual content. That is until Ralph Bakshi became one of those pioneers of said genre. Having worked on several other animated projects prior, Bakshi was very familiar with this aspect of filmmaking, which led him to his feature film directorial debut.

Fritz the Cat (1972) is Bakshi's satirical take and social commentary on the 1960's in the United States. Plot wise, it follows the adventures of Fritz the cat (Skip Hinnant) looking to fine the "inner meaning" to life and such. Being a college student, he floats around hopping to different places and experiencing different kinds of people with their ideologies. Also written by Bakshi, the script finds itself bogged down with a hodgepodge of events and underdeveloped motives for the audiences' "protagonist". It's rather unfortunate because the film itself isn't meant to really make Fritz a likable character, but the film also partially fails to provide any sort of understanding as to why he acts the way he acts. It's just Fritz being hypocritical doing things with different people; which was already spoiled in the plot synopsis.

In a way, it feels like Bakshi's version of Alice in Wonderland but grittier and graphic. The audience bumbles along with Fritz on his misadventures watching him try to fit in with all sorts of individuals that in no way fit him. Worst yet, is that Fritz himself feels weightless in his motivations. He just keeps searching, and searching, not really getting to a definitive state of understanding. Fritz is a lost puppy....how oxymoronic. Along his travels, Fritz tries drugs, fornicates with whatever character he finds appealing that he can woo over, joins extremely dangerous cults and causes tensions between different groups of people. All to find that "inner meaning" he so desperately wants to understand. In some ways, it feels like what some of the 1960s were about, but was it that chaotic and scatterbrained?

The acting is fine despite the cast being a very short list. Skip Hinnant as Fritz is fine, he gets the job done adequately. He didn't perform very much after this, returning for The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974) and I Go Pogo (1980). Rosetta LeNoire also plays the role of Bertha in this film. She does fine for the role while also voicing other characters too. LeNoire would later have roles in The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Gimme a Break! and Family Matters. There are some other actors involved in this production, but their contribution is so little in comparison and they didn't go on to do much later, so it's not worth covering. If there's one thing Bakshi got right, it was making this cartoon directed towards adults because no youth should see the amount of graphic nudity and violence that is in this picture. There's blood, private parts and racial undertones that would not be accepted at all today by any means.

As for the visual aspects, it's a little confusing as to why two cinematographers were needed as this was an animated film. There are some settings where the picture gets rotated but I'm not sure if camerawork was needed for that. As for the animation itself, the colors and movements to the characters are good. The textures to the animation are unique too since it was most likely cell animation. The coloring in every stage of the animation looks like no frame was filled in exactly the same. It's a different look for sure. Lastly the music composed by Ed Bogas was okay for the time and budget it was produced on. Bogas would also go on to compose for The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show and Garfield and Friends. He would also go onto compose music for video games like Gameboy's Swamp Thing and even the dreaded NES Action 52 cartridge. Very interesting indeed.

As a whole, the movie should be looked at more as a trial in pushing the limits of acceptable animated films. Sadly, this movie tries to make a point but doesn't. The animation, music, social commentary and acting are okay, but the point of it is lost with its haphazard story, overly graphic detail and half-baked script.

I'll take back every negative thing I said about Ralph Bakshi. I gave "Wizards" a second chance and now, instead of saying it was "An Animated Mess," it is a cult classic that works as comedy. It took me a while to warm up to Bakshi, but the more I got used to him, I am now declaring him not only as "The Bad Boy of Animation," because that's what he always intended to be, but also as what I really want to think of him as - The Mel Brooks of animation - because his style is really hilarious, whether he intended on this or not. Take this as a compliment, Ralph, you are a very funny guy. Your work seems angry, but you make me laugh.

As for his movies, many of them are not for children, especially young ones. "Fritz the Cat" is his first, his foremost, and one of his best. But it is rated X, and the first theatrical cartoon to be rated X with all the cartoon nudity, graphic violence, and foul language. Here's a piece of trivia: Would anyone guess that the man doing the voice of Fritz the cat is actually Skip Hinnant, the same guy from the children's PBS educational show "The Electric Company" who played Fargo North, Decoder, and Hinnant worked on "Fritz" and "The Electric Company" in the same year? It's true, two vastly different worlds, but Hinnant has pleased both children and adults, and not necessarily at the same time.

Now let's cut to the movie. It may seem like a dumb adult cartoon, but it does make a statement about the hedonistic lifestyles of the 1960's and there is a lot of allegorical symbolism. Fritz and his fellow felines (looks at his three females in the bathtub scene) represents the sexual revolution, the crows represent low-life Negroes who engage in crime, rioting in Harlem, and pot-smoking, the pigs represent cops who chase Fritz everywhere and are out to bust Fritz, and there's a sadistic witch-like lizard who represents radical culture of the hippies and enjoys watching her rabbit friend beat up Fritz and his donkey girlfriend Harriet with a chain in a sanctuary.

There's something to offend everyone in Fritz, right down to the bathtub orgy in the beginning of the film, heavy dosages of full frontal nudity, hallucinations of bare breasts, Big Bertha, the floozy black crow who seduces Fritz by stuffing marijuana into his mouth, rabbis who get interrupted by Fritz fleeing from the police, a typical 1960's riot in Harlem started by big-mouthed Fritz, pigs as rogue cops (Notice that Ralph Bakshi does the voice of one of the cops who says "Duh. In fact, he mentioned he does all the "Duh" voices in his movies as part of his commentary track from "Wizards." In "Fritz," Bakshi calls his fellow partner, "Ralph," so no one will think that Bakshi is doing the voice of "Ralph," so to speak.), lizards as evil witches, and the list goes on.

The best thing about "Fritz" is that Bakshi seemed to have a lot of fun doing this, and everything worked. He really added the fun to "Heavy Traffic" and "Wizards." When Bakshi really wanted to do an adult animated film, it can work. It only got deadening with latter overproduced efforts such as "Lord of the Rings" and "Cool World," and one can easily see that Bakshi labored everything, rather than the naturalism in "Fritz," "Heavy Traffic" and "Wizards."

Today, adult animation is popular now on TV. In the 1970's, adult animation was used for the theater. Younger animators such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of "South Park," and Seth McFarlane, the creator of "Family Guy," appear to be working under the influence of Bakshi, incorporating every bit of lewdness they could think of for their shows and characters. But it is really Bakshi who fathered adult animation, and Parker, Stone, and McFarlane are like his sons, and father knew best.

I came across the recently released DVD of this film in, of all places, the children's video section of Virgin Megastore. Whether or not this poorly miscategorized placement was of simple ignorance or whether the intent weas subversive and it was intentionally and deliberately placed in the children's section, I found myself grinning and reluctant inform anyone of the error. After all, nobody gave me any forewarnings when I was a kid either, as some things you just have to discover on your own, and the thought of some poor innocent parents popping this film on for their kid only to look on in horror at the visions that would soon unfold sounded dastardly and funny indeed.

I was 7 years old when Fritz the Cat first hit the screen, and while I didn't see the film for the first time until I was well into my twenties, the film nevertheless had a lasting impact on my childhood. This film had taken on a reputation of mythical proportions in my Brooklyn hometown neighborhood, partly due to the older teens on my street who were all too eager to share shocking details contained therein, as only the best subversive intentions can do, and further securing the film's status as "every parent's nightmare". To a child about to undergo serious growing pains and a naturally growing curiosity towards all things "adult-related", Fritz the Cat was very much my earliest childhood memory of the themes of sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, racism, you name it, and it was a symbol for naughtiness that all coming of age kids couldn't wait to catch a sneak peak of, or at least couldn't wait to reach the age when we could view such subject matter freely.

As a movie, it hasn't lost any of it's impact in 30 years, and fewer films truly capture the grittiness and raw edge of New York city in the 70's (French Connection is another good example). I dare say that it could be considered more offensive now than ever, as I fear that today many just might not "get it," despite our self-proclamation that we've come a long way in maturity and tolerance of such sensitive issues. Modern society has become so politically correct and desensitized to controversial issues that we're less tolerant and understanding of the original intent of a film such as this, especially when it's messages are not consistent with our modern value system. Thus, some of the obvious stereotypes presented in this film (such as the pigs portraying cops and the crows portraying blacks, for example), could never be presented in a film today. Granted, these images were meant to be offensive in the 70's as well, but they were obviously taken in a different light back then, as they were indicative of a specific brand of biting satire found in the 70's and hippie culture and a reflection of how that particular generation could openly address such social issues. These issues, such as racism, are clearly still relevant today, we just address them in a different manner, which is why Fritz the Cat still has potency yet is more or less looked upon as a curious time capsule of a bygone era today.