User reviews

I have seen several engaging films by Ralph Bakshi: Wizards, The Lord of the Rings and Hey, Good Lookin'! American Pop is definitely not one of them. The story is supposed to follow a Jewish family starting from their immigration in the 1900's to about 1980. This is obviously a sort of semi-autobiography for the director and his own familial roots. Why make make a film about one's own immigration experience through American pop-music? How can this possibly work? In 90 minutes we get a string of musical numbers starting from early Jazz to Rock that really don't tie us into the whole immigration experience. At least not from my perspective. And that scene about the Drug Dealer coaxing the record company to listen to his singing of Bob Segar's "Night Moves" doesn't make any sense. None of the popular songs being used have any relation to the movie, characters or plot. They are just thrown in to create an appealing Soundtrack. And this leads me to believe that Bakshi is trying to ingratiate himself into Pop-music, as if he was the mind behind all these classic songs. But he's not! This is why I think this movie is just a flat out ripoff. And aside from the uneven plot, the rotoscoping looks nauseating after a few minutes. The animation is colorful , but not very good.

Ralph Bakshi has used the medium of animation to strong effect in previous films, but here it looks haphazard and doesn't bring any benefit to this type of drama.

I stare with utter disbelief at the high rating given to this piece of cinematic flotsam. Making serious animation is a good idea, but I believe that this movie helped ruin any chances for it being taken seriously. There is no single protagonist, as this movie goes through several generations. None of the characters are remotely likable despite all of the depressing tortures the movie unleashes upon them. This movie delights in causing pain to it's characters in a vain attempt to make the audience care one iota about the characters. The plot is stolen from (in this order) old gangster films, WWII films, James Dean movies, and, finally, "The Rose." Even worse is the horrible, horrible animation which is painful and unbearable to watch. Worst yet is it's disrespect for the "popular music" which the movie claims to be about. Jimi Hendrix is animated horribly, and Bob Segar songs are somehow considered punk. Deep hurting, definitely on my list of top 10 worst films.

Veteran animation director Ralph Bakshi never quite found his footing in creating commercial art for the cinema--and although he has ambition and chutzpah, Bakshi doesn't have the touch for making his subjects engaging or embraceable (at least not by a wide movie-going public). One would think then that an animated, documentary-style journey back to the roots of popular music would be just the breakthrough Bakshi needed. Alas, this clichéd rendering--with melodramatic trimmings--is a big disappointment, with curiously stilted and awkward visuals and an embarrassingly bad score. Rags-to-riches 'plot' concerning a songwriter begins promisingly, however the script takes an early wrong turn into soap opera and the film never recovers. * from ****

I've been watching American Pop again on my pay channels and have finally come to a conclusion about it. This movie both advances animation in it's long format approach and it's unique story telling, and declines the art of animation by almost totally using the technique of rotoscoping for little effect. Mostly the story is long and boring with uninteresting characters that are really charactures or stereotypes. The way of following a lineage of music is interesting but executed poorly. This movie at least brings to the feature length animated movie a vision other than disney. To that it it a great boon for animation. But it's ugliness is disappointing. Although it claims to be the first to use rotoscoping, it is not. Yellow submarine did that to greater effect. Here you see what is basically a live action feature that was traced. Animation should bring about a metaphorical significance by it's use this only serves to make life, and people ugly. watch it once to note it. Then forget it as another failed movie by this overrated animator who is a better still artist.

Boring and overrated! It was lousy when I saw it in the theater and it's even worse now.

Poor script and garbage animation make this nearly unwatchable. The music, for the most part, is weak and poorly done. Even the great original songs couldn't compensate for the terrible dialogue and voice acting.

Maybe I'd have given it a 3 if Little Pete had performed a more appropriate song than "Night Moves". Totally out of character there. Idiotic!

I despise this movie because I love other Bakshi work!

Don't waste your time on this trash!