harprj I decided to watch Fritz the Cat because I'm a fan of R. Crumb's work, and his infamous hatred towards this movie further fueled my intrigue. I think subversive animation inherently titillates the little kid in all of us, taking a widely beloved medium of our childhood and doing very "mature" (at least ratings wise) things with them. Ralph Bakshi, the director, proclaimed that his film was for the young people, the hippie generation, who weren't easily offended and were receptive to new ideas. The question then, however, is if this is true, why does he spend so much time lampooning them? The way this film portrays the radical left of the 60s and 70s is hilariously inaccurate as a whole and more indicative of the "everyone can identify as who they want to" neoliberalism of modern day. The liberals (all females I might add) in this film mainly exist as strawmen for some unspecified demographic to laugh at and think, "wow, liberal girls are so dumb, they literally only think that stuff to pick up guys!" And therein lies the main problem with this film. If you have a problem with the left, fine, but say it in an intelligent way. This movie is supposed to undermine the mainstream view of established groups in society--hippies, cops, blacks--but instead of being clever or profound, it just presents the caricatures to say "HA! AREN'T COPS SO DUMB!" "AREN'T WOMEN SO FICKLE!" It's exhausting and drains the humor out of damn near everything in here. Stereotypes ≠ does not a witty commentary on society make. There is one scene that I thought might have some insightful symbolism if one looked into it enough: Fritz incites a riot in Harlem against the cops. As the military is coming in and Fritz sees all the crows (puerile caricature for every single black person in the movie) around him dying, he essentially shrugs and walks off. Make of that what you will about race relations in the US, but in Fritz, you can pretty much guess the whole point of this scene was to have lots of cartoon violence. After all, the whole appeal of this movie is staying up past your bedtime to watch a naughty cartoon.Which leads me to that infamous X rating. If you're even a casual watcher of Family Guy, Fritz the Cat won't make you blink twice. Heck, if you're a hardcore Family Guy viewer, you'll probably love this film. The entire premise of the humor seems to evolve around anime tiddies, crudely drawn male genitals urinating everywhere, drugs, rape, violence, and stereotypes that aren't so much offensive now as just...tired and groan-worthy. It's ostensibly a parody of free love philosophy, but I'm not buying it. A large part of it might be that this movie is very, very considerably before my time. But it's hard to take this movie as a serious emblem of the counterculture when it treats nothing with respect. All of the women are either vapid, nagging, or whores. Somehow race exists in this animal world, and every thing that isn't white gets its own species. Characters are simultaneously Marxist and avid supporters of domestic violence, pro-revolutionary and Neonazi. The internal world has no consistency and as a result it's a jumbled mess and I feel like I wasted 82 minutes of my life. I guess it would be a deep philosophical commentary on something if literally anything, anything at all, about this film at least tried to be mature in tone at any point? Man, we get it, the 60s were strange, dude. Didn't need to watch an unfunny movie to glean that. I may sound scathing, but there are two things that may redeem this movie to people who care more than me. The animation in this movie is faithful to the eclectic style of Crumb and has stunningly innovative moments that would be poetic if the surrounding film wasn't...well, crap. The music is also really good, and sadly more fun than anything else in the movie. Fritz the Cat is probably worth watching if you're an animated historian or avid hentai fan. Other than that, though, there are better relics from the 70s that are faithful to the time period and actually funny, too.

Python Hyena 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

dromasca Having spent the 70s in Romania and missed much of the cultural fresh air, I am in a continuous process of recovering some of my lost time. Music was the only form of art which crossed the Iron Curtain thanks to Radio Free Europe and to the vinyl records smuggled through customs, but otherwise I am still catching up with much of the books, films, and arts of the times of my first youth. The animated feature Fritz the Cat realized in 1972 by Ralph Bakshi was one of the sensations of these years, the first animated movie to be X-rated and break the taboos of the children and family oriented cartoons industry. Bakshi himself - born in Haifa in 1938, and brought by his family in the US in 1939 - seems to be an interesting character and creator, refusing to compromise and to follow beaten paths. He rather seems the kind of artist who breaks his path through.With 'Fritz the Cat' Bakshi takes a popular comics character created by Robert Crumb and throws him in the decadent New York of the beginning of the 70s, as kind of a fall-out student whose only purpose in life is having sex with as many and as different girlie animals as possible, smoking pot, and participating a revolution or two on the way. I liked the way Bakshi positioned his character catching the big features of the hippie generation, and placing it in relation with the other anti-establishment movements of the era - the anarchistic revolutionaries, and the Black Panthers. We recognize the landscape from the metropolis and universities of the 'Undergraduate' to the desert crossed by the trucks and motorcycles of 'Easy Rider'. We laugh at the characters (an anthology scene has three NY chicks trying to draw the attention of a black - well, crow with texts about how beautiful is the color, another one features the cat followed by pig policemen in a synagogue, with one pig being .. hum, Jewish), we recognize the music - original score, sounds authentic because it is authentic. It's irreverent and daring.'Fritz the Cat' may not be a masterpiece and was never meant to be one. Animation is maybe not mother of innovation, and the pace of the story does not match the masterpieces of the genre it departs from, but the same happens when a road movie is compared to a thriller which happens on the roads. It is an important film in my opinion because it broke the conventions and showed the power of the genre. Many other creators followed, not in the same genre, not in the same mood, but using the techniques and daring to dare, because after Fritz using animation for any subject was possible. Fritz was unique.

j-jessie-weaver Why, why, why would anyone, in the name of Lucy, want to even SEE a movie as stupid and low as "Fritz the Cat?!" I just... This movie is about as fun as watching paint dry for hours. That is how bad this film is, and I would be happy to discuss the grudge I have with it!First off, the voice acting is terrible. The characters' voices are either too high or not suitable for them at all. There is one pig cop in this movie, whose voice sounds like it was done by Patrick the Starfish from "SpongeBob." I know the actor was trying to do his best to make this character sound dumb, but that voice just doesn't cut it. I'm really starting to not care at this point. The only exception out of the voice cast was Skip Hinnant, the voice of Fritz. He actually sounded like a teenager, and Hinnant managed to pull the voice off. Second of all, the animation is wretched and downright obnoxious. Sometimes, it looks almost like something from Disney, other times, it looks like a cartoon that Warner Bros. would create, and finally, the colors, in four scenes, blend in with the background; when the characters are smoking, to Fritz's pointless hallucinations, when Bertha the Crow shoves joints into his mouth, the scene where he goes back to his dorm and sets his exam notes on fire, and a random sequence with a bird who was snapping his fingers to '60's music. The coloring is beyond ugly, and you can't make out what is going on. I know this is a cartoon from the 1970's, but it doesn't put the least bit of effort into itself whatsoever. It's not even trying, I swear.But the hugest grudge I have with this movie is the title character, himself. Sweet mother of Pearl, I hate, no, despise Fritz with a passion! He is a complete idiot to everyone, he doesn't give rat's hat about anything, and he makes out with female animals for his own freaking amusement! My poor eyes!It is so clear that this movie has neither smarts, explanations, consistency nor decency to save its life. It makes "Family Guy," another cartoon I hate, look like Shakespeare, and it has no plot or effort put into it. I refuse to give this stupid, utterly disgusting motion picture the satisfaction to be appreciated, watched or mentioned in a future reference! "Fritz the Cat" is garbage! No, uh, uh, I shouldn't say that, it's garbage of garbage!You want my verdict of your film, Ralph Bakshi? Well, here ya go, I hope you're happy!THE FINAL VERDICT AND RATING: 1/10 (It doesn't even deserve it.)