Fritz the Cat

I have this love/loathe relationship with Ralph Bakshi.  I almost always appreciate his commentary and insight.  I might even go so far as to say that he is one of the true purveyors of '60s/'70s zeitgeist.  He expresses himself through animation, and by the time of 1972's FRITZ THE CAT had already built a career working with the likes of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle.   He desired to create more adult fare, with human characters, but for his debut feature opted for anthropomorphism (all animals).  Perhaps all the better, to say nothing of safer, to make his caustic points on race, religion, politics, and whatever else plagues the world.

But, Bakshi loves to revel in bad taste, vulgarity, and general lasciviousness.  Not usually a problem for me but by the third time we are treated to someone taking a whiz I have to wonder a few things.  Does Ralph suffer some sort of pathology? Or is he just pushing the envelope for its own sake?  Outrageousness for me works in small doses,  and is sometimes necessary to get the idea across.  In many of this director's films, the ugliness positively dominates the scenario, becoming a distraction.  Here's where it all started.

Fritz is a manipulative, immoral, dishonest feline who takes us on a tour of the 1960s, from NYC to LA. His adventures will touch upon most of the hippie generation's excesses and hypocrisy.  Espoused high ideals.  Fruitless pursuits of intellectualism.   There are bathtub orgies and street protests that fall into violence.  Anti-Establishment types who wear swastikas.  Policeman played by pigs (ha ha).  African Americans are represented by crows.  The female characters all have enormous (and exposed) breasts, except Winston Schwartz, Fritz's older, much wiser fox girlfriend who loves him despite his general despicable nature.  He rewards her loyalty by leaving her in stranded in the desert in her VW bug.  

The targets are easy, but Bakshi, basing his film on the comics of R. Crumb, fashions some astute observations among the manure.  As usual, to get to them, one has to sludge through some odious violence and sexism, though I'm never sure if any of the -isms we can level at the X-rated FRITZ THE CAT are misguided, a missing of the point.  The director takes a nice shot at Disney, too, as we see the silhouettes of Mickey Mouse and his compadres cheer on U.S. Air Force bombers as they dive into an insurrection in Harlem.  This movie would make a telling double feature with SONG OF THE SOUTH.

I dig the animation style, the work of several talents.  The creativity here is off the charts.  Great set pieces.  The soundtrack includes Bo Diddley and Billie Holliday.   FRITZ THE CAT is historic and I believe fairly important, and will give tolerant film buffs at least a few nuggets to appreciate.   But others, especially these days, will be put off and repelled.  Even those simply looking for exploitation.