Maverick writer-director Ralph Bakshi (Heavy Traffic) made his feature-length film debut with this “startling and audacious” (The Hollywood Reporter) foray into adult-content animation,creating the first X-rated cartoon and one of the most successful animated features of its time! Based on a legendary character created by underground comic book artist-writer R. Crumb, Fritz the Cat is a brilliant commentary on ’60s life and a “snarling satire that stubbornly refusesto curl up in anyone’s lap” (Playboy). It’s the age of awakening and Fritz, one way-cool cat and NYU student, loves to embrace every experimental experience that crosses his path. Embarking on a fantastic journey of self-discovery, he indulges in everything from multiple bedroom follies to a wild joy ride through a dangerous Harlem. But when Fritz joins a group of radically aggressive hippies, he finds himself holding the dynamite that will detonate the ultimate ’60s statement one that could cost him his life!Advertised as “X-rated and Animated,” Fritz the Cat earned an impressive $25 million in 1972. Screenwriter-director Ralph Bakshi based the film on three of Robert Crumb’s stories about a superficial college student who tried to seduce anything in a skirt. The gritty, often gross film shocked U.S. audiences accustomed to innocent flirtations and slapstick comedy in cartoons. Thirty years later, Fritz looks less shocking than puerile. The violence grafted onto Crumb’s innocent stories feels gratuitous, and the racial imagery tasteless. As dated as a Nehru jacket, the film will interest students of animation history and American pop culture. Crumb detested the film: he drew Fritz as a decadent Hollywood star, who was exploited by caricatures of Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz–and murdered by a bitter ex-girlfriend. “Another casualty of the ’60s…” –Charles Solomon
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March 6, 2010
#1
I was a Sophomore in HS and went to this cartoon with my cousins, What a mistake! I walked out and sat in the car till it was over. It was awful. I think it is sick that even grown ups think this is so amusing to watch cartoon characters have sex. I wouldn’t even rate it a “1″ star. More like Zero Stars.
March 6, 2010
#2
I never received this product and will not order from you again. When there is a problem, you are not easy to reach.
March 6, 2010
#3
Fritz the Cat may be an interesting movie, but as for anything else one prizes in movies, it lacks. No plot, cookie cutter characters, and a moral (if you want to call it that) which is so random and scattered it would take Steven Hawkins about 50 years to really understand. I also beleive that the writer of this movie has forgotten what it was he wanted to say, because massive brain damage since.
March 6, 2010
#4
This is the most dated movie I have ever watched and its a cartoon! Fritz the Cat was made in 1972 when there was a revelution. I want to know why people care about that stuff anymore I mean we are in the 2000s now and we need to move on. now back to the movie this movie has adult language and talks about sex a lot but thats not a big deal anymore because every movie does now. This movie is dated and old and should be thrown away into Theatre Alley.
March 6, 2010
#5
This movie was like watching a film of fingernails on a blackboard.
How anyone could enjoy, let alone find funny, this cliche ridden tripe is beyond me. The main character, Fritz, doesn’t look like a very masculine cat,
if fact, he looks rather feminine. His voice is grating. His personality reflects the absolute worst aspects of the baby boomers/hippies/me generation. (And of course, he never gets his come-uppance.) The black sidekick gets killed (another hoary cliche). The Winston character suddenly has a different voice and look in the middle of the movie, but I guess they assumed the audience would be too stoned to notice or care. The animation is spotty. In some scenes, it’s passable, in others, the characters ooze and flow as if they’re made of goo. The background colors are completely hideous, and severely date the film. It’s meant to be psychedelic, but it literally looks like someone puked on the frame. This movie is too caught up in taboo-breaking to offer anything remotely interesting.
And please feel free to give an unhelpful vote. It’s far more rewarding to tick off the clueless than to gain meaningless status as a top reviewer.