10 (Every) Ralph Bakshi's Animated Films That Are Extremely Controversial, Brilliant & Ahead Of Time
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Dive deep into the filmography of animation icon Ralph Bakshi! We explore all his feature films, from the X-rated controversy of Fritz the Cat to the fantastical world of Wizards. See how Bakshi pushed boundaries and redefined animation for adults. Get ready for a wild ride through counterculture, satire, and groundbreaking visuals!
#RalphBakshi #Animation #AdultAnimation #Film #MovieList #70sAnimation #UndergroundComics #Counterculture #FritzTheCat #HeavyTraffic #Wizards #LordOfTheRings #AmericanPop #FireAndIce #CoolWorld #AnimationHistory #IndependentFilm #CultClassics #TrippyAnimation #HandDrawn
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Part of the animation style from Wizards and Lord of the Rings was known as rotoscope. Hand-drawn animation over live action
"Lord of the Rings" was a hit and they even made action figures. Rankin Bass made the sequel due to contract disputes. Fans loved it, as I remember.
My favorite director, hands down. I came up in the 70s, a little long haired freaky person from Texas who didn't think that The Exorcist or Jaws were very scary and thought more highly of Peter O'Toole than John Wayne. I was lucky enough to learn about him through the horror magazines that were popular with my age group in the early 70s. After I saw Wizards in 77,I began to hunt down every single thing related to Ralph Bakshi in my environment. When VHS came along, I was so ready to bootleg his stuff.
The fact is, he is every bit as good as Kubrick, but his working in animation has caused him to not be taken seriously, and that is a grave mistake. His movies may be weird, gritty cartoons, but they are MOVIES and the kind of movies that have not been made in some time. I think that perhaps he has a soft spot for the 1950s and the tone of his stuff makes me wonder about that.
Thanks for the video, it's nice to see that his work is appreciated.
It isn't just animation. Hollywood writers in general disdain anything with a resolution. Only miserable soap-opera drama counts as art to them. Anything that resolves is a comedy.
I thought Wizards was very underrated with a awesome idea of Magic vs Science.
Wizards was all a metaphor for belief.
It's been decades but I believe the last line was, "I'm glad you changed your name, you sunuvabitch!" [wizard pulls out a Lugar] BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! That scene stuck with me, that and ""THEY KILLED FRED!!!! THOSE DIRTY ELVES KILLED FRED!!!!"
@@kennyboggs3676 oh man! I vaguely remember watching Thundarr the Barbarian. Took place many, many years in the far future, as shown with Hoover Dam still standing but the mountains it connected eroded away.
@@thatjeff7550 Long live Fred.
Super letdown of an ending though. Hypocritical.
Bakshi's style is awesome. I kinda wish his brand of animation had caught on. I still wanna see a sequel to Fire & Ice!
It's rumored that the change in Anime in the 1970s-1980s was due to the influence of Bakshi's work.
That would be a beautiful return to the classics
You failed to mention that Bakshi also did Mighty Mouse in the early 90's. I use to watch it with my kids on Saturday mornings, and I think it's some of his best work.
As it opened I was like... huh mighty mouse to save the day
Dude, Ralph Bakshi is still alive!
yep he is even on twitter!
Ralph Bakshi is!Not was...He is still alive
can you imagine if he saw this video? he would be insulted that some people thinks he's dead.
@@animeknight8958 he would not care.
Bakshi has a Twitter account and his son teaches animation.
@@animeknight8958 he probably also hates modern leftists considering his critisisms in Frits the Cat fits them well (blm, antifa riots.. while supporting people who were historically opressors of blacks, or support minorities that faught for Adolf, lol)
and it also wasnt conservatives that were shocked by it.. I mean, it looks like a childrens cartoon at first, back then most people were religious. Democrats, conservatvies and liberals were pissed at kids seeing drugs, alcohol and political issues at such an age.
hes most likely just tired of all this shitshow by now, he would either barely care or feel like he nabbed another leftist by the neck
Was does not always mean dead when referring to a body of work. Sometimes it just means retired.
You left out that Mr. Bakshi hated Cool World because the studio exects kept making him make so many changes that it was nothing like his original concept.
I understand 32 minutes of "Cool World" had been edited out just to get it from an R to a PG rating!!! 🤠👍
@@worldtraveler930 Not only that. Ralph intended Cool World to be a horror movie, not a Who Framed Roger Rabbit knockoff. . .
Cool World was pretty cringe compared to Bakshi's previous works, I'll say this much. I thought to myself as I watched it "And THIS was from the same guy who brought us such avant-garde films as Fire and Ice, Heavy Traffic, American Pop, to name a few....?!? "
I chalk up most of Cool World's failures to studio interference. Ralph wanted it to be a horror movie, but the execs had other ideas.
Wizards is an overlooked masterpiece.
Agreed!!
Thank you for sharing this. Without Rakph Bakshi, we wouldnt have the Lord of the rings trilogy by peter Jackson to this day. I feel Robert Shaye Told Peter not to mention it
Bashki walked so that Jackson could run.
@@chasehedges6775 Bakshi cooked so that Jackson could have second breakfast
That's not true
@@quitcallinmebill1699 it is true, there lots in the fellowship of the ring thats copied from this movie. Peter said he orginally never saw it but changed his story after fans noticed the similarties . Plus Peter started his movies as a 2 parter which is just what Ralphs movies would have been.
@@emjdedios hahahaha I love that
I love Ralph Bakshi's iconic art style. I wish Cool World was the 'R' Rated movie that Bakshi originally intended. The movie we got was so watered down and underwhelming.
I agree.
It was all that you said, but there is still something about it….. I absolutely love cool world and I hate how Hollywood editors just utterly ignored the fact that this was supposed to be an epic story and they absolutely ripped it apart!! Stupid movie executives!!! They ruin everything 😢
..." Holly would if she could..... and she will".
Best storyline ever.
Marc T. Hernandez C.E.O. and creator of MTH COMICS L.L.C.
"BracK and BrocK" Comics and many more.
I understand that somewhere in the neighborhood of 38 minutes were removed from the movie just to get that PG rating!!! 😳
@@worldtraveler930 ....unfortunately for us all.
American Pop is my favorite Bakshi flik. I'm a fan. When Cool World came out it got terrible reviews by critics. Because, on its own it's this bizarre mess of images, colors and plot elements. People didn't know what the hell it was. But as a Bakshi movie it makes perfect sense. All his films are strange.
I saw Lord of the Rings in the theater when I was a kid. When it ended at the Battle of Helm's Deep, everyone was like "That's not how it ends! There's supposed to be more!". Too bad there wasn't a sequel to make it proper.
As mentioned in the vid, Rankin Bass finished it. They did not do too badly, either, but the theme song "Frodo of the Nine Fingers" is .... not good at all lol. However it also has the Orc marching song "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" which is brilliant.
Rankin Bass also did a rather good animated version of The Hobbit
His LOTR was horible!
@@WNYXeb777 It was pretty bad, but it was no RoP.
to this day i refuse to watch the live action films because i do not want to overwrite my memories of ralphs version. anyone who wasnt alive when it came out is in absolutely no position to judge it.
@@megaflux7144 It wasn't bad at all, actually. But you should watch Jackson's version, too.
My favorite was American Pop having seen it in theaters when it first came out. The rest of his films I had to watch on video, DVD, and blue ray. However, I have yet to see Last Days of Connie Island and never even heard of it untill watching this.
I read the other day in interview w Bakshi, he HATES "Night Moves" and never wanted it in the movie
Ralph Bakshi is a genius. 😀👍
He's one of the few people who managed to show and prove that 2D animation is not just for kids, but for teens and adults too.
@@dreamguardian8320 you got that right. 😀👍
He's certainly a pioneer and an innovator. Things like Ren and Stimpy, Heavy Metal, South Park, and Futurama all owe HIM a definite debt.
@@IanFindly-iv1nl me too and I agree. 😀👍
Wizards was always my favorite. I remember renting it several times from the movie store. When it became available on DVD, I bought a copy.
Me too
As you can see by my avatar pic im a Bakshi fan. I loved Wizards when I was a kid in the 80's. I dont think i can count the times ive seen it.
And Cool World was in 1992 just before Brad Pitt started becoming famous
I just got my CD copy of the Cool World soundtrack. I saw it my freshman year in college at a *gasp* drive-in theater. I love that movie - it was an artistic and commercial risk, and it was up to Bakshi to make it happen. *Somebody* had to do *something* innovative, or at least *different*.
I saw Bakshi's Lord of the Rings in the theater when it played. I hadn't read the book(s) at the time, but I had heard a little about the story. So I just went in expecting nothing and it was a pretty good fantasy movie to me. I can see why some people don't like it, but I like it for the nostalgia.
I don't think the AI program that wrote this has ever actually seen any of these movies 🤣
Exactly.
I glanced over at my collection of VHS tapes while this was playing. Right in the middle is Cool World. I even have a working VCR/TV combo.
I was going to say anybody who went into the theaters expecting LOTR to be a kids film obviously never read the books
Wizards best film
Fritz the Cat and Wizards made me a long time lover of Bakshi's material. If you haven't seen Wizards, you're missing out. It was one of my favorite movies to trip to back in the 90s.
I remember initially being mostly impressed by some of the lifelike movement of some of Bakshi's characters when I initially saw Wizards on TV in the 1970's. I had grown up watching mostly the limited animation of Saturday morning cartoons in the 60's and 70's. Only later did I learn that what I saw was rotoscoped animation. Oddly, I liked it less when I saw it in higher definition because I was able to notice the artifacts of one-pass rotoscoped animation, ie subtle lines that appear and disappear randomly. It seems that I am bothered by that sort of thing more than most people. Rotoscoped animation with a higher budget can go back and reduce frame-to-frame differences, like the disappearing facial lines, for example.
What did you think of the Fleischer Bros. use of rotoscoping?
@@Oddmanoutre
When I rewatched some of the early "Out of the Inkwell" cartoons, the natural movement gave me some "uncanny valley" vibes.
Many of the Fleisher works had high enough budget to avoid the frame-to-frame issues I mentioned above. Fleisher would often treat the rotoscoped character like any other animated one that had a relatively low level but consistent level of detail, especially for the face. Often, the faces were a bit stylized . This largely avoided the problem of features like tufts of hair, creases in the skin or dimples randomly appearing and disappearing. This often occurs with a "trace what you see" rotoscoping technique.
Interestingly, I noticed a difference is the quality between the first Superman short and the later ones that had lower budgets. More artifacts creep into the later ones. Only a fraction of the animation is rotoscoped, FWIW.
Watch "The Arctic Giant" to see a little of the appearing/disappearing creases on Clark Kent's face around 3 minutes in. This is is a great episode since there is a very "cartoony" dinosaur that contrasts with the realistic style.
There is something that always bothered me with the faces some Fleisher characters like Lois Lane. Facial detail was low, but the bridges of their noses would disappear in frontal shots, leaving just the nostrils. Disney's Snow White is the same way. It gives me the creeps, likely because other aspects, especially movement of those characters is often so realistic.
I always Loved adult animation
There was a short film by Ralph Bakshi that I can't find or find mention of. At least, I'm pretty sure it was Ralph Bakshi. It was a rooftop scene where a weed was growing out of crack in the brickwork and a cigarette butt is being blown past it toward the edge and its presumed demise. The cigarette butt asked for the weed's help to save it but the weed refuses. The cigarette butt spits a gob on the weed before it is going over the edge. The weed starts to shrivel and die and asked the cigarette butt what is was that he spat on him. The cigarette butt replies "Cancer" and disappears over the edge. I'd really like to find this short film.
Wizards started reminding me of Adventure Time with the overall world setting.
👌😎👍Very cool indeed And I myself do own Wizards, Fire and Ice and Cool world on DVD!.
The original story concept for Cool World seems like it had much more promise than the final product.
He also created two animated series.... One that he liked and one that he hated
The one he liked was Spicy City, which was an adult shown on HBO that one lasted for 6 episodes due to HBO wanted to get new writers and Ralph quit because he didn't want to lose his writers
While the one he hated was Hound Town, which one that Ralph hated.
Brad Pitt doesn't mention cool world much . Cool world introduced Bitts signature finger point . The sound track is awesome.
I was the only student in art school that enjoyed his style of animation. It's so unique and has such a stylized look to it
I wish that Bakshi got together with Gary Gygax to make an animated Dungeons & Dragons film
Oh. My. God. Yes. Oh, that would have been SWEET! Well, Bakshi's still around, and the existing D&D movies suck, so... GoFundMe?
Cool World is & was My favorite.
AWESOME
F&I, Wizards, Cool World! I enjoyed them all! Of course we all have strengths and weakness…? OMG, he felt
the felt the draw of Americans wanting to experience a world like JRR Tolkien represented in his books. So, loved what he brought! Hope my ideas helped a PRO like you? All du respect to you sir! At your service!
If There’s A Whip, There’s A Way!
He had nothing to do with that.
Underated artist.
We've.......evolved?
lol the way he drew the trainee
I drew one character from each Bakshi film, except Coney Island.
Noice👌
You could mention the shorter works of Bakshi, not just films - like Spicy City.
Fritz The Cat is an absolute classic that still works today.
Cool World. Cause that the only one besides FritZ the cat I knew about. But I thought to myself how similar the animation styles where while watching .Was great. Thanks.
Love to hear Ralph’s take on Palestine right now
Ralph Bakshi movies may not be the best, but they are so fun to watch with a lot of creativity!
This is my first time on your channel, and of hearing of Ralph Bakshi. The juxtaposition of your nice tone and the absolutely bonkers descriptions and visuals makes me want to see all of these. :D
i loved Cool World as a kid and even bought the game. It still has a spot in my heart.
Cool World was my dads and uncles favorite movie
His movies were "hit or miss"; it depends on the audience. In 1977, I was in Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. In "Wizards", when those German "Falling Hunters" started jumping out of the planes head-first, we went nuts! Even without that, it is my favorite animated movie ever. The character development, with surprising personalities, and the constant surprises and plot twists, made it a good movie; period. The others... not so much. "Lord of the Rings" tried hard, but the books are so detailed they just didn't have the money to do it justice. But the women were always nice, and the no-bra look fit the times. And it's easy to criticize the merging of live-action and animation today, for their short-comings back then. At the time, "Cool World" was cutting edge technology.
"This evolution has been nothing but positive"
Lol, are you being sarcastic? I sure hope so.
I feel that without Fire & Ice we wouldn't have Heavy Metal because it looks awfully similar. I personally love Bakshi's style and commentary. Guy definitely has chutzpah to tackle all that.
I have also always thought the same thing!!
Bakshi's films hit you over the head with the ideas, the half hour (not a half hour but it made it seem that way) Hitler has one testicle *joke* in Fritz the cat was torture, Mel Brooks would have alluded to that and made it funny and yet still poignant. and Mel Brooks isn't exactly subtle.
I still like Wizards.
"WIZARDS" is, hands down, my favorite Ralph Bakshi movie. It's phenomenal!
A truly underrated masterpiece! 🏆
A cult classic which, I'm sure, will still be capturing the imaginations of generations, not yet born.
At least, I really hope so, but I suppose, "Only Time Will Tell".
PEACE! 🍻 🎶 🌬🌌✨⚡✌
Fire and Ice and Wizards are two of my favorites, the Lord of the Rings cartoon was good, it would've been nice to see the rest of the cartoon movie. Everyone says the cartoon is better than the live action movie, and they may be right.
Wizards will always be my favorite. I'm old enough to have seen it in the theater, and to remember radio commercials for it, LOTR, and Fire and Ice.
Given the reality of things as they stand, mixing Rankin Bass/Bakshi to make the Hobbity/LOTR ends up aging incredibly well, IMO. I loved Bakshi's LOTR.
You said 10 movies and I thought, surely not 10. After the video I realised I've seen 9 Bakshi movies and didn't even realise.
I enjoy Bakshi's Fantasy movies more than the other "street" films.
I would love to own all 10 movies. Fire& Ice is my favorite.
That was what I remember about my live.in late 60s early 70s in New York in fritz the cat well it's my history too. Every time I watch it
I relive my own parallel life.
How about a dedicated video about the "SNORKS" or the "SMURFS"?
The entire premise of the Lord of the Rings is very much the same as Wizards. As a matter of fact, Tolkien has said the Orcs represented Capitalism and all the destruction of the forests is due to his military time in the war and Industrialisation taking over nature. Wizards was a little more literal in its presentation but art is a reflection of life. They are all artistic masterpieces.
He also directed the 3rd and 4th seasons of the1960’s Spider-Man animated show
i had never heard of Ralph Bakshi's but I'm glad I did, I will check out his movies, they seem really good,
I loved wizards. Myself and 3 friends saw it on the big screen while halucinating. I had to see it again sober to make sure i saw what i thought i saw the first time. I liked it so much i bought a vhs copy of it and a copy of american pop also
Wizards! by far was my favorite with Fire and Ice second.
I loved the lord of the rings when I was a kid but still don’t understand why part 2 never came out. Fire and ice was a blast!
"They've killed Fritz! THEY'VE KILLED FRITZ!! THOSE LOUSY STINKY YELLOW FAIRIES!! THOSE HORRIBLE ATROCITY-FILLED VERMIN! THOSE DESPICABLE ANIMAL WARMONGERS! THEY'VE KILLED FRITZ!" Best line ever :)
Damn, all these years and I'm just learning that the man who did Fritz the Cat also did Cool World. Mind blown.
Recommendation for anyone who wants to see an overlooked animated series heavily influenced by Bakshi: watch MTV's Downtown (1999). It's a masterpiece.
I will always like American Pop the best of all his movies. And I strongly identify with Tony most of all. His unrequited love for the girl in Kansas and his agony over losing her struck a chord with me to this day.
4:33 "This time he ditches the talking animals for human characters." Bakshi didn't create Fritz the Cat. R. Crumb did. He couldn't just make Fritz the Cat human. It's just weird phrasing. It's like saying "Disney decided to set Aladin in the near east." No, Arabian Nights did that. They wouldn't change it that much.
Haven't seen Heavy Traffic, never heard of Hey Good Looking and Last days of Coney Island.
I'd have to say my faves are Wizards, Lord of Rings, American Pop and Fire and Ice. Fritz the Cat... like it but it hasn't held up well.
This evolution has been nothing like positive (c). Well, if the generation of people who get offended by anything and cancel people for any rumor, tweet or Facebook post is positive evolution, then yeah, it's positive.
For me, Fire and Ice is the best fantasy animation ever created. It is so sad that we have no more movies and shows like that.
Agreed.
After seeing Fritz I saw Harlem Nights (the title Bakshi wanted, not Coonskin) and Heavy Traffic, then Wizards, Lord of the Rings and American Pop. The only ones I haven't seen in full are Fire and Ice and Heavy Traffic. American Pop is beautiful. I dig surrealistic and and misanthropic art. I dig that Bakshi had black women animators like me working for him. 👍🏽👍🏽 Blaxploitation fans *crave* Heavy Traffic and Harlem Nights.
It's too bad there isn't a Complete Collection for his work on dvd or Bluray. This would be great to have as a set.
I think modern audiences might have a problem with Fritz the Cat. They don't get satire, they'd have the same reaction to Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles.
From my understanding Crumb was supposed to be involved with the production of Fritz, but as Bakchi normally does he stole instead of compromised with other artists.
I'm not saying don't watch his movies, on the contrary watch his movie but also check out the work of the artists he stole from and pissed off. American Pop, that's the first time I noticed Bakshi. Was a great time for adult animated movies. Seems like you had Heavy Metal, American Pop, Rock and Rule, and Fire and Ice... I know i missed one or two good ones in that list.
Nah. The Cool World Disrespect Will NOT be tolerated 😂
I really like Heavy Traffic.
My brother jokingly called it "Down With People" because it finds something about very race, group or clique to mock.
fritz the cat is the START of the furry infection
Let's go 🔥
Fire & Ice is actually a very solid offering
R Crumb hated Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat…
Even though Wizards had it’s moments it was mostly flawed by the (poorly done) technique of painting over cells of filmed actors to alter them, such as adding (poorly) animated wings to horses, animated features to actors to turn them into demons etc… made it look cheap and something out of a college film class… in fact most of the animation looks fast and cheap…the best thing about Wizards it had artwork by Mike Ploog and gave a nod to Vaughan Bode (Nekron 99 is Bode’s Cobalt 60)
Lots of history repeating itself from the days of Fritz…😵💫
Holly from Cool World
oh man, love it
I'm really not tripping, and I get the crow reference. It's just a little odd mentioning the crow's race, I guess. lol Why weren't the cops white? That reference is just as suggested.
the thing I liked about Bakshis LoTR movie was Frodo,,,, he wasnt bitching and whincing all the time
That’s it. I’m gonna have to watch Fritz the cat now.
American Pop is best movie ever, I bought one of the Jimi Hendrix frames
Having liked Fire and Ice, American Pop, and Heavy Traffic, not to mention the Mighty Heroes shorts, I was EXTREMELY disappointed with Cool World.
Tara knows she wishes that door had a beeeeelllllllll🛎🔔
Ralph Bakshi pitched a cartoon to to Cartoon Network called Malcolm and Melvin in the What a cartoon
Contreversed yes. Brillant? Ehh...no. Bakshi movies are not underrated, they are exactly at the place they need to be. But i will not deny he was original.
He has CULT status, which is what he was MEANT for I think.
When I was a schoolboy about 20 years ago, I saw an anime on TV in which a girl made friends with a highly developed computer (and I'm not talking about Serial Experiments Lain). Through this friendship, she increased her own skills so that she was superior to her friends in almost all areas (e.g. math, tennis). There is also a scene in this anime where she gets her father (or boyfriend) into a car accident by letting the computer manipulate the traffic lights.
As an expert in this field, do you know of such an anime and what it is called?
i want everyone to take the time and thank ralph (be it on facebook, email, or in person) for what hes done. someday it will be too late to thank him, and we owe him alot.
also: learn to fucking fact check.
Animal Farm was the first animated film to get an X.