He's X Rated And Animated!

I've finally landed a copy of Ralph Bashki's compelling adaptation of Robert Crumb's comic strip Fritz the Cat. The movie is remarkable in a number of ways. I've seen it before, but on the Blu-Ray copy I just acquired the movie was incredibly clear and the animation was fascinating, as Bashki's work often is. The movie is famous for getting an X rating when it was first released into theaters. 

The story is that Crumb was not all that pleased with the movie and felt that Bakshi had been overbearing in his discussions, making Crumb relent to circumstances he regretted. Bakshi was a powerful personality, and I can see how Crumb might've felt overwhelmed, but the movie elevated his character out of all proportion to its impact in comics. Perhaps it lost some of the purity Crumb desired, but how could he not know concessions would be made for another medium. 

Fritz the Cat from 1972 begins with Fritz as a poser of sorts, a college-aged youth who is trying to reject his own white bread upbringing by trying to identify with black culture which he deems much cooler. In the movie cats seem to represent white Americans, while crows represent black Americans. The police are represented by pigs. So, in some ways this movie becomes a self-aware "blaxploitation" flick. 

The other aspect of Fritz's personality is that he's horny and the movie famously has some scenes featuring sex and even an orgy or two. But despite the notorious "X Rating" the movie received, there's little on screen to scandalize most viewers. More is suggested about sexual activity than is shown, and whatever private parts are seen, one must remember these are cats. After Fritz ignites a race riot, he feels it's best he leaves town, and he does, heading West where he hooks up with a terrorist cell. They prove to be his undoing. There seems little chance of a sequel. But there was. 

The Nine Live of Fritz the Cat from 1974 picks up the action with Fritz having not only survived his ordeal in the first movie, but having gotten married, no doubt because he got the girl pregnant. What we get in this movie, which I hasten to point out was not directed by Ralph Bakshi. The movie was able to boast that it did have the same producer in Steve Krantz, and the same lead acting voice for Fritz in Skip Hinnant, as the first film. 

The story is really a frame story with Fritz sitting on his couch listening to his wife hector him for his lack of ambition. As he does this, he smokes a bit of weed and then we enter his inebriated mind to go on his fantastical adventures. During these interludes (or "lives") he dreams up encounters he has an affair with the sister of a friend, he encounters a drunken bum who claims to be God (and just might be), he is whisked back in time to serve as a Nazi alongside the likes of Hitler and his cronies, he has another affair, he travels to the Depression era, he tries to cash a check at a pawn shop, he travels to Mars aboard a rocket ship, he works in the White House where Henry Kissinger is president, and he even encounters the Devil who is not what anyone expected. 

Now of course all of these sundry characters are represented by an array of goofy looking animals such as the aforementioned crows and pigs as well as an array of others. This movie has much the same feel as its predecessor with a blend of live action and animation. The level of crudeness is maintained. Robert Crumb is not credited in any way though in this one. 

These rather entertaining movies, with much more going on that merely sexualizing animated figures. The social commentary is pretty sharp and like many movies of its era speaks to a young culture which is seeking new ways of doing things and rejecting the social expectations of the previous generation. Tragically, it's suggested these hopes for a new way are to be dashed by the fundamental weakness of human (or is it cat) nature. 

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