Fritz the Cat
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ralph Bakshi
Produced by	Steve Krantz
Written by	Ralph Bakshi
Starring	Skip Hinnant
Music by	Ed Bogas Ray Shanklin
Cinematography	Ted C. Bemiller Gene Borghi
Editing by	Renn Reynolds
Distributed by	Cinemation Industries
Release date(s)	April 12, 1972
Running time	78 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$850,000[1]
Followed by	The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Fritz the Cat is a 1972 animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi as his feature film debut. Based on the comic books by Robert Crumb, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States.^[1][2] It focuses on Fritz (voiced by Skip Hinnant), an anthropomorphic feline in the mid-1960s who seduces many female animals in New York City while staying one step ahead of the law. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics.^[3] Fritz the Cat was the first independent animated film to gross more than $100 million at the box office.^[4] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1446x2110, 549 KB) Summary Source: [1] Fair use in demonstrating how the film, Fritz the Cat, was promoted when it was originally released, and also of the character, Fritz, being portrayed on this poster. ... Ralph Bakshi (October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and occasionally live-action films. ... Steve Krantz is a film producer and writer who was most active from 1966 to 1996. ... Ralph Bakshi (October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and occasionally live-action films. ... Skip Hinnant (Born September 12, 1940 in Chincoteague Island, Virginia) is an American actor. ... Born Edgar Noel Bogas, Ed Bogas is a musicians whose contributions span four decades and several genres. ... Ray Shanklin is a composer. ... Cinemation Industries was a New York City-based film studio and distributor. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Indian Ocean Territory,[1] the British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Maldives the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 2. ... The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat is an R-rated animated film from 1974. ... Animation refers to the process in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... Ralph Bakshi (October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and occasionally live-action films. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Robert Dennis Crumb, often credited simply as R. Crumb (born August 30, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a U.S. artist and illustrator recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream. ... X-rated, X certificate, X classification or similar terms are labels for movies implying strong adult content, typically pornography or violence. ... Skip Hinnant (Born September 12, 1940 in Chincoteague Island, Virginia) is an American actor. ... Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... The term free love has been used since at least the nineteenth century to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage, especially for women. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ...

Fritz the Cat had a troubled production history and controversial release. Creator Robert Crumb is known to have had disagreements with the filmmakers, claiming in interviews that his first wife signed over the film rights to the characters, and that he did not approve the production.^[5][6] Crumb was also critical of the film's approach to his material. Fritz the Cat was controversial for its rating and content, which viewers at the time found to be offensive. Its success led to a slew of other X-rated animated films, and a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, was made without Crumb's or Bakshi's involvement. Fritz the Cat was ranked as the 51st greatest animated film of all time by the Online Film Critics Society,^[7] and was also featured at number 56 on Channel 4's list of the 100 Greatest Cartoons.^[8] The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat is an R-rated animated film from 1974. ... The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) , the professional association for film journalists, scholars and historians who publish their reviews, interviews and essays exclusively or primarily in the online media. ... It has been suggested that Channel Four Television Corporation be merged into this article or section. ... The 100 Greatest Cartoons is a documentary that features a poll conducted by the British television channel Channel 4 in 2004. ...

Synopsis

Fritz and three girls "seek the truth."

In a New York City park, hippies have gathered with guitars to sing protest songs. Fritz and his buddies show up in an attempt to meet girls. When a trio of attractive females walk by, Fritz and his friends exhaust themselves trying to get their attention, but find that the girls are more interested in the crow standing a few feet away. The girls attempt to flirt with the crow, making unintentionally condescending remarks about blacks, while Fritz looks on in annoyance. Suddenly, the crow rebukes the girls with a snide remark and walks away. Fritz invites the girls to "seek the truth," bringing them up to his friend's apartment, where a wild party is taking place. Since the other rooms are crowded, Fritz drags the girls into the bathroom and the four of them have group sex in the bathtub. Meanwhile, the police (portrayed as pigs) arrive to raid the party. As the two officers walk up the stairs, one of the partygoers finds Fritz and the girls in the bath tub. Several others jump in, pushing Fritz to the side where he takes solace in marijuana. The two officers break into the apartment, but find that it is empty because everyone has moved into the bathroom. Fritz takes refuge in the toilet when one of the pigs enters the bathroom and begins to beat up the partygoers. As the pig becomes exhausted, a very stoned Fritz jumps out, grabs the pig's gun, and shoots the toilet, causing the water main to break and flooding everybody out of the apartment. The pigs chase Fritz down the street into a synagogue. Fritz manages to escape when the congregation gets up to celebrate the United States' decision to send more weapons into Israel. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 438 pixel Image in higher resolution (883 × 483 pixel, file size: 77 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) From the film Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 438 pixel Image in higher resolution (883 × 483 pixel, file size: 77 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) From the film Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ... Singer at a modern Hippie movement in Russia A hippie or hippy is a member of a specific subgroup of the counterculture that began in the United States during the early 1960s, spread to other countries, and declined in the mid-1970s. ... A protest song is a song which protests problems in society such as injustice, racial discrimination, war, globalization, inflation, social inequalities, incarceration, the Greenhouse effect, the global warming. ... Species See text. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... A Cannabis sativa plant The drug cannabis, also called marijuana, is produced from parts of the cannabis plant, primarily the cured flowers and gathered trichomes of the female plant. ... A synagogue (from Ancient Greek: , transliterated synagogÄ“, assembly; Hebrew: beit knesset, house of assembly; Yiddish: , shul; Ladino: , esnoga) is a Jewish place of religious worship. ...

Fritz and Duke have a run in with the law after stealing a car.

Fritz makes it back to his dorm, where his roommates ignore him. He sets all of his notes and books on fire. The fire spreads throughout the dorm, finally setting the entire building ablaze. In a bar in Harlem, Fritz meets Duke the crow at a billiard table. After narrowly avoiding getting into a fight with the bartender, Duke invites Fritz to "bug out." When Duke steals a car, Fritz is eager to join the illegal activity. Following a wild ride, Fritz drives the car off a bridge. Before the car crashes into the water and rocks below, Duke saves Fritz's life. The two arrive at an apartment owned by Bertha, a crow and former prostitute turned drug dealer. When Fritz arrives, she shoves several joints into his mouth. The marijuana increases his libido, so he rushes off into an alley to have sex with Bertha. While having sex, he comes to a supreme realization that he "must tell the people about the revolution!" He runs off into the city street and incites a riot, during which Duke is shot and killed, and Fritz is chased by several cops. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 438 pixel Image in higher resolution (883 × 483 pixel, file size: 92 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) A screenshot from Fritz the Cat. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 438 pixel Image in higher resolution (883 × 483 pixel, file size: 92 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) A screenshot from Fritz the Cat. ... A typical American college dorm room Another typical not-so-clean college dorm room Watterson Towers, Illinois State University Potomac Hall, second-largest dormitory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. ... A roommate is a person with whom one shares a room or rooms. ... A forest fire Fire is a rapid oxidation process that creates light, heat, smoke, and releases energy in varying intensities. ... Pocket billiards is a sub-classification of the broader category of games known as cue sports. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... These lollipops were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US DEA The illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging and sale of illegal psychoactive substances. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Libido in its common usage means sexual desire; however, more technical definitions, such as those found in the work of Carl Jung, are more general, referring to libido as the free creative—or psychic—energy an individual has to put toward personal development, or individuation. ...

Fritz hides in an alley where his fox girlfriend, Winston Schwartz, finds him. She drags him on a road trip to San Francisco. On the road, she stops at a Howard Johnson's restaurant, and disenchants Fritz by her refusal to go to unusual places. When the car runs out of gas in the middle of the desert, Fritz decides to abandon her. Fritz meets up with Blue, a heroin-addicted rabbit biker. Along with Blue's horse girlfriend, Harriet, they take a ride to an underground hide-out where several other revolutionaries tell Fritz of their plan to blow up a power plant. When Harriet tries to get Blue to leave, he hits her several times and ties her down with a chain. When Fritz objects to their treatment of her, he is hit in the face with a candle by the group's leader, a lizard. The group throws Harriet onto a bed and rapes her. In the next scene, Harriet is sitting in a graveyard, naked and traumatized. Fritz puts a coat over her and gets into a car with the leader to drive out to the power plant. After setting the dynamite, Fritz suddenly has a change of heart. The lizard lights the fuse and drives off as Fritz tries to get the dynamite out of its tight spot and fails. The dynamite explodes, blowing up both the power plant and Fritz. At a Los Angeles hospital, Harriet and the girls from the New York park come to comfort him. Fritz speaks what appear to be his final words before suddenly regaining his strength. He has sex with each of them as Harriet watches in surprise. This article is about the animal. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... The current logo for Howard Johnsons motor lodges. ... Heroin ((INN) Diacetylmorphine, (BAN) diamorphine) is an opioid synthesized directly from the extracts of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... Oil power plant in Iraq A power station (also referred to as generating station or power plant) is a facility for the generation of electric power. ... Families Many, see text. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ...

Background

A panel from "Fritz Bugs Out" by Robert Crumb.

Ralph Bakshi majored in cartooning at the High School of Art and Design. He learned his trade at the Terrytoons studio in New York City, where he spent ten years animating characters such as Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, and Deputy Dawg. At the age of 29, Bakshi was hired to head Famous Studios as both writer and director, where he produced four experimental short films before the studio closed in 1967.^[9][10] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The High School of Art and Design is a Career and Technical Education high school located at 1075 Second Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets in Manhattan, New York City, New York. ... Mighty Mouse, the signature character of the studio. ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ... A Mighty Mouse poster. ... Heckle and Jeckle in Taming the Cat Heckle and Jeckle was a theatrical cartoon series created by Paul Terry, and released by his own studio, Terrytoons. ... Deputy Dawg was originally a Terrytoons cartoon character featured on the animated television series of the same name from 1959 through 1972. ... Famous Studios was the animation studio owned by Paramount Pictures after the company foreclosed on Fleischer Studios and ousted Max and Dave Fleischer in 1942. ...

Bakshi became bored with children's animation and wanted to make animated films that adults would like.^[9] Bakshi was also interested in producing politically-oriented animation that would deal with stories relevent to the society of the era. Bakshi was quoted in a 1971 article for the Los Angeles Times as saying that the idea of "grown men sitting in cubicles drawing butterflies floating over a field of flowers, while American planes are dropping bombs in Vietnam and kids are marching in the streets, is ludicrous."^[3] Producer Steve Krantz saw potential in Ralph Bakshi's vision for animated films made specifically for adults. After purchasing the production and distribution rights for Bakshi's 1973 feature Heavy Traffic, Krantz told Bakshi to make a film adapted from another author's work before he filmed his (Bakshi's) own original work.^[11] In 1969, Krantz discovered a large paperback book containing three stories featuring Robert Crumb's anthropomorphic and semi-autobiographical comic book character Fritz the Cat.^[3] The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the Western United States. ... Steve Krantz is a film producer and writer who was most active from 1966 to 1996. ... Ralph Bakshi (October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and occasionally live-action films. ... Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi, and originally distributed by American International Pictures. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Robert Dennis Crumb, often credited simply as R. Crumb (born August 30, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a U.S. artist and illustrator recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream. ... Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ... This Side Of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a famous example of an autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a novel based on the life of the author. ... Robert Crumbs Fritz the Cat. ...

Later that year, Krantz and Bakshi contacted Crumb and paid for his journey to New York to talk about getting the film rights to the characters. After several meetings, Krantz received a contract, signed by Crumb, in the mail. In return, Crumb received US$12,500, which was supplemented by a percentage of the film's gross proceeds.^[3] However, Crumb claims that Krantz and Bakshi approached his first wife, Dana, about purchasing the film rights to the characters, and she signed away the rights against Crumb's wishes.^[5][6]

Distribution and funding

With the rights to the character, Krantz and Bakshi set out to find a distributor. "When I say that every major distributor turned it down, this is not an exaggeration,"^[3] remembers Krantz. "There has never been a project that was received with less enthusiasm. Animation is essentially a dirty word for distributors, who think that only Disney can paint a tree, and in addition to that, Fritz was so far out that there was a failure to understand that we were onto something very important."^[3] For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ...

In the spring of 1970, Warner Bros. agreed to fund and distribute the film.^[1][12] Late in November, Bakshi and Krantz made a presentation reel containing a few minutes of finished animation, pencil tests, and shots of Bakshi's storyboards to show to the studio. Warner Bros. wanted film stars' voices for the characters and also wanted Bakshi to tone down the material by removing the explicit sex in the scene between Fritz and Bertha. In reaction, Bakshi and Krantz left, taking their project with them.^[3] In the last part of 1970, Cinemation Industries joined the project and Fantasy Records agreed to help fund the film.^[1][3] Warner Bros. ... Fantasy Records is a United States based record label, which was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. ...

Production

At first, Krantz and Bakshi had planned to use the Fritz character in a short film or a series of shorts.^[1] During production, Krantz and Bakshi planned to release sections of the film as short subjects in order to help recoup their investment if their funding ceased.^[13] The film's voice cast includes Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Phil Seuling, and Judy Engles.^[14] Hinnant was previously known as a featured performer on The Electric Company. Bakshi himself appeared in a cameo as one of the film's comically inept pig officers,^[15] using a voice he later recreated for the part of a storm trooper in his 1977 animated science fiction film Wizards.^[16] Almost all of the film's dialogue, except for that of a few of the main characters, was recorded entirely on the streets of New York City.^[17] Much of the animation was also produced in New York, although some of it was completed in Los Angeles to save production costs.^[15] Skip Hinnant (Born September 12, 1940 in Chincoteague Island, Virginia) is an American actor. ... The Electric Company was an educational American childrens television series produced by the Childrens Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) for PBS in the United States. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Wizards (originally titled War Wizards[1][2]) is an animated post-apocalyptic science fiction/fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, a good wizard representing the forces of magic and an evil wizard representing the forces of technology. ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ... Nickname: Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ...

Directing

Ralph Bakshi at Sammy's Bowery Follies during a location scout for the film.

Bakshi was initially reluctant to direct Fritz the Cat because he had spent years working on animated productions featuring animal characters and wanted to make films focusing on human characters.^[11] However, he became interested in working on the film because he loved Crumb's work and considered him a "total genius."^[9] During the development of the film, Bakshi says that he "started to get giddy" when he "suddenly was able to get a pig that was a cop, and this particular other pig was Jewish, and I thought, 'Oh my God — a Jewish pig?' These were major steps forward, because in the initial Heckle and Jeckle for Terrytoons, they were two black guys running around. Which was hysterically funny and, I think, great – like Uncle Remus stuff. But they didn't play down south, and they had to change to black crows to two Englishmen. And I always told him that the black crows were funnier. So it was a slow awakening."^[18] Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... Heckle and Jeckle in Taming the Cat Heckle and Jeckle was a theatrical cartoon series created by Paul Terry, and released by his own studio, Terrytoons. ... Uncle Remus was a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form from 1881. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Official language None; English is de facto Capital London Capitals coordinates 51° 30 N, 0° 10 W Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831...

The film's opening sequence sets the satirical tone of the film. The setting of the story's period is not only established by a title, but also by the voice of Bakshi himself, playing a character giving his account of the 1960s: "happy times, heavy times." The film's opening dialogue, by three construction workers on their lunch break, establishes many of the themes discussed in the film, including drug use, promiscuity, and the social and political climate of the era. When one of the workers urinates off of the scaffold, the film's credits play over a shot of the liquid falling against a black screen. When the credits end, it is shown that the construction worker has urinated on a long-haired hippie with a guitar. Karl F. Cohen writes that the film "is a product of the radical politics of the period. Bakshi's depiction of Fritz's life is colorful, funny, sexist, raw, violent and outrageous."^[1] Urination, formally called micturition, is the process of disposing urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. ...

Of his direction of the film, Bakshi stated "My approach to animation as a director is live action. I don't approach it in the traditional animation ways. None of our characters get up and sing, because that's not the type of picture I'm trying to do. I want people to believe my characters are real, and it's hard to believe they're real if they start walking down the street singing."^[3] Bakshi wanted the film to be the antithesis of any animated film produced by the Walt Disney Company.^[9] Accordingly, Fritz the Cat includes two satirical references to Disney. In one scene, silhouettes of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Donald Duck are shown cheering on the United States Air Force as it drops napalm on a black neighborhood during a riot. Another scene features a reference to the Pink Elephants on Parade sequence from Dumbo.^[19] Antithesis (Greek for setting opposite, from against + position) means a direct contrast or exact opposition to something. ... The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ... Mickey Mouse is an Academy Award-winning comic animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. ... Minerva Minnie Mouse is a fictional character of the Mickey Mouse universe featured in animated cartoons, comic strips and comic book by The Walt Disney Company. ... Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. ... The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... A simulated Napalm explosion during a 2003 air show. ... Pink Elephants on Parade is a segment from the movie Dumbo in which Dumbo and Timothy Mouse begin seeing pink elephants. ... Dumbo is a 1941 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney and first released on October 23, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. ...

Writing

The original screenplay consisted mostly of dialog and featured only a few changes from Crumb's stories. However, it—and complete storyboards—went largely unused in favor of more experimental storytelling techniques.^[15] Bakshi said, "I don't like to jump ahead on my films. The way you feel about a film on Day One, you may not feel the same way forty weeks down the road. Characters grow, so I wanted to have the option to change things, and strengthen my characters… It was sort of a stream of consciousness, and a learning process for myself."^[15] Some scenes used audio recordings which were made by Bakshi and edited to fit the scene.^[20] For instance, the scene in the synagogue uses a recording of Bakshi's father and uncles.^[21] For another scene, Bakshi went to a Harlem bar with a tape recorder and spent hours talking to black patrons, getting drunk with them as he asked them questions.^[15] For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation). ...

The first part of the film's plot was adapted from a self-titled story published in a 1968 issue of R. Crumb's Head Comix,^[22][15] while the second part is derived from "Fritz Bugs Out," which was serialized in the February to October 1968 issues of Cavalier,^[23][15] and the final part of the story contains elements of "Fritz the No-Good," first published in the September/October 1968 issue of Cavalier.^[24] The last half of the film makes a major departure from Crumb's work. Animation historian Michael Barrier describes this section of the film as being "much grimmer than Crumb's stories past that point, and far more violent."^[15] American actor, best known for appearances on Star Trek: The Original Series. ...

In the film, there are two characters named "Winston" – one appears at the beginning and end of the film, the other is Fritz's girlfriend Winston Schwartz. Michael Barrier notes that Winston Schwartz (who appears prominently in "Fritz Bugs Out" and "Fritz the No-Good") never has a proper introduction in Bakshi's film, and interprets the naming of a separate character as Bakshi's attempt to reconcile this; however, the two characters look and sound nothing alike.^[15] Bakshi has explained on his official website that when he started storyboarding the film, "I got a little bit confused and started storyboarding that Winston as a hippy chick in the village. Then I started storyboarding that Winston for the later part of the film. When I screened the rushes later, I caught it, but figured there are lots of Winstons in one's life."^[25]

Animation

Photograph used for one of the film's backgrounds.

Many of the animators who worked on the film were professionals that Bakshi had previously worked with at Terrytoons, including Jim Tyler, John Gentilella, Nick Tafuri, Martin Taras, Larry Riley, and Cliff Augustine.^[13] According to Bakshi, it took quite a long time to assemble the right staff. Those who entered with a smirk, "wanting to be very dirty and draw filthy pictures," did not stay very long, and neither did those with a low tolerance for vulgarity. One cartoonist refused to draw a black crow shooting a pig policeman. Two female animators quit; one because she could not bring herself to tell her children what she did for a living, the other because she refused to draw exposed breasts.^[26] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Martin B. Taras (1914-1994) was an American cartoonist who mostly tenured at Famous Studios, the New York - based animation division of Paramount Pictures. ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ...

Many of the backgrounds were created by tracing photographs taken by animator Johnnie Vita. However, not every background was taken from live-action sources.^[15] Animator Ira Turek drew the backgrounds with a Rapidograph pen, which is the technical pen preferred by Robert Crumb, in an attempt to capture Crumb's style in the background drawings.^[15] After Turek completed a background drawing in ink on an animation cel, the drawing would be xeroxed onto watercolor paper for Vita and onto animation paper for use in matching the characters to the backgrounds. When Vita finished his painting, Turek's original drawing, on the cel, would be placed over the watercolor, obscuring the xerox lines on the painting.^[15] Rotring is a German company based in Hamburg. ...

The film was produced almost entirely without pencil tests. According to Bakshi, "We pencil tested I'd say a thousand feet [of footage], tops. [...] We do a major feature without pencil tests—that's tough. The timing falls off. I can always tell an animator to draw it better, and I know if the attitude of the characters is right, but the timing you really can't see." Bakshi had to judge the timing of the animation simply by flipping an animator's drawings in his hand, until he could see the completed animation on the screen.^[3]

Music

Main article: Fritz the Cat (soundtrack)

The film's score was performed by Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin. The film also featured songs by Cal Tjader, Bo Diddley, and Billie Holiday. Bakshi bought the rights to use Holiday's performance of the song "Yesterdays" for $35.^[27] A soundtrack album was released on Fantasy Records in 1972.^[28] The Fritz the Cat OST is the 1972 soundtrack album to the animated film of the same name. ... Born Edgar Noel Bogas, Ed Bogas is a musicians whose contributions span four decades and several genres. ... Ray Shanklin is a composer. ... Cal Tjader (July 16, 1925–May 5, 1982) was an American Latin jazz musician. ... Bo Diddleys emphasis on rhythm largely influenced popular music, especially that of rock and roll in the 1960s. ... Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), born Eleanora Fagan and later called Lady Day was an American singer widely considered one of the greatest jazz voices of all time. ... The Fritz the Cat OST is the 1972 soundtrack album to the animated film of the same name. ... Fantasy Records is a United States based record label, which was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. ...

Rating

Fritz the Cat was the first animated feature to receive an X rating from the MPAA.^[2][3] The film's distributor capitalized on the rating in the film's advertising material, which touted the film as being "X rated and animated!" According to Ralph Bakshi, "We almost didn't deliver the picture, because of the exploitation of it."^[3] Steve Krantz stated that the film lost playdates due to the rating, and 30 American newspapers rejected display ads for the film or refused to give it editorial publicity.^[1] A motion picture rating system categorizes films with regard to suitability for children and/or adults in terms of issues such as sex, violence and profanity. ... The Ontario Film Review Board uses the following motion picture rating system for theatrical releases in the Canadian province of Ontario under the Theatres Act: General. ... The Manitoba Film Classification Board is part of the Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Tourism of the government of the Canadian province of Manitoba. ... The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand. ... British Board of Film Classification logo The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is the organisation responsible for film and some video game classification and censorship within the United Kingdom. ... The MPAA film rating system is a system used in the United States and territories and instituted by the Motion Picture Association of America to rate a movie based on its content. ... X-rated, X certificate, X classification or similar terms are labels for movies implying strong adult content, typically pornography or violence. ... The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), originally called the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America, is a non-profit trade association based in the United States which was formed to advance the interests of movie studios. ...

Because of the film's rating, many believed that Fritz the Cat was a pornographic film. When the film was introduced at a showing at the University of Southern California as an animated porno, Bakshi stated firmly, "Fritz the Cat is not pornographic."^[3] In May 1972, Variety reported that Krantz had appealed the X rating, saying "Animals having sex isn't pornography." The MPAA refused to hear the appeal.^[1] Bakshi later stated "Now they do as much on The Simpsons as I got an X rating for Fritz the Cat."^[29] In other countries, the film generally received lower ratings. Pornographic films are motion pictures that explicitly depict sexual intercourse and other sexual acts, typically for the purpose of sexual arousal in the viewer. ... The University of Southern California (commonly referred to as USC, SC, Southern California, and incorrectly as Southern Cal),[4] located in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, USA, was founded in 1880, making it Californias oldest private research university. ... Variety is a daily newspaper for the entertainment industry. ... Simpsons redirects here. ...

Before the film's release, American distributors attempted to cash in on the publicity garnered from the rating by rushing out dubbed versions of two other adult animations from Japan, both of which featured an X rating in their advertising material: Senya ichiya monogatari and Kureopatora, retitled One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and Cleopatra: Queen of Sex, respectively. However, neither film was actually submitted to the MPAA, and it is not likely that either feature would have received an X rating.^[3] Adult animation is animation that is targeted at adults. ... One Thousand and One Arabian Nights is a 1969 Japanese animated film directed by Eiichi Yamamoto. ...

Other X-rated animated films released in the aftermath of Fritz the Cat's success include Heavy Traffic^[30] and Once Upon a Girl.^[31] The film Dirty Duck was promoted with an X rating, but had not been submitted to the MPAA.^[1] The French/Belgian animated film Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle was initially released with an X rating in a subtitled version, but a dubbed version released in 1979 received an R rating.^[1] Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi, and originally distributed by American International Pictures. ... Once Upon a Girl is a 1976 X-rated animated film written and directed by Don Jurwich. ... Dirty Duck is an X-rated animated film directed by Charles Swenson, and starring Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan). ...

Response

Promo for the Fritz the Cat soundtrack album showing the film as the second-highest grossing film in the week of June 7, 1972, behind The Godfather.

Fritz the Cat was a box office success, and became the first independent animated film to gross more than US$100 million at the box office.^[4] Critical reaction to the film was positive. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film is "constantly funny [...] [There's] something to offend just about everyone."^[32] Paul Sargent Clark in The Hollywood Reporter called the film "powerful and audacious,"^[33] while Newsweek called it "a harmless, mindless, pro-youth saga calculated to shake up only the box office."^[34] The Wall Street Journal and Cue both gave the film mixed reviews.^[1] Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 67%.^[35] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 418 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (425 × 610 pixel, file size: 94 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Promo for Ralph Bakshis Fritz the Cat. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 418 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (425 × 610 pixel, file size: 94 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Promo for Ralph Bakshis Fritz the Cat. ... The Fritz the Cat OST is the 1972 soundtrack album to the animated film of the same name. ... June 7 is the 158th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (159th in leap years), with 207 days remaining. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The Godfather is an Academy Award-winning 1972 crime film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with screenplay by Puzo and Coppola. ... Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – September 15, 2000) was an American film critic. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with a worldwide average daily circulation of more than 2. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

In Michael Barrier's 1972 article on the film's production, Bakshi gives his accounts of two separate screenings of the film. Of the reactions to the film by audiences at a preview screening in Los Angeles, Bakshi stated "They forget it's animation. They treat it like a film. [...] This is the real thing, to get people to take animation seriously." Bakshi was also present at a showing of the film at the Museum of Modern Art and remembers "Some guy asked me why I was against the revolution. The point is, animation was making people get up off their asses and get mad."^[3] View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ...

Crumb's response

Robert Crumb first saw the film in February 1972, during a visit to Los Angeles in the company of fellow underground cartoonists Spain Rodriguez, S. Clay Wilson, Robert Williams, and Rick Griffin. Crumb disliked the film, saying: Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... Manuel Spain Rodriguez (born 1940 in Buffalo, New York) is an underground cartoonist best known for his character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the biker gang the Road Vultures provided inspiration for his work as did his left-wing politics. ... S. Clay Wilson is a comic artist, a central figure in the underground comix movement. ... Robert Williams is a famed, controversial painter and editor of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. ... Richard Alden Griffin (June 18, 1944 - August 18, 1991) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. ...

"[The film is] weird: it's really a reflection of Ralph Bakshi's confusion, you know. There's something real repressed about it. In a way, it's more twisted than my stuff. It's really twisted in some kind of weird, unfunny way. [...] I didn't like that sex attitude in it very much. It's like real repressed horniness; he's kind of letting it out compulsively."^[15]

Crumb also took issue with the film's condemnation of the radical left.^[3] Reportedly, Crumb filed suit to have his name removed from the film's credits.^[36] San Francisco copyright attorney Albert L. Morse claims that no suit was filed, but an agreement was reached to remove Crumb's name from the credits.^[5] However, as Crumb's name has remained in the final film since its original theatrical release,^[1] both of these claims are highly unlikely. Crumb later drew a comic in which the Fritz character was killed off,^[37][5] and claimed that he "wrote them a letter telling them not to use any more of my characters in their films."^[3] Crumb later said of the film: In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition...

"I barely remember the movie. It's one of those experiences I sort of block out. The last time I saw it was when I was making an appearance at a German art school in the mid-1980s, and I was forced to watch it with the students. It was an excruciating ordeal, a humiliating embarrassment. I recall Victor Moscoso was the only one who warned me, 'if you don't stop this film from being made, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life'—and he was right."^[6] Victor Moscoso is an American illustrator and comic artist, especially noted for his work in the late 1960s as a designer of psychedelic concert posters and a contributor to underground comix (he is among the artists who regularly appear in Zap Comix). ...

Of Crumb, Bakshi said:

"R. Crumb is a funny guy. We've spoken over the years and he was always nice to me on the phone and I'm always nice to him. I love R. Crumb, but when he does an interview he can't help taking a dig at me. If you notice, he takes a dig at everybody: his mother, his father, his brother, his sister. In other words, I don't take it seriously. That's what R. Crumb's all about. He's always pointing a finger. He did a movie that I thought that was more embarrassing to him than my Fritz the Cat was to him. I think that taught him a lesson. He took a camera to his house and shot his poor brothers and his dysfunctional family."^[38] Crumb is a 1994 documentary film about the noted underground comic artist R. Crumb and his family. ...

Controversy

According to Bakshi, Fritz the Cat sparked negative reactions from viewers, who were turned off by the film's content. Bakshi remembers that when he came to Los Angeles to hire additional animators, "I was greeted by a full page ad in Variety from about fifty well known Hollywood animators who told me I was destroying the Disney image and should go home. I didn't know who these guys were because I was from New York, so I threw the ad away."^[39] Bakshi has also stated "I couldn't understand other artists telling any artists what you should or should not do. I remember not wanting to leave my office because I felt the guys animating for me felt the same way. But Irv Spence – great MGM Tom & Jerry animator – walked in my office at the end of the day and told me what I was doing was absolutely on the money, and he was having the best time of his life. Irv was as great as anyone on that Variety ad. From that moment on it became us against them. Irv was about thirty years my senior."^[40] Variety is a daily newspaper for the entertainment industry. ... For the American film industry, see Cinema of the United States, Classical Hollywood cinema, and New Hollywood. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... Tom and Jerry were an animated cat (Tom) and mouse (Jerry) team who formed the basis of a successful series of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) theatrical short subjects created, written and directed by animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (later of Hanna-Barbera fame). ...

"A lot of people got freaked out," says Bakshi. "The people in charge of the power structure, the people in charge of magazines and the people going to work in the morning who loved Disney and Norman Rockwell, thought I was a pornographer, and they made things very difficult for me. The younger people, the people who could take new ideas, were the people I was addressing. I wasn't addressing the whole world. To those people who loved it, it was a huge hit, and everyone else wanted to kill me."^[41] Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was a 20th century American painter. ...

Legacy

In addition to the other X-rated cartoons, the film's success led to the production of a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat. Although producer Steve Krantz and voice actor Skip Hinnant returned to work on the follow-up, Ralph Bakshi did not. Instead, Nine Lives was directed by animator Robert Taylor, who cowrote the film with Fred Halliday and Eric Monte. The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat was distributed by American International Pictures. Unlike the original, it received an R rating.^[42] Both films are currently available on DVD in the United States and Canada from MGM Home Entertainment,^[43] and from Arrow Films in the UK.^[44] Fritz the Cat was ranked at number 51 on the Online Film Critics Society's list of the top 100 greatest animated films of all time,^[7] and was placed at number 56 on Channel 4's list of the 100 Greatest Cartoons.^[8] The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat is an R-rated animated film from 1974. ... Eric Monte is a television writer who has written for some of the most successful shows in TV. Montes first big break was a script written for and accepted by All in the Family. ... The early AIP logo. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Arrow Films is a European distributor of classic and cult films on PAL-format DVDs. ... The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) , the professional association for film journalists, scholars and historians who publish their reviews, interviews and essays exclusively or primarily in the online media. ... It has been suggested that Channel Four Television Corporation be merged into this article or section. ... The 100 Greatest Cartoons is a documentary that features a poll conducted by the British television channel Channel 4 in 2004. ...

References