What a waste of my time!!!

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I decided to watch Fritz the Cat because I'm a fan of R. Crumb's work, and his infamous hatred towards this movie further fueled my intrigue. I think subversive animation inherently titillates the little kid in all of us, taking a widely beloved medium of our childhood and doing very "mature" (at least ratings wise) things with them. Ralph Bakshi, the director, proclaimed that his film was for the young people, the hippie generation, who weren't easily offended and were receptive to new ideas. The question then, however, is if this is true, why does he spend so much time lampooning them? The way this film portrays the radical left of the 60s and 70s is hilariously inaccurate as a whole and more indicative of the "everyone can identify as who they want to" neoliberalism of modern day. The liberals (all females I might add) in this film mainly exist as strawmen for some unspecified demographic to laugh at and think, "wow, liberal girls are so dumb, they literally only think that stuff to pick up guys!" And therein lies the main problem with this film. If you have a problem with the left, fine, but say it in an intelligent way. This movie is supposed to undermine the mainstream view of established groups in society--hippies, cops, blacks--but instead of being clever or profound, it just presents the caricatures to say "HA! AREN'T COPS SO DUMB!" "AREN'T WOMEN SO FICKLE!" It's exhausting and drains the humor out of damn near everything in here. Stereotypes ≠ does not a witty commentary on society make. There is one scene that I thought might have some insightful symbolism if one looked into it enough: Fritz incites a riot in Harlem against the cops. As the military is coming in and Fritz sees all the crows (puerile caricature for every single black person in the movie) around him dying, he essentially shrugs and walks off. Make of that what you will about race relations in the US, but in Fritz, you can pretty much guess the whole point of this scene was to have lots of cartoon violence. After all, the whole appeal of this movie is staying up past your bedtime to watch a naughty cartoon.Which leads me to that infamous X rating. If you're even a casual watcher of Family Guy, Fritz the Cat won't make you blink twice. Heck, if you're a hardcore Family Guy viewer, you'll probably love this film. The entire premise of the humor seems to evolve around anime tiddies, crudely drawn male genitals urinating everywhere, drugs, rape, violence, and stereotypes that aren't so much offensive now as just...tired and groan-worthy. It's ostensibly a parody of free love philosophy, but I'm not buying it. A large part of it might be that this movie is very, very considerably before my time. But it's hard to take this movie as a serious emblem of the counterculture when it treats nothing with respect. All of the women are either vapid, nagging, or whores. Somehow race exists in this animal world, and every thing that isn't white gets its own species. Characters are simultaneously Marxist and avid supporters of domestic violence, pro-revolutionary and Neonazi. The internal world has no consistency and as a result it's a jumbled mess and I feel like I wasted 82 minutes of my life. I guess it would be a deep philosophical commentary on something if literally anything, anything at all, about this film at least tried to be mature in tone at any point? Man, we get it, the 60s were strange, dude. Didn't need to watch an unfunny movie to glean that. I may sound scathing, but there are two things that may redeem this movie to people who care more than me. The animation in this movie is faithful to the eclectic style of Crumb and has stunningly innovative moments that would be poetic if the surrounding film wasn't...well, crap. The music is also really good, and sadly more fun than anything else in the movie. Fritz the Cat is probably worth watching if you're an animated historian or avid hentai fan. Other than that, though, there are better relics from the 70s that are faithful to the time period and actually funny, too.

When it comes to animated films, there are plenty of iconic names in the industry: Walt Disney, Dreamworks, Hayao Miyazaki, Don Bluth, and Warner Bros. to name a few. But, no animation director stands out more then Ralph Bakshi. From the seedy world of Coonskin to the far off future of Wizards. From the war torn world of Fire & Ice to the legendary world of The Lord Of The Rings, Ralph Bakshi has a varied library of films under his belt. But, no film stands out more then his most famous, and controversial, animated classic 'FRITZ THE CAT'. Released in 1972, it was the first animated film to received the infamous X rating at the time of release and was based on the comic strip of the same name. It was released to a somewhat mixed reception but went on to become a cult favorite and received a sequel by the name of 'THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT'. But we are here to talk about the first film, and with this being my first time viewing it, I have to ask: Does it hold up to this day or should it be tossed away like cat turds from a kitty litter?The film's plot is, well, kinda non-existent. It's basically Fritz The Cat and his life....which is pretty much it. OK, so there are SOME plot lines involving Fritz getting involved with some crows and later a "Revolutionary Group", but mostly it just follows Fritz as he interacts with everyday people. "But, hang on!" you say "If there is no plot, then why is it rated 'X' and not 'R'?" Well...the film makes up for no plot with....how should I say this...over the top sex scenes and some very violent moments. Lets talk about the violence first. Most of the violence is cartoony, but there are three instances where the violence achieves a dark status. The first of which is when the one crow character is shot and killed and you can see the insides ALONG with some, well-done mind you, bleeding onto the hood of the car. The second is a full-scale riot scene that attributes nothing to the movie. BUT then...there is THAT SCENE near the end. I rather not go into full detail, but it involves a hippo character getting whipped with a chain gratuitously. That scene in particular ALMOST killed the movie for me. Now with the sex scenes...yeah they are there alright! Over the top and kinda messed up at times. There is a lot of sex throughout the film, with one scene in particular I had to look away from and play Bejeweled on my phone (It was after a Weed Smoking Scene...that's all I'll say).With the characters, it's kinda a mix bag. Fritz, being the main character, is a bit tricky to label. At times, he's over the top, other times he's quiet and surprisingly deep with his monologues, and at other times he's a sex addict. Then you got the three girls he meets in the beginning of the film and their only trait is that...well they like black people. That's it. Now, we got the crows, who are the black people of the film (Don't worry, it's not racist in anyway, from what I can tell. They do remind me of the crows from the Disney film Dumbo). They are just there for one scene and they really don't attribute much to the story. The rest of the characters ranging from just there to completely pointless....OH WAIT! There are also to two pig cops (Get it? Cause LOL Cops are pigs...bit of a cliché right there). These guys are probably the funniest characters and I do like how the one with the goofy voice is the straight cop and the veteran while the cop with the normal voice is the head-strong rookie. Nice change from the usual fare we usually see.Now, the animation, this is where the film shines. Sure, it's a bit over the top, but this is animation at its finest. Ralph Bakshi knows how to animate characters believably. All the characters move like they are real people (when it's not calling for a over-the-top moment) and the backgrounds are a beaut to look at. Granted, most of the background is rotoscoped (a favorite technique of Ralph Bakshi), but it's still amazing to look at. The only place where the animation fall flat is actually the character designs, specially the males, OK, so this is kinda a nit-pick, but it's still worth bringing up: While I get it that they are anthropomorphic and you wouldn't see their private parts, but that does raise one question: Why do some male characters go around pant-less, while others have pants? I understand with the females (although if you REALLY look at a female animal, you'll notice that you don't see ANY private bits on them cause they are covered with fur/hair), but it's still something odd I noticed.All and all, Fritz The Cat is a great film and one I would highly recommend to anyone to watch. Just go in knowing that you will see sex and nudity throughout the film , so if you have issues with that, then I would avoid this film. Truthfully, if you remove the sex and nudity and keep everything else in the film, it's still would be a great film with a somewhat decent message.

American animation film 'Fritz the Cat' is special as it breaks a lot of taboos associated with animation films especially cartoons. It is considered to be one of the most popular X rated cartoon as it holds the record of being one of the first cartoons to depict physical intimacy among animated characters. If it is the depiction of sex scenes which gave it an X rating then there are other elements too which make 'Fritz the cat' a meaningful film. One has to just watch how Fritz the Cat talks animatedly about black people, war, peace, Arab- Israel conflict, riots and Jewish religion. The depiction of animals in animation cinema is something which needs to be closely observed in order to understand how their portrayal exerts tremendous influence on human beings. This is one reason why we have Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters who continue to influence the way children look at animation especially cartoons. It is no secret that cartoons are also considered to be healthy entertainment as they convey a lot of innocence with notions of something sacred which needs to be respected.

Unfortunately for this movie, people today view it and assume it's some kind of twisted and disturbing pornography film. Yes, it has animals with nude-human-like bodies. Yes, it has racial stereotypes. Yes, it's got Nazi-fetishists and Anarchists and drugs and booze... well, disturbing as these things all might be, it is a homage to one of the most revolutionary yet hypocritical eras, the 1960's. When I first heard of it, I was afraid it would have environmentalism in it (I'm openly pro-pollution and an Eco-Sinner). Of course, when I watched the first few minutes of it, I just fell in love with this funny, doped-up, hypocrite hippie cat in this satire film, as he tries to make a difference in the world but ends up often causing more harm than good. THIS IS NOT A FILM FOR CHILDREN. that being said, it's certainly not a porn movie either, if it were I wouldn't be caught dead watching it, porn is perverted and disgusting. Watch Fritz the Cat with an open mind, you'll be surprised. The racial stereotypes are there not to create a racist movie, but to show various stereotypes common at the time that were wrong and the movie was trying to point them out as being wrong. There's some nostalgic 1960's soundtrack that adds to the comedic moments, and great voice acting. Don't pass this movie up, it's an interesting outlook on the "Free Love" movement, war, racism, politics, sex, drugs and education.