Fritz The Cat (1972)

Rating: **
Review Date: 12/4/99
Director: Ralph Bakshi

Talk about a freeform narrative! Socio-political satire and black humor set amidst the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll hippie culture of the 1960's, this film takes Robert Crumb's character Fritz the Cat, and follows him through various soul searching adventures. He starts out as a disenchanted college student who decides there's more to life than studying and working for The Man, so he sets out to find the ultimate truth. Naturally this involves lots of sex, drugs, violence, and running away from the law. As a film it makes very little sense - it's more like a collection of loosely connected vignettes that serve the sole purpose of making social commentary. A decadent art film, as it were (more than once I was reminded of Russ Meyer's work). As such, I found it extremely uninteresting, though I commend Ralph Bakshi for his vision, and the tenacity to create such a groundbreaking and controversial piece of animation.