Everything about Ralph Bakshi totally explained
Ralph Bakshi (born
October 29,
1938) is an
American director of
animated and occasionally live-action films. As the American animation industry fell into decline during the
1960s and
1970s, Bakshi tried to bring change to the industry as a pioneer of
adult animation. Bakshi started his career as a
cel polisher at the
Terrytoons studio, working his way up from cel painter to
inker, then animator, and eventually began to direct animated television shows for the studio. Bakshi moved to
Famous Studios in 1967, before starting his own studio in 1968.
Biography
Early life
Ralph Bakshi was born of
Krymchak descent on
October 29,
1938, in
Haifa, then part of the
British Mandate of Palestine. In 1939, his family went to
New York to escape
World War II. He grew up in the
Brownsville section of
Brooklyn. As a child, Bakshi loved
comic books and art in general. where he graduated in 1957 with an award in cartooning. In 1966, during a series pitch meeting with the
CBS Television Network after all of the pitches prepared by Terrytoons had been rejected, an unprepared Bakshi pitched the concept for a superhero spoof cartoon called
The Mighty Heroes. CBS greenlit the series and production began with Bakshi serving as director. In 1967, Bakshi became head of Famous Studies, the animation division of Paramount Pictures. Here he hired
Mort Drucker,
Wally Wood,
Jack Davis,
Joe Kubert,
Jim Steranko,
Gray Morrow, and
Roy Krenkel, The film was made using a number of experimental animated film production techniques that Bakshi would continue to use throughout his career.
Fritz the Cat was the first animated feature film to receive an
X rating in the
United States. Creator Robert Crumb, however, hated the film, and eventually wound up killing off the title character in retaliation.
In 1973, Bakshi began production on
Heavy Traffic, a personal tale of inner-city street life. The film incorporated many of Bakshi's trademark filmmaking techniques from his debut, and also incorporated the heavy use of live-action footage, which Bakshi would continue to use in his films throughout his career. The film is considered to be one of Bakshi's best works, and is also his favorite of his own work. While
Fritz the Cat and
Heavy Traffic both encountered controversy, Bakshi encountered the most negative reactions of his career with his third feature,
Coonskin. Originally produced under the working titles
Harlem Nights and
Coonskin No More..., the film, culled from Bakshi's interest in
African American history in America, was an attack on
racism and racist stereotypes. The film's release was stalled by protests from the
Congress of Racial Equality long before its release, who accused the film and Bakshi himself of being racist. In
1977, the film was released and received with great acclaim. and released as a
standalone film in 1978. The film, as with much of Bakshi's work was very experimental, incorporating the use of rotoscoping, brief snippets of cel animation, and live-action footage mixed with animation. Bakshi later regretted his use of the rotoscoping technique, stating that he made a mistake by tracing the source footage rather than using it as a guide. The film received mixed reviews from critics. However, it was a financial success, cited by film critic
Leonard Maltin as being one of only two major commercial successes in Bakshi's career, the other being
Fritz the Cat. Despite this, the studio refused to fund the sequel, which would have picked up half-way through the story and adapted the remainder of the book. Bakshi has stated that "I knew what picture I wanted to make cause I could see it visually, so I knew they'd work."
Bakshi also tried to produce a live-action film based on
Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel,
Last Exit to Brooklyn. Bakshi acquired the rights from Selby after
Heavy Traffic was completed, and
Robert De Niro accepted a major role, but the project never came to pass.
Last Exit to Brooklyn was eventually filmed by director
Uli Edel in 1989. With
John Kricfalusi, Bakshi conceived
Bobby's Girl, described as being "a sort of [1950s] teen-comedy thing". The project was greenlighted by
TriStar, but canceled after the employment of then-studio president, Jeff Sagansky, was terminated. Other projects Bakshi planned, but never made, include an anthology film called
The City, and
The History of American Music, which, according to Bakshi, was "basically following a musician around in his travels." Neither of these projects came to pass.
Later work
In 1981, Ralph Bakshi made
American Pop, followed by
Hey, Good Lookin' and
Fire and Ice, a collaboration with fantasy illustrator
Frank Frazetta. In 1986, Bakshi directed the live-action sequences for the
Rolling Stones music video "
Harlem Shuffle". John Kricfalusi directed the video's animated sequences.
Bakshi returned to the big screen with another live-action/animated film in 1992 with
Cool World. The film was originally pitched as an animated
horror film, but the original screenplay was scrapped and heavily rewritten during production.
Cool World was a critical and box office disappointment, although the film's
soundtrack album received positive reviews. In 1994, Bakshi directed the live-action feature
Cool and the Crazy, which aired as a part of
Showtime's
Rebel Highway series. The same year, he created two shorts for Hanna-Barbera Cartoons' innovative shorts program
What A Cartoon!
Bakshi worked on a short-lived animated TV series called
Spicy City in 1997, and in 2003 he made a guest appearance on protégé John Kricfalusi's
Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". The same year, The Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning, founded by Bakshi, went into operation. It is currently being run by artist and educator Jess Gorell and Bakshi's son Eddie.
Availability of his work on the Internet spiked a recent resurgence of interest, resulting in a three-day retrospective at American Cinematheque at
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in
Hollywood, California, and the Aero Theater in
Santa Monica, California, in April 2005. At the proceedings, Bakshi announced plans to finance and produce a low-budget animated feature titled
Last Days of Coney Island, although the film's current production status is uncertain. Other projects, such as
American Beat and sequels to Bakshi's earlier films
Coonskin and
Wizards
Criticism
Bakshi has encountered much controversy and criticism during his career. When it was first released,
Fritz the Cat was panned for its style and subject matter. Top animators of the era took a full page ad out in
Variety telling Bakshi to "take [his] garbage back east." Bakshi is quoted as saying that "A lot of people got freaked out. The people in charge of the power structure [...] 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."
When it was originally released, the film
Coonskin was seen as
racist. During a showing at the Museum of Modern Art, the building was surrounded by members of the
Congress of Racial Equality, led by
Al Sharpton, none of whom had seen the movie. Bakshi asked why Sharpton wouldn't come in and see the movie, to which Sharpton replied, "I don't got to see shit; I can smell shit!" Eventually, the group was persuaded to view the film. Bakshi states that after the screening, Sharpton "charged up to the screen, but there wasn't anyone behind him. He could hear voices behind him [saying] 'It wasn't that bad!'"
Bakshi was accused of
plagiarism by
Mark Bodé, son of
underground comix artist
Vaughn Bodé. Mark Bodé saw Bakshi's film
Wizards as being a rip-off of his father's
Cheech Wizard comic book series. Bakshi has stated that he'd been friends with Vaughn and his family, and had discussed the possibility of producing an animated film with Bode, and acknowledged Bode's influence by referring to him as "one of the world's great cartoonists." Reviewers of
Cool World unfavorably compared the film to
Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Influence and recognition
The Lord of the Rings won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival. Bakshi received an Annie Award for "Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation" in 1988, in addition to speaking about the film at the
Cannes Film Festival. In another interview, Jackson stated that he "enjoyed [thefilm] and wanted to know more." Bakshi attributed Jackson's change of tone towards the film to Bakshi's vocal complaints through interviews.
The
Online Film Critics Society ranked four of Bakshi's films on their list of the "Top 100 Animated Features of All Time":
Fritz the Cat,
The Lord of the Rings,
Coonskin and
Fire and Ice.
Film directorial work
Television directorial work
The Mighty Heroes (TV series) (1966)
(TV series) (1987) (also writer)
Christmas in Tattertown (TV special) (1988) (also writer)
This Ain't Bebop (live action) (1989) (also writer)
Hound Town (1989) (TV)
Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book (1989) (TV special)
Cool and the Crazy (TV movie, live action) (1994) (also writer)
Malcom and Melvin (1997) (also writer)
Babe, He Calls Me (1997) (also writer)
Spicy City (TV series) (1997)
Notes and references
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ralph Bakshi'.
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