Review of Fritz the Cat (1972) by Eric J — 04 Jan 2007

[i]Fritz- "I know about the race problem - I've studied the race problem!".

Duke- "You don't know nothing about the race problem! You've got to be a crow to know about the race problem!"[/i].

RATING (0 to ****): *1/2.

"He's X-rated and animated!" caused a huge stir back in 1972, back when animated feature-films (refered to by the now-derogatory term "cartoons") were considered "kiddie".

Those who want to know the danger of filling a film with nothing but cultural references (something Dreamworks is often (rightly) criticized for), you need look no further than Bakshi's first feature-length film, which is heavily dated by all of them. There's a couple of smart, satirical comments on the racial issues, as well as R. Crumb's clever translation of white men into cats, black men into crows (and the anti-establishment favorite police being played by pigs), but that's as far as the humor goes.

For film buffs, it's interesting to look at, but after 10 minutes, the novelty of it being the world's first X-rated animated film wears off, and it proceeds to wear thin with its gratuitously used F-words and equally disgusting animal nudity. The "pants falling down" gag that you knew since you were 4 years old is also here, but this time you see the penis. That's the extent of the "maturity" of this adult cartoon. I could go on about a rather disgusting dream sequence where Fritz is, literally, surrounded by nipples, but I'd much rather not.

The structure of the plot is very episodic. From what I've heard, this was taken word-for-word from Crumb's original comics, which would explain why. Why he disowned the film and not the source material as well, though, remains a mystery to me.

Bakshi is a visually-interesting director, even when the film itself is a failure. However, his debut is free of his usual gimmicks. In short, there's nothing to recommend.

MPAA: X (but would be R today for crude sexual humor, nudity, language, drug content and some violence).

Runtime: 1 hour, 18 minutes (76 minutes of "real movie").