Review of Heavy Traffic (1973) by Stuart K — 17 Jan 2012

After Fritz the Cat (1972) made a lot of money being the first X-rated cartoon, director Ralph Bakshi was offered to do the sequel The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974), he turned that down in favour of something alot more personal.

It's an episodic, personal odyssey, but it's absolutely brilliant as well. This tells the story of young twentysomething cartoonist Michael Corleone (Joseph Kaufmann), who we see in live-action playing pinball, but it disolves into animation as it shows his family life, his Italian father Angelo (Frank DeKova) has connection with the Mafia and work unions who is constantly cheating on his Jewish wife Ida (Terri Haven), they constantly fight but Michael tends to ignore them and he carries on with his cartoons.

In a bar, he meets black bartender Carole (Beverly Hope Atkinson), who accepts to hang out with Michael because she likes his cartoons, his father doesn't approve of his son going out with a black girlfriend, and he's having problems of his own with the union, and Carole and Michael have aspirations of moving out to California together.

It's a brilliant film done with a raw energy and Bakshi's visual eye, from mixing animated characters on real streets to old 1930's cartoon sketches coming to life, but it perfectly encapsulates the angst someone in their 20's go through, it's as relevant now as it was then, and the soundtrack is brilliant as well.