Fritz the Cat (1972)
Directed by Ralph Bakshi
In late 1960s New York City, fed up with monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees NYC, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz participates in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers.
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What critics compared Fritz the Cat to
There have been very adult-oriented animated movies before; you only have to recall Ralph Bakshi’s “Fritz the Cat,” the X-rated 1972 picture based on Robert Crumb’s comic, which became a huge hit and inspired others of its kind (including a sequel).
Now that that’s behind us, here’s a more in-depth look at the most adult animated film to come along since the 1972 release “Fritz the Cat.”
Welcome to the “Sausage Party,” the most profane animated film since “Fritz the Cat,” the perverse product of that vanguard of vulgarity, Seth Rogen and his Lewd Crew of (mostly) Jews..
Such animated outrage isn't new; Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat broke the old X rating (now NC-17) barrier way back in 1972.
That's where Rogen and Goldberg's Sausage Party transcends other R-rated animated provocations (Fritz the Cat, Heavy Metal) to become something more.
Fritz the Cat was rated X. Sausage Party garnered an R. But, hey, we're talking apples and oranges.
Crumb was an unlikely hero of the '60s counter-culture, but strips like Fritz the Cat, Mr Natural and Keep on Truckin' made him the toast of Haight-Ashbury.
Director Terry Zwigoff, who walked off with the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary film at the Sundance Film Festival in January, has picked a controversial and easily exploitable subject in Robert Crumb, an underground cartoonist still best known for just a few '60s creations the "Keep on Truckin' " logo, the cover of the "Cheap Thrills" album by Big Brother and the Holding Company, the "Fritz the Cat" comics (though he had nothing to do with Ralph Bakshi's film version and doesn't hesitate to say how much he hates it) . . . .
Crumb, an unabashedly eccentric figure, achieved fame thanks to the creation of a few pivotal pop-culture items (including Fritz the Cat and the Keep on Truckin' guy), though his refusal to "sell out" has allowed him to keep a fairly low profile.
He’s a 44-year-old underground comix artist (and apparently a big fan of Robert Crumb’s Fritz the Cat ).
Her life begins to take on some stability when she falls in love with fortysomething Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), the creator of a Fritz the Cat -style series of comic books.
This is strictly a toon tale for the whole family, meaning that anyone on the lookout for a comeback by Fritz the Cat creator Ralph Bakshi (MIA since 1997) will have to keep waiting and hoping.
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Although there are enough scares and thrills to tip the scales slightly onto the PG-13 side of the PG/PG-13 line, this is by no means "adult" animation - or at least it's not going to conjure up thoughts of Heavy Metal or Fritz the Cat.
Bakshi, maker of Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic, is still waving a tattered flag for Underground Culture in this sentimental animated satire on the future ways of the world.
Compared to Bakshi’s X-rated full-length animated feature “Fritz the Cat” (1972), which depicted cartoon sex and drug use, “Wizards” IS pretty tame.