I recently wrote about the amazing American animator Don Bluth and the impact his films have had on American animation. However, there is also another animator who contributed greatly to the development of American animation and that is the incredibly important Ralph Bakshi, a pioneer of independent, generally adult animation throughout the 70s and 80s.
Born in the city of Haifa in modern day Israel, then the British Mandate of Palestine, in 1938, he and his family emigrated to America in 1939. When Ralph was 15 years old, he discovered Gene Byrnes’ “Complete Guide to Cartooning” and studied the book intensely, learning the techniques associated with cartooning. By the age of 18, he was hired at the New York animation studio Terrytoons to clean animation cels. He worked on a variety of Terrytoons shows such as Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg and eventually created his own animation series for them, The Mighty Heroes. However, he was unhappy with the quality of the show due to limitations by the studio and left to create his own animation studio. He eventually came across the Fritz the Cat comic strip and became determined to produce a film based on it.
The production of Fritz the Cat was complicated. Warner Bros. initially agreed to fund the film before pulling out after they asked Ralph Bakshi to tone down the sexual content and he refused. The film was eventually funded and distributed by Cinemation Industries, a company known for distributing exploitation films. Additionally, several animators left due to the sexual and racial themes present in the film. Fritz the Cat made history when it was given an X rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, the first time that an American animated film had received such a rating. However, it proved to be a surprise box office hit, becoming the highest grossing independent animated film at the time and receiving generally positive reviews although the sexual and racial content generated some controversy.
Ralph Bakshi decided to follow up Fritz the Cat with Heavy Traffic in 1973, a film that he had come up with prior to Fritz the Cat but had been unable to produce due to his lack of film experience and the fact that it was an original property. However, the success of Fritz the Cat finally allowed Ralph to begin production on the film. The production of the film saw conflict between Ralph Bakshi and his producer Steve Krantz. Ralph accused Steve of withholding money made from Fritz the Cat while Steve locked Ralph out of the studio and attempted to find another director before rehiring Ralph after Samuel Z. Arkoff, the other producer for the film, threatened to withhold funding. Despite this trouble, the film was released and, while not as financially successful as Fritz the Cat, the film was critically well-received, praising the humour, animation and the use of occasional live-action scenes. It was also noted that, with the financial success of Heavy Traffic, Ralph Bakshi had become the first person since Walt Disney to have released two successful American animated films back to back.
After the release of Heavy Traffic, Ralph Bakshi decided to produce a new film with Albert S. Ruddy, one of the producers for the 1972 film The Godfather, under the title Harlem Nights before later changing the title to Coonskin. Ralph Bakshi decided to tackle racism in Hollywood with Coonskin, portraying stereotypes of African Americans, White Southerners, Italians and the Jews amongst others. Due to controversy surrounding these depictions, Paramount dropped their rights to the film and was instead distributed by Bryanston Distributing Company and received a limited release where it performed poorly at the box office.
In 1976, Ralph Bakshi approached 20th Century Fox and pitched “War Wizards” to them, a fantasy animated film that, in contrast to his previous adult animated works, would target the whole family. Ralph Bakshi ran into financial constraints on the film’s battle sequences and, when Fox refused to increase the budget, he decided to start using his own money to help finish the film. The title was also changed from “War Wizards” to “Wizards” after a request from George Lucas since he was just about to release Star Wars, a request that Ralph complied with since he felt obligated to George for allowing Mark Hamill to record for Wizards. Despite being aimed at the whole family, Wizards still shows the adult roots of Ralph Bakshi’s works with a surprising level of violence, cursing and some prostitutes. The film was financially successful although Fox turned down a pitch from Ralph to produce a sequel.
The Lord of the Rings novels were considered, at the time, to be unfilmable, but Ralph Bakshi, a fan of the books, believed that animation could overcome the limitations of the time. He eventually managed to convince United Artists, who owned the film rights to Lord of the Rings, that the books could be adapted into two or three animated films. While he ran into some problems with management, he eventually managed to get a budget assigned and to begin work on the film. One of the most notable things about the film was the extensive use of rotoscoping, an animation technique where live-action actors act out a scene and animators draw over it to produce realistic movement. However, an issue arose when the studio insisted on changing the title. Originally to be called “The Lord of the Rings Part I”, United Artists decided to rename the movie to simply “The Lord of the Rings”, a problem since the film only adapted one and a half books out of the trilogy. When the movie was released in 1978, it was a financial success but quickly garnered criticism for misleading the audience into thinking that they were going to see all of the books adapted. Conflict between him and Saul Zaentz, the producer for the film, stopped any hope of a sequel being made, although Warner Bros. apparently asked him to make one around the time of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Speaking of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, it’s worth noting that Peter Jackson was a fan of Ralph Bakshi’s film, stating that it inspired him to read the books and he used certain shots from the animated version to inspire shots in his live-action adaptation.
Be sure to check out the conclusion to this article in “The Important Animator Ralph Bakshi Part 2“!
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!