If you are worried about being offended, it's best you avoid the films of Ralph Bakshi. While he did make a few mainstream movies, such as the "Lord of the Rings" pictures, much of his work is edgy and offensive....the sort of animation you wouldn't want to watch with your mother or children in the same room with you. Nudity, foul language and offensive behavior....all of these are in films like "Fritz the Cat" and "Heavy Traffic". However, the most offensive is probably this film, "Coonskin". While it lack the X-rating of "Fritz the Cat", it's chock full of pretty much anything that could offend. Much of it is so offensive that I can't even repeat it, as IMDB standards won't let me write about it in the review. The most noticeable of these is the pervasive use of the n-word...and the film begins with Scatman Crothers singing a song about the "N-man" (again, IMDB standards prevent me from using that n-word). But there's much more....apparently racist drawings (though I don't think that was director Bakshi's intent), nudity, calls to 'kill whitey', anti-homosexual humor and more.....it's all the sort of stuff you simply cannot get away with today....and, I am not sure how much I'd want to see more stuff like this!
The story is a weird re-working of Disney's "Song of the South" with many twists. For example, instead of the nice Uncle Remus, the film's animated portions are introduced by a long-time prisoner (Crothers), as he's trying to teach some moral lessons to his young and impulsive black cell-mate. The stories involve Rabbit, a black anti-hero much like the anti-heroes of Blaxploitation films of the day....a character who fights and kills folk from the mob, cops and blacks who have sold out to The Man.
So is it any good? Well, it is creative and occasionally funny. It also has some great points to make about what it's like to be black in a white America and seem to be asking black people "what makes you mad?". But some of this insight is lost because Ralph Bakshi isn't black....and a white guy speaking for black America seems a bit paternalistic...though I appreciate the risks he took with this film and his desire to show a different sort of black experience....the type you just won't see in other folks' cartoons!
My feeling is that this is the sort of movie you watch once....and only once. It's offensive and weird...but also a film that made me feel a tad embarrassed to watch it...so I watched it when my family wasn't around. It's THAT sort of film! An interesting glimpse into the 1970s....warts and all!
The story is a weird re-working of Disney's "Song of the South" with many twists. For example, instead of the nice Uncle Remus, the film's animated portions are introduced by a long-time prisoner (Crothers), as he's trying to teach some moral lessons to his young and impulsive black cell-mate. The stories involve Rabbit, a black anti-hero much like the anti-heroes of Blaxploitation films of the day....a character who fights and kills folk from the mob, cops and blacks who have sold out to The Man.
So is it any good? Well, it is creative and occasionally funny. It also has some great points to make about what it's like to be black in a white America and seem to be asking black people "what makes you mad?". But some of this insight is lost because Ralph Bakshi isn't black....and a white guy speaking for black America seems a bit paternalistic...though I appreciate the risks he took with this film and his desire to show a different sort of black experience....the type you just won't see in other folks' cartoons!
My feeling is that this is the sort of movie you watch once....and only once. It's offensive and weird...but also a film that made me feel a tad embarrassed to watch it...so I watched it when my family wasn't around. It's THAT sort of film! An interesting glimpse into the 1970s....warts and all!