Diemazz

Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi speaks at Comic-Con International on July 26, 2008.
Born	October 29, 1938 (1938-10-29) (age 70) Haifa, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
Occupation	Animator, film director, screenwriter
Years active	1957–present
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Bakshi
Official website
Awards won Other awards Golden Gryphon 1980 The Lord of the Rings Annie 1988 (none) – Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation Maverick Tribute Award 2003 (none)

Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and, occasionally, live-action films. As the American animation industry fell into decline during the 1960s and 1970s, Bakshi tried to bring a change in the industry as a pioneer of adult animation. From 1972 until 1994, he directed nine theatrically-released feature films, writing five of them, and oversaw ten television projects as a director, producer and animator.

Bakshi started his career at the Terrytoons studio as a cel polisher, and then moved on to the job of cel painter—positions that involved delineating objects on celluloid, a material that was used for animation and film production up until the late 20th century. He worked his way up to inker, then animator, and eventually began to direct animated television shows for the studio. Bakshi moved to Famous Studios in 1967, before starting his own studio in 1968. Through developing a work relationship with producer Steve Krantz, Bakshi made his debut feature film, Fritz the Cat in 1972, the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Bakshi soon began to produce more feature films, directing Heavy Traffic, Coonskin and Hey Good Lookin' at the same time. Coonskin was the most controversial work of his career, its release stalled by protests from the Congress of Racial Equality, who accused Bakshi of racism, although the film was intended as a satire and was later praised by African American critics and viewers. Hey Good Lookin', originally conceived as a combination of live-action and animation, was not released until 1982, when the film's live-action sequences were replaced with animated segments.

Bakshi began working in the fantasy film genre in 1977, with the release of the film Wizards, an allegorical commentary on the destructive powers of propaganda. In 1978, Bakshi directed an animated film adaptation of the first half of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, with the intention to begin work on a sequel, although the story remained incomplete in spite of the film's box office success. Bakshi's career began to experience a decline with the 1981 release American Pop, which followed four generations of musicians whose careers paralleled the history of American popular music. Bakshi also collaborated with fantasy painter Frank Frazetta on the 1983 release of Fire and Ice, but neither film was a box office success. Bakshi returned to television, producing the series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which ran for two years before being canceled following complaints from television watchdog groups about perceived drug references.

Bakshi successfully pitched the idea of Cool World, which was heavily rewritten during production and released in 1992 to negative reviews. Much of the work that followed was in television, including the live action film Cool and the Crazy and the anthology series Spicy City. He founded the Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning in 2003 and released a hardcover book of his art in 2008. Bakshi was the recipient of the 1980 Golden Gryphon for The Lord of the Rings at the Giffoni Film Festival, the 1988 Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation and the 2003 Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest Film Festival.

Biography

Early life and television work

Ralph Bakshi was born of Krymchak descent on October 29, 1938 in Haifa, which was then a part of the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel). In 1939, his family, Eliezer, Mina, and Eve, went to New York to escape the World War II,^[1] and he grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. As a child, Bakshi loved comic books, art in general,^[2] and during his teenage years he was also a boxer.^[3] Bakshi attended the Thomas Jefferson High School and was later transferred to the School of Industrial Art,^[1][3] where he graduated in 1957 with an award in cartooning.^[2][4] Bakshi made a name for himself in animation during the fading days of theatrical studio cartoons. At the Terrytoons studio (best known for the Mighty Mouse cartoons), he started as a cel polisher and then graduated to cel painting. Practicing at night and on weekends, he quickly became an inker and then an animator. By age 25, he was directing programs which featured characters such as Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg, and Foofle.^[2] Bakshi was introduced to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien by a director at Terrytoons in 1956. In 1957 he started trying to obtain the rights by convincing producers that the Lord of the Rings books could be animated.^[5] In 1966, during a series pitch meeting with the CBS Television Network after all of the pitches prepared by Terrytoons had been rejected, an unprepared Bakshi pitched the concept for a superhero spoof cartoon called The Mighty Heroes. CBS greenlit the series and production began with Bakshi serving as director.^[6] In 1967, Bakshi became head of Famous Studies, the animation division of Paramount Pictures, where he hired Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Joe Kubert, Jim Steranko, Gray Morrow, and Roy Krenkel,^[2] and produced several experimental animated short cartoons. The studio closed later that year, and Bakshi founded his own studio, Ralph's Spot, the following year and headed the Spider-Man TV series until 1970.^[2]

Early feature films

Bakshi's 1972 theatrical film debut, Fritz the Cat, was his biggest commercial success, grossing over $100 million worldwide.

In 1971, Steve Krantz agreed to produce what was to be Bakshi's first feature film. They mulled over various projects, finally deciding on Robert Crumb's successful underground comic book Fritz the Cat. Bakshi was initially reluctant to direct the film because he had spent years working on animated productions featuring animal characters and wanted to make films focusing on human characters.^[7] Fritz the Cat featured the voice work of Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Phil Seuling, and Judy Engles, and it was made using a number of experimental animated film production techniques that Bakshi would continue to use throughout his career. It was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States.^[8][3] It was also the first independent animated film to gross more than US$100 million at the box office.^[9] Reviews were largely positive. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film is "constantly funny [...] [There's] something to offend just about everyone."^[10] In The Hollywood Reporter, Paul Sargent Clark called the film "powerful and audacious",^[11] while Newsweek called it "a harmless, mindless, pro-youth saga calculated to shake up only the box office."^[12] The Wall Street Journal and Cue both gave the film mixed reviews.^[4] Several well-known animators took out a full-page advertisement in Variety criticizing the film for its adult content, and creator Robert Crumb disowned the film.^[13][14] Bakshi is quoted as saying that "A lot of people got freaked out. The people in charge of the power structure [...] thought I was a pornographer, and they made things very difficult for me. The younger people, the people who could take new ideas, were the people I was addressing. I wasn't addressing the whole world. To those people who loved it, it was a huge hit, and everyone else wanted to kill me."^[15]

In 1973, Bakshi began production on Heavy Traffic, a personal tale of inner-city street life. The film incorporated many of Bakshi's trademark filmmaking techniques from his debut, and also incorporated the heavy use of live-action footage, which Bakshi would continue to use in his films throughout his career. During the production of the film, Bakshi met and developed an instant friendship with producer Albert S. Ruddy during a screening of The Godfather, and successfully pitched the idea of Harlem Nights, a film loosely based on the Uncle Remus storybooks.^[4][16] When Steve Krantz learned that Bakshi would work with Ruddy, Krantz locked Bakshi out of the studio, but allowed him to come back to complete the film two weeks later.^[2] Newsweek wrote that Heavy Traffic contained "black humor, powerful grotesquerie and peculiar raw beauty. Episodes of violence and sexuality are both explicit and parodies of flesh-and-blood porn [...] a celebration of urban decay."^[17] Charles Champlin wrote in The New York Times that the film was "furious energy, uncomfortable to watch as often as it is hilarious."^[18] The Hollywood Reporter called it "shocking, outrageous, offensive, sometimes incoherent, occasionally unintelligent. However, it is also an authentic work of movie art and Bakshi is certainly the most creative American animator since Disney."^[19] Ralph Bakshi became the first person in the animation industry since Walt Disney to have two financially successful films released back-to-back.^[20] However, the film was banned by the film censorship board in the province of Alberta, Canada when it was originally released.^[21]

Controversy and shift towards fantasy film

A scene from Coonskin intended to satirize African American stereotypes.

Bakshi ended his partnership with Steve Krantz and set up his own studio.^[20] Bakshi and Ruddy began production on Harlem Nights, with Paramount Pictures originally attached to distribute the film.^[4] The title was eventually changed to Coonskin No More...^[22] and finally to Coonskin. The film, culled from Bakshi's interest in African American history in America, was an attack on racism and racist stereotypes.^[23] Bakshi hired several African American animators to work on Coonskin and another feature, Hey Good Lookin'. At the time, there were no African American animators working at the Walt Disney Company.^[4] The film's release was stalled by protests from the Congress of Racial Equality long before its release, who accused the film and Bakshi himself of being racist.^[4][23] The film was eventually given limited distribution advertised as an exploitation film, and disappeared from theaters. Initial reviews of the film were negative. Playboy said of the film, "Bakshi seems to throw in a little of everything and he can't quite pull it together."^[4] Eventually, positive reviews appeared in the New York Times, the Hollywood Reporter, the New York Amsterdam News (an African American newspaper), and elsewhere, but the film died at the box office.^[4] Richard Eder of The New York Times wrote, "[Coonskin] could be his masterpiece [...] a shattering successful effort to use an uncommon form—cartoons and live action combined—to convey the hallucinatory violence and frustration of American city life, specifically black city life [...] lyrically violent, yet in no way [does it] exploit violence."^[24] Variety called the film a "brutal satire from the streets. Not for all tastes [...] not avant-garde. [...] The target audience is youth who read comics in the undergrounds."^[25] A reviewer for The Los Angeles Herald Examiner wrote "Certainly, it will outrage some and indeed it's not Disney. I liked it. The dialogue it has obviously generated—if not the box office obstacles—seems jotingly healthy."^[26]

During this period, an initial cut of the film Hey Good Lookin' was completed. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1950s and focuses on Vinnie, the leader of a gang named "the Stompers," his friend, Crazy Shapiro, and their girls, Roz and Eva. It was originally conceived as a combination of live-action and animation.^[4][8] According to Bakshi, "The illusion I attempted to create was that of a completely live-action film. Making it work almost drove us crazy."^[27] Production of the film was underway in 1974. Singer Dan Hicks worked on the film's initial music score, but the final film was scored by John Madara.^[28] The main voice actors were Richard Romanus, David Proval and Jesse Welles. Hey Good Lookin' opened in New York City on October 1, 1982, and was released in Los Angeles in January 1983.^[27] Animation historian Jerry Beck wrote that "The beginning of the film is quite promising, with a garbage can discussing life on the streets with some garbage. This is an example of what Bakshi did best - using the medium of animation to comment on society. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it enough in this film. There is a wildly imaginative fantasy sequence during the climax, when the character named Crazy starts hallucinating during a rooftop shooting spree. This scene almost justifies the whole film. But otherwise, this is a rehash of ideas better explored in Coonskin, Heavy Traffic, and Fritz the Cat."^[27]

In an effort to expand into other genres and move away from race and cultural issues, Bakshi developed the fantasy film War Wizards, an allegorical comment on the moral neutrality of technology and the potentially destructive powers of propaganda.^[29][30] The film went into production at 20th Century Fox as Star Wars was being produced, and Bakshi was asked to change the title of his film to Wizards because of the conflict with that film.^[29] Actor Mark Hamill was persuaded to appear in a minor role in Wizards, while the main voices were provided by Bob Holt, Steve Gravers, and Hey Good Lookin' voice actors Jesse Welles, Richard Romanus and David Proval.^[30] Bakshi ran into trouble when he was unable to complete the battle sequences with the budget 20th Century Fox had given him, and the studio refused to raise his funds, resulting in Bakshi having to use his own money to fund the production, using rotoscoping for the battle sequences, which borrowed live-action material taken directly from World War II stock footage and feature films.^[29][30] The film was well-received in Japan and Germany.^[29][30] Jerry Beck wrote that "The central figure, Avatar, is a crusty old wizard who sounds a great deal like Peter Falk, and clearly owes much to cartoonist Vaughn Bodé's Cheech Wizard character. The conflict between Avatar and his evil brother Blackwolf is both clichéd and mostly dealt with at a distance, as the opposing sides gradually grow nearer. [...] The film has a few interesting moments, particularly in a series of still illustrations by Marvel comic artist Mike Ploog, but is perhaps most notable as a turning point, not necessarily a positive one, in Bakshi's film career."^[27]

The Lord of the Rings

Ralph Bakshi actively sought the film rights to The Lord of the Rings. His Golden Gryphon-winning adaptation, released in 1978, was the second-biggest commercial success of his career.

During this period, Bakshi learned that director John Boorman was contracted to direct an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and that Boorman had attempted to collapse the entire story into a single film. When Boorman left the project, Bakshi proposed that United Artists produce the story as three animated films.^[31] Bakshi and Dan Melnick, then-president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, made a deal with United Artists to purchase the film rights to the story for $3 million, but the deal fell through when Melnick was fired from MGM.^[31] Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who had helped finance Fritz the Cat, and persuaded him to produce The Lord of the Rings. United Artists agreed to produce the story as two films.^[31] Voice actors included Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes and John Hurt. The film incorporated the use of rotoscoping, brief snippets of cel animation, and live-action footage mixed with animation. Bakshi later regretted his use of the rotoscoping technique, stating that he made a mistake by tracing the source footage rather than using it as a guide.^[32]

Once the film was completed, Bakshi was told that audiences would not pay to see an incomplete film, and The Lord of the Rings was released without any indication that a second part would follow, in spite of Bakshi's objections.^[31][33] The film cost $4 million to produce and grossed $30.5 million at the box office.^[27] Film critic Leonard Maltin said that it was one of only two major commercial successes in Bakshi's career, the other being Fritz the Cat.^[8] Despite this, the studio refused to fund the sequel, which would have picked up half-way through the story and adapted the remainder of the book.^[31]

In The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Barrow wrote that the film was "daring and unusual in concept."^[27] Joseph Gelmis of Newsday wrote that "the film's principal reward is a visual experience unlike anything that other animated features are doing at the moment."^[27] Roger Ebert called Bakshi's effort a "mixed blessing" and "an entirely respectable, occasionally impressive job ... [which] still falls far short of the charm and sweep of the original story.^[34] Vincent Canby of the New York Times called the film "both numbing and impressive."^[35] The Lord of the Rings won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival.^[36]

Box office decline and return to television

Bakshi's next film, American Pop, released in 1981, followed four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians whose careers paralleled the history of American popular music. Bakshi again made use of rotoscoping, and an extensive soundtrack spanning several decades of music was utilized.^[1] Response to the film was "lukewarm", according to The New York Times.^[37] In 1983, Bakshi collaborated with fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta on the film Fire and Ice, which once again utilized rotoscoping. Jerry Beck wrote that "The plot is standard [...] recalling nothing so much as a more graphic episode of Filmation's He-Man series. [...] Fire and Ice essentially stands as a footnote to the spate of barbarian films that followed in the wake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance as Conan."^[27] Bakshi went into semi-retirement to focus on his painting.^[37] In 1986, Bakshi directed the live-action sequences for the Rolling Stones music video "Harlem Shuffle". John Kricfalusi directed the video's animated sequences.^[2] Bakshi and Kricfalusi also conceived the unproduced project Bobby's Girl, described as being "a sort of [1950s] teen-comedy thing".^[38] Bakshi's biggest success in the 1980s was a TV cartoon series aired in 1987, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. The series ran for only two years, complaints from television watchdog groups about perceived drug references being a driving force in its cancellation.^[4] In 1988, Bakshi received an Annie Award for "Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation".^[36]

In 1991, Bakshi successfully pitched the idea of Cool World to Paramount Pictures. The film was initially conceived as an animated horror film.^[37] While shooting on location, Bakshi was handed a new screenplay that was completely different from the one he had turned in, and learned that the script had been heavily rewritten by screenwriting duo Michael Grais and Mark Victor under the order of producer Frank Mancuso Jr.^[39][40] Paramount threatened to sue Bakshi if he did not complete the film.^[15] The film's cast included Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt. Bakshi had intended Pitt to star as the film's male lead, paired with Drew Barrymore.^[39] Bakshi expressed displeasure with the casting of Basinger and Byrne, as he had intended the film's main characters to be younger.^[41] Critical response towards the film was generally negative. Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film: "The DJ who was hosting the radio station's free preview of Cool World leaped onto the stage and promised the audience: 'If you liked Roger Rabbit, you'll love Cool World!' He was wrong, but you can't blame him — he hadn't seen the movie. I have, and I will now promise you that if you liked Roger Rabbit, quit while you're ahead."^[42]

Later work

In 1994, Bakshi directed Cool and the Crazy, which aired as a part of Showtime's Rebel Highway series. It was his first entirely live-action feature film.^[43] Bakshi had originally announced the film in 1979 under the title If I Catch Her, I'll Kill Her, and began developing it that year.^[44] The film starred Jennifer Blanc, Matthew Flint, Jared Leto, Alicia Silverstone, Christine Harnos and John Hawkes. The story focused on an unfulfilled wife whose best friend encourages her to have an affair with a violent hood. The film took its title from a 1958 exploitation film released by American International Pictures,^[45] but its plot bared no relation to the earlier film.^[43] Variety reviewer Todd Everett wrote "the hyperdrive visual sense for which Bakshi's animated features have been noted. Everything in "Cool" [...] seems to exist in pastels and Bakshi shoots from more odd angles than any director since Sidney J. Furie in his heyday. And the closing sequences ably demonstrate how it's possible to present strong violence without any blood being shed onscreen. Bakshi pulls strong perfs from a cadre of youngish and largely unknown actors".^[43]

In 1995, Bakshi created two animated short films for Cartoon Network, Malcom and Melvin and Babe, He Calls Me. Both were heavily edited and Bakshi disowned them.^[46] In 1997, Bakshi worked on the animated television series Spicy City for HBO. The series was set in a noirish, technology-driven future.^[46] The series was based in an anthology form, each episode featuring a different story narrated by a sexy female host named Raven, voiced by Michelle Phillips. Although critical reaction was mixed and largely unfavorable, Spicy City received decent ratings, and a second season was greenlit, but the series was cancelled after only six episodes.^[46] Bakshi did not work on any animation projects for several years, spending his time in New Mexico, working as a painter.^[47] In 2003, Bakshi received a Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival.^[36] The same year, he made a guest appearance on protégé John Kricfalusi's Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", and the Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning, founded by Bakshi, went into operation. It is currently being run by artist and educator Jess Gorell and Bakshi's son Eddie.^[47]

Availability of his work on the Internet spiked a recent resurgence of interest, resulting in a three-day retrospective at American Cinematheque at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California, and the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California, in April 2005. At the proceedings, Bakshi announced plans to finance and produce a low-budget animated feature titled Last Days of Coney Island. In September 2008, it was announced that Main Street Pictures would collaborate with Bakshi on a sequel to his film Wizards.^[48][49] Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi, a hardcover book of Bakshi's art, was released on April 1, 2008. The foreword was written by Quentin Tarantino, and Bakshi wrote the afterword.^[50] The Online Film Critics Society ranked four of Bakshi's films on their list of the "Top 100 Animated Features of All Time": Fritz the Cat, The Lord of the Rings, Coonskin and Fire and Ice.^[51] Fritz the Cat was ranked at number 56 on Channel 4's list of the 100 Greatest Cartoons.^[52] The Museum of Modern Art has added his films to their collection for preservation.^[2]

Filmography

From 1972 until 1994, Ralph Bakshi directed nine theatrically-released feature films, writing five of them. He made voice cameos in six of his animated features, and in episodes of Spicy City and Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". He also directed an animated sequence featured in the 1984 live-action film Cannonball Run II, and was interviewed for the 2003 documentary feature Frazetta: Painting with Fire, and the segment Ralph Bakshi: The Wizard of Animation, which appears as a special feature on the 2004 DVD release of Wizards.^[53]

Film directorial work

• Fritz the Cat (1972) (also writer)
• Heavy Traffic (1973) (also writer)
• Coonskin (1975) (also writer)
• Wizards (1977) (also writer)
• J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1978)
• American Pop (1981)
• Hey Good Lookin' (1982) (also writer)
• Fire and Ice (1983)
• Cool World (1992)
• Last Days Of Coney Island {TBA} {also writer}

Television directorial work

• The Mighty Heroes (TV series) (1966)
• Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (TV series) (1987) (also writer)
• Christmas in Tattertown (TV special) (1988) (also writer)
• This Ain't Bebop (live action) (1989) (also writer)
• Hound Town (1989) (TV)
• Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book (1989) (TV special)
• Cool and the Crazy (TV movie, live action) (1994) (also writer)
• Malcom and Melvin (1997) (also writer)
• Babe, He Calls Me (1997) (also writer)
• Spicy City (TV series) (1997)

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ralph Bakshi

• Official website
• Ralph Bakshi at the Internet Movie Database

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