The Cruel, Cool World of Ralph Bakshi

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Ralph Bakshi is simultaneously one of the most distinct and obscure voices in American animation. Responsible for introducing western audiences to adult-oriented animated feature films, Bakshi is a raunchy, political, heart-first creator who spent his career behaving less like his studio lifer peers, and more like a live-action auteur.

Auteurism in western animation is about as uncommon as feature-length animated films intended for adults. And, as a consequence, Bakshi’s uniquely dark and dingy sensibility has largely relegated his feature films to the fringe. These days Bakshi’s catalog is under-seen and often held at arm’s length as oddities reserved for weirdos and perverts. And while that last part is somewhat true, Bakshi’s boundary-pushing filmography is as deserving of attention as any of his more mainstream (a.k.a. live-action) counterculture cohort.

The video essay “The World of Ralph Bakshi” offers an introduction to the look, feel, and patterns of the cinematic world of Bakshi. It outlines his cynical, chain-smoking everyman archetype, embodied iconically in the frisky feline form of Fritz the Cat. The video lays out Bakshi’s cacophonous worlds of constant gunfire, smokey pool halls, and dusty neon-lit alleyways. This is a scary and captivating cinematic world founded on violence, corruption, and desire. Peppered, of course, with the promise of escape from the endless roar of the city into parallel worlds of fantasy and magic. For the uninitiated: buckle up.

You can watch “The World of Ralph Bakshi” here:

Who made this?

This video essay was put together by the Texas-based Royal Ocean Film Society, which is run by Andrew Saladino. You can browse their back catalog of videos on their Vimeo account here. If Vimeo isn’t your speed, you can give them a follow on YouTube here.

More Videos Like This

• A 1988 interview in which Bakshi argues that cartoons based on toys are bad for kids (“of course it hurts kids watching that stuff…there’s no love involved!’). Bakshi’s inclusion in the segment (populated with lobbyists, and concerned parents) is surreal, but most encounters with Bakshi are.
• A video essay that details “The Amazing Weirdness of ’60s Spider-Man,” including how Bakshi’s involvement during an era pressured to re-use footage resulted in the equivalent of pop art.
• Bakshi’s impact on Animation’s New Wave.
• A characteristically honest interview with Robert Crumb, creator of Fritz the Cat.
• Another video from the Royal Ocean Film Society, on Isao Takahata, the other Studio Ghibli master.