"Fritz The Cat" (1972)

Starring the voices of: Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Phil Seuling.

First, the lowdown: An animated feature of an underground comic that should’ve stayed underground.

I have to shamefacedly admit that I’m not terribly read up on Robert Crumb. To further expose my lack of knowledge, I’ve only read excerpts of the Fritz The Cat comic. Most of my knowledge about Crumb actually comes from “Crumb” the documentary about him. From what I’ve read, Crumb hates this movie and isn’t terribly crazy about the notoriety that he’s gained from it. People who wouldn’t have bothered reading independent comics are now acting as instant “biggest fans” all because some enterprising lad decided to make an animation adaptation of one of Crumb’s works. So really, I can’t blame him. The comic was intended to be a poke in the eye to all of the wannabe’s in the sixties counter culture movement. Bakshi approached it with the best of intentions, (and actually it’s somewhat faithful to it), but people were more interested in watching a cartoon that had fucking and drug use in it. So the message (if there was any to be had) kinda got lost. Instead of people seeing it as a scathing satire of college life in the 1960’s, the emphasis seemed to be more on the drug use and anthropomorphic animals copulating everywhere. (In this aspect it’s kinda like Hunter S Thompson writing about a furry convention.) In a nutshell, the movie follows the misadventures of Fritz, a college dropout who is sick of the “scene” and the hypocrisy in the world around him. When an orgy turns into a failed drug bust, Fritz flees and “goes underground” (even though during the sixties you could get hassled by the police just by telling them you’re a college student.) Along the way he does a LOT of weed, hangs around with black people just to prove that he’s cool, and generally makes an ass of himself. In a way this character reminds me of a lot of people I’ve encountered who think that just by acting weird and using a contraband substance, it makes them an artist. If that were true, I would be listing this website and my NyQuil addiction on my resume. There are quite a few jabs made at the expense of hipsters, but they seem to pull a few punches that the comic was not afraid to throw and overall the tone of the movie seems exploitive than satiric. Jesus, I’m sounding like a genuine film critic. Somebody shoot me. One thing I will give Mr. Bakshi: at least this one doesn’t rely on as much “found footage” for animation stock as Wizards or American Pop did. If anything, I recommend this flick for teenagers who want to shock their parents and sorta (I guess) learn about that volume of American Mythology that is The Sixties.

Line of the move: “I’m a failure as a pot smoker.” Yeah, pretty much sums it up.

Three and a half stars. Lather, rinse, repeat.