Fritz the Cat (1972) and The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974)

nFritz the Cat, the comic strip character about a hip cat whoncomments on society and life, first came to life in the mind of famednunderground comic book artist Robert R. Crumb when he was just a kid way backnin 1959 in the pages of a little home made comic strip called “Cat Life”.nLater, when Crumbs career grew in the underground comic scene of the 60’s andn70’s Fritz the Cat became known to the world as the anthropomorphic cat whonrepresented the counter culture and had all sorts of crazy adventures, includingnmany sexual ones. Crumb by the way is a genius of the comic book art form in mynbook, his style is one that I personally love and admire and actually kind ofnemulate in my own stuff, so this review comes from a genuine Robert Crumbnadmirer. Ultimately Crumb completely disassociated himself from this film project,ngoing as far as getting his name legally removed from anything related to thenfilm. The fact that Crumb cut himself out of the project doesn’t mean thatnFritz the Cat is a bad film, because it isn’t. I actually think the film effectivelyncaptured what Crumb’s strip was all about but at the same time it has a lot ofnBakshi’s own mentality in it as well. It’s the joining of these two geniusnminds that makes Fritz the Cat such a unique film. I have to admit that I am disappointed at thenfact that Crumb didn’t participate in the development of the film, still, Inhave to give props to Ralph Bakshi and his achievements with it; it is anspecial film in many ways.

nWay back in the early 70’s when famed animator Ralph Bakshinwas looking for the right project with which to launch his career, he stumblednupon a Fritz the Cat strip and got the idea in his mind that he could make anfilm about these horny pot smoking animals. He’d been looking for the rightnfilm with which to start off his animation studio; a studio that Bakshi wantednto use to produce animated films for adults. But Crumb wasn’t budging; hendidn’t want to give the rights to Bakshi, he didn’t want to do the project.nBakshi himself has gone down as saying that Crumb wanted all the credit for himselfnand making film, by definition isn’t allnabout one person. It’s a collaborative medium, many people help a film happen.nBut the story doesn’t stop there. Crumb’s wife wanted the money that thenproject was offering and since she had a power of attorney over Crumbs work,nshe signed over the rights to Bakshi anyways. According to Crumb, they only gotn7,000 for the rights! Fritz the Cat cost 850,000 to produce but went on to makenalmost 2 million dollars world wide, making it a bonafide success.

nWhat was the big deal with Fritz the Cat? Why did annindependent animated film suddenly make so much dough? Well, various factorsnhelped this groundbreaking animated film get noticed, first of them is the factnthat it was the first animated film to get the dreaded X-rating. Normally,ngetting an X-rating means economic death for any film; it means your film won’tnget played in as many theaters and that the grand majority of conservatives innthe world won’t go see your film. And while that might have been so at the timenthat Fritz the Cat was released, it still went on to make a hefty amount ofnmoney at the box office and it is still the single most successful independentnanimated film in history. Bakshi and crew intelligently used the X-rating tontheir advantage pasting the phrase “He’s X-rated and animated” and “We’re notnrated X for nothin’, baby!” on their posters. The most controversial aspect of thenfilm is seeing these cute little cartoon animals smoking weed, shooting upnheroin, participating in orgies and murdering people. Never before Fritz thenCat had an animated film been aimed at an adult audience, so this film wasnground breaking in that way. Fritz’s sexual exploits are pretty nuts as well,nthey include him picking up three chicks by impressing them with hisnphilosophical ideas, and then getting them to participate in a massive orgy atna house where these beatniks are all having a major smoke out. Then Fritz goesnand has sex with this huge black chick called ‘Bertha’. It’s hilarious seeingnFritz squeezing his face into a huge pair of breasts with such reckless abandon.

nFritz the Cat is most certainly a stoner flick; it glorifiesnpot smoking like very few movies do. Fritz tokes it up and shares the ganjanwith his girlfriends to get them in the mood. He smokes and goes on thesenhallucinatory head trips which offer up some of the craziest visuals in thenfilm. I guess every single pot smoking, tripped out hippy went to see this one.nOnce word of mouth gets out that a film is ‘trippy’ well, acid heads andntripsters go in droves. Same thing happened with Kubrick’s 2001: A SpacenOdyssey (1968) a film which acid heads went to see not only because it was a great cinematic experience, but because it also offered trippynvisuals to augment their drug trips, and this most certainly is the case withnFritz the Cat, though the animation can be crude by today’s standards (as arenmost of Bakshi’s films) when you get used to it, the visuals can be quite the trip.

nThe film goes by pretty quickly from sketch to sketch, it cannbe a bit hard to follow because Fritz the Cat is a film that does not unfold innyou’re a-typical linear fashion; it actually plays out a lot like a series ofnsketches commenting on socio-political problems. But when you finish watchingnit, you’ll feel that the film is just as chaotic, frenetic and sour sweet asnlife itself; which is something I enjoyed. I loved how both films serve as antime capsule of the late 60’s and early 70’s, it shows us the way peoplenthought, what they were going through. Race issues pop up constantly, fornexample, Fritz hates the way white people have abused blacks through outnhistory, so he goes hangs out with black people and plays pool with them,nstrikes up philosophical conversations about racism. These conversations sparkednup quite the controversy; but Bakshi has always been a guy who doesn’t shy awaynfrom controversy. Controversy is something that Bakshi films were always about,nfor example Coonskin (1975) Bakshi’s racially charged feature film, flared up anwhole lot of controversy, it was accused for being racist, when in fact it wasnthe complete opposite. It is now considered by Bakshi and his fans, as hisnmasterpiece. Bakshi did always make an effort on his films to comment onnracism, for example, there’s something about the way Bakshi made these scenesnthat take place at an all black bar in Fritz the Cat. The scene has a bunch ofnblack people hanging out, drinking booze, and talking bull. The conversations innthese scenes come off as very realistic because Bakshi actually picked up anbunch of black people and brought them to the studio and just let them talk, henlater animated the scenes in accordance to the dialog he recorded, as a resultnthe dialog comes off as vibrant and full of life.

nAnother controversial moment in the film has Fritz joiningnthis group of revolutionaries who want to blow up some kind of factory, thesenguys are unsavory types only looking to do some damage, they are just violentnfor the sake of being violent and so Fritz ends up joining them andnparticipating, not realizing his getting into a heap of trouble. This segmentnis obviously meant to send a warning. You might be counter culture and younmight hate the system, but you have to choose your partners carefully.nUltimately, Fritz the Cat is a strange film to take in, it’s amusing and hasntons of shock value, but it’s not easy to digest. At times the film goes on these tangents with Fritz philosophizing about life; you’ll feel like you’re inna beatnik bar philosophizing and criticizing everything that moves, which isnbasically the kind of film Fritz the Cat is. Fritz embodies the state of mindnand frustrations of the 60’s generation, it’s awesome to look at it just fornthat.

nThe sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat was not directednby Ralph Bakshi because Bakshi had said all he wanted to say with Fritz thenCat, he was ready to move on to something else, which would end up being hisnnext animated feature film, Heavy Traffic (1973) a film about ancartoonist/animator who wants to make an animated film, but is finding it difficultnto produce, like most of his films Bakshi was venting some personal demons withnthat one. The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat went on to be directed by a guyncalled Robert Taylor and had nothing to do with either Bakshi or Crumb. It isnseen by many as simply a cash-in, a film made to capitalize on the success ofnthe first. And though I kind of agree with that sentiment, this sequel is notnwithout its merits.

nThis time around Fritz has gotten married; he lives with hisnfat wife and child in a cramped apartment in the slums. All Fritz does thesendays is sit around smoking weed and waiting for his next welfare check;nunfortunately the people at the welfare office are calling him up, questioning himnas to why he hasn’t found a job yet. At the same time, his wife is screaming at him at the top of hernlungs about being a good father and getting a job, two things that Fritz doesnnot seem to be too good at. So as he takes a puff of smoke, all of his ninenlives take an astral trip, each life a different version of Fritz. Each life andifferent sketch; a different comment on society.

nIn one life Fritz goes off and screws a young Puerto Ricanngirl, making her smoke weed so that she gets all horny. After they smoke, theyngo on this hallucinatory surreal trip, which if you ask me, looks and feels morenlike an acid trip than anything. In another life Fritz is off to Mars on anspaceship with a news reporter he manages to seduce minutes before take off. Innanother life, he meets a bum on the streets who says he is God. On another he endsnup being Hitler’s right hand man; this segment of the film aims it’s guns at thenfascist movement, making fun of Hitler and the Nazi’s every chance it gets. Fornexample, they go on and on about how Hitler is actually a very frustrated catnbecause he has only one testicle, and is secretly gay. Hitler actually tries tonscrew Fritz! Then, we get the most controversial of all the segments, the onenin which Fritz has to enter New Jersey, which has now been dubbed “New Africa”nbecause according to the movie, the white men in power gave New Jersey to thenblacks! So anyhows, Fritz ends up getting blamed for the assassination of thenpresident of New Africa! Fritz even meets Satan on this one. At the end of thenday though, the second Fritz movie isn’t as shocking as the first, but it’snstill extremely satirical of the times it was made, the 70’s.

nBakshi himself is not very fond of The Nine Lives of Fritznthe Cat; he considers it a lesser film and so does Crumb, to whom the film doesnnot exist. If you ask me, I’d say that both films are more or less the same, theynboth comment on society, shock with their vulgarity and violence (for animatednfilms anyways) and both have that sketchy vibe to them; but Fritz the Cat doesnhave more of an edge to it. It is more graphic in nature, which is the reason whynFritz the Cat garnered an X-Rating while The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat got a ‘R’,nthis immediately let’s us know that Nine Lives is softer and sort of playing bynthe rules. The sequel wasn’t as successful with critics and audiences as thenfirst film, but in my opinion, it’s not totally unwatchable. They are both verynrepresentative of the times they were made and comment on a lot of relevantnissues. They don’t necessarily give any answers, but they sure do plant thenquestions. Both films have that rough Ralph Bakshi style of animation which canntake a while to get adjusted to, but even though both films are rough aroundnthe edges, and suffer from imperfect sketchy animation, both films more thannmake up for it with their content and attitude.

nRating for Fritz the Cat (1972): 4 out of 5

nRating for The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974): 3