Fritz the Cat

Fritz the Cat. 1972 Steve Krantz Productions & Cinemation Industries (released to DVD by MGM).
Vocal Talent: Skip Hinnant
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Buy Fritz the Cat at Amazon.

Robert Crumb's cartoon characters are brought to the big screen in the first X-rated animated movie. Reportedly, Crumb's first wife gave Bakshi and company the rights to Fritz and his friends against his wishes. Crumb hated the movie enough that he killed Fritz off shortly after the movie's release. Fritz met his demise via ice pick to the back of his head by an old girlfriend. Still, that didn't discourage the making of a 1974 sequel, which I'll review later on tonight.

In the movie, Fritz's entire existance seems to revolve mostly around sex, drugs, and other illegal activities, with the epiphany that he "needs to tell the people about the revolution" while stoned out of his mind and engaged in sex with a former prostitute. After a few scrapes with the law, Fritz is collared by his girlfriend Winston, who plans to road trip out to San Francisco. Out west, Fritz falls in with a group of revolutionaries planning to blow up a power station, and ends up going along with the leader. He only changes his mind after seeing the dynamite, and fails to prevent the explosion. Hospitalized, Fritz realizes he should "stick to his original hedonist philosophy and let the rest of the world take care of itself".

This film was very controversal after its release, and it's very easy to say why. Regardless, it was an enormous box office hit, only kept out of the top slot by The Godfather at one point. Recommended.