FRITZ THE CAT (1972)

One of the most outrageously funny animation I’ve ever seen. The film is regarded as avant garde animation and almost gained a cult status for both its experimental content and form considered controversial at the time of its release due to adult and sexually offensive X rated content. The film is the brainchild of underground comic strip artist Robert Crumb and independent screenplay writer-director Ralph Bakshi. It begins with 1960s happy time heavy time and it pokes fun at bourgeois, pulp loving, hedonist American type society of period touching contemporary topics of street life of youth, counter culture, street protests, racial crisis, rise of black power, pot smoking joints, free sex with outrageous black humor. Fritz is the anthropomorphic bachelor cat who considers himself cool running after private fun. Characters are dark, weird, nonsense and horny who constantly abusing, smoking weed, farting, and scratching their crotch. The film became one of the most successful independent animation of all-time. However Crumb didn’t like the final product for so many reasons including showing repressed horniness to sexual content. He also filed a suit to remove his name from its film credits. 

However compared to this, I enjoyed its sequel titled as ‘The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat’ which released two years after the success of its predecessor and directed by Robert Taylor. It represents seventies phase. The film is quite different in treatment since neither Crumb nor Bakshi was involved with it. Here the bachelor Fritz of earlier part is married now and has a kid. His nagging wife bashing him and he’s imagining different lives and most of them turned out as wild fun. That space shuttle sex with reporter lady and Hitler fun is just amazing.