Hip and libidinous New York University student Fritz the Cat (nicely voiced with rascally aplomb by Skip Hinnant) embarks on a loopy and perilous journey of self-discovery as he lives it up during the tumultuous swinging 60's. Fritz becomes a fugitive on the lam from the police, makes a dangerous journey into Harlem, and joins a scary group of hyper-aggressive violence-loving hippie radicals. Writer/director Ralph Bakshi brings Roger Crumb's legendary underground comic character to the screen in a rude, coarse, and nasty, yet often funny and deliciously irreverent manner that mercilessly mocks the 60's youth culture (the revolutionaries are exposed as a bunch of deranged nuts who only want to inflict hurt and pain as much as possible) and takes no-holds-barred ferocious satiric potshots at many scared cows (for example, blacks are depicted as jive-talking crows while the cops are shown as literal pigs). Moreover, this extremely brash and brazen cartoon sure ain't wholesome family entertainment: the seedy characters featured herein curse, do drugs, urinate, and have sex (Fritz convinces three ladies to do just what you think in a bathtub with him),plus there are truly shocking outbursts of raw and ugly violence. Highlights include Fritz's eye-opening experience in a Harlem bar, Fritz recklessly driving a stolen car, and Fritz inciting a race riot. The funky, garish, and bizarrely stylized animation is pretty crude and unpolished by today's more sophisticated standards, but it does the trick just the same. Fritz makes for a charmingly impish and mischievous protagonist. The constant snappy pace, inspired sense of merry anarchy, and groovy syncopated score further enhance this film's overall infectiously wild'n'wacky buzz. An enjoyably freaky head trip of a movie.

I only found out about this cartoon movie because it was listed on a Channel 4 countdown, but I read more about it later. Long before South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and Sausage Party, this was the first ever X-rated animated feature, based on the comic strip by Robert Crumb. Basically, set in the 1960s, in a world of anthropomorphic animals, hippies are gathered at Washington Square Park in Manhattan, New York, with guitars are preparing to sing protest songs. Fritz (Skip Hinnant),a cat, and his friends are hanging around looking for girls. Three attractive women are walking by, but Fritz and his friends are unable to get their attention, they are more interested in a crow standing nearby. The girls attempt to flirt with the crow, making unintentionally condescending remarks about black people, while Fritz watches in annoyance. The crow disapproves of the snide remarks, indicates that he is gay and walks away. Fritz gets his opportunity to flirt with the girls and invites them to "seek the truth". He brings them up to his friend's apartment, where a wild party is taking place. All the rooms are crowded, so Fritz drags them into the bathroom and the four of them have sex in the bathtub. Two bumbling pig police officers (director Ralph Bakshi, and Phil Seuling) arrive at the apartment to raid the party following reported complaints. While the officers enter the building and climb the stairs, one of the party-goers interrupts Fritz and joins him and the girls in the bathtub. Several others jump in, pushing Fritz to the side while they engage in an orgy, and Fritz can only smoke marijuana. The two officers break into the apartment but find that it is empty because everyone has moved into the bathroom. Fritz hides in the toilet while one of the pigs enters the bathroom and begins to beat up the partygoers, and the other cannot but get sexually involved himself. As the pig becomes exhausted, a very stoned Fritz jumps out, grabs the pig's gun, and shoots the toilet, causing the bathroom to flood the apartment. The pigs chase Fritz down the street into a synagogue. Fritz escapes as the officers are slowed down by the congregation getting up to celebrate the United States' decision to send more weapons into Israel. Fritz returns to his dormitory, where his roommates are too busy studying to pay attention to him. He decides to escape his boring life and sets all his notes and books on fire. The flames spreads throughout the dorm, finally setting the entire building on fire. In a bar in Harlem, Fritz meets Duke the Crow (Charles Spidar) playing pool. After almost getting into a fight with the bartender, Duke invites Fritz to "bug out". They steal a car, which Fritz drives off a bridge, but Duke saves his life by grabbing onto a railing. The two arrive at the apartment of a drug dealer named Big Bertha (Rosetta LeNoire),there Fritz's libido is increased with excessive smoking of cannabis joints. Fritz has sex with Bertha, when he suddenly comes to a realisation that he "must tell the people about the revolution!". He runs off into the city street and incites a riot, during which Duke is shot and killed. Fritz is forced to hide in an alley, there his older fox girlfriend, Winston Schwartz (Judy Engles) finds him and drags him on a road trip to San Francisco. When their car runs out of gas in the middle of the desert, he decides to abandon her. He later meets up with methamphetamine-addicted Nazi rabbit biker Blue (John McCurry). Along with Blue's horse girlfriend, Harriet (Mary Dean),they ride to an underground hide-out, where several other revolutionaries tell Fritz of their plan to blow up a power station. When Harriet and Blue have a disagreement, as she wants to leave, he hits her several times and ties her down with a chain, and the others join in the torture. When Fritz attempts to break it up, the leader throws a candle in his face. Blue, John, and the lizard leader then throw Harriet onto a bed and rape her. Harriet is left unclothed in a graveyard, Fritz feels upset for her, but gives her his jacket before leaving. After setting the dynamite at the power plant, Fritz has a change of heart, and unsuccessfully attempts to remove it before it explodes. At a Los Angeles hospital, Harriet disguised as a nun and the girls from New York come to see Fritz. The police officer guarding the door believes he is done for, and the girls believe these will be his last moments. But Fritz, wrapped in bandages, has survived the explosion, and starts reciting a speech. Suddenly, he grabs the girls one by one, he is revitalised and has sex with the trio of girls while Harriet watches in astonishment. This is the cartoon that broke the mould and showed that animation is not just a children's medium, notorious for its profanity, sex, drug use and racist themes, and has a cult following. This is really in your face and daringly offensive, and paved the way for future animation for adults, including The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy, it might not be for everyone, but it is an interesting adult animated black comedy. It was number 56 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Worth watching!

Fritz the Cat mayn't be to everybody's tastes, and before I watched it I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it. I did. The story structure does get loose and episodic, the film does drag in the middle and the sexual conquest scene between Fritz and a giant crow was so bizarre I didn't know what to make of it. However, it does work on the whole as a 1960s social satire, it is crude, shocking and naughty but I got the impression it was meant to be. Thanks to the film's themes of sex, rock 'n' roll, drugs and racism and a sharp script in general it was funny and smart. And I did like the title character, he did have flaws being hypocritical, but he was funny and I think likable too. The animation is done in a unique style, and the music is pretty groovy. Plus the voice cast do a good job. Overall, it isn't something I absolutely adore but it is definitely not a bad film at all. 7/10 Bethany Cox