Film: Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin and Heavy Traffic (Double Feature)

COONSKIN
The spectacular and groundbreaking animated film that sparked a powder keg of controversy in the 1970s! After directing the successful adult animated films Fritz The Cat and Heavy Traffic, Ralph Bakshi decided to push the envelope further with the controversial classic Coonskin. Bakshi opens and closes Coonskin with a live-action tale starring Scatman Crothers, “Miami Vice’s ” Philip Michael Thomas, soul legend Barry White, and actor Charles Gordone. In between is an animated urban film featuring Brother Bear (voiced by Thomas), Brother Fox (voiced by Gordone), and Brother Rabbit (voiced by White). The three characters enter a white-dominated ghetto environment where one becomes a crime overlord, the second sells the first out to the mafia and the third establishes himself as a media-exploited sports icon. Laced with profane dialogue and street slang, Coonskin is often praised for its groundbreaking approach to important social issues. (Xenon Pictures)

“Coonskin could be Ralph Bakshi’s masterpiece.” – New York Times

DIRECTOR Ralph Bakshi
WRITER Ralph Bakshi
STARRING Barry White, Charles Gordone, Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas, Danny Rees, Buddy Douglas, Jim Moore
YEAR 1975
COUNTRY USA
FORMAT 35mm
RUNNING TIME 83 minutes
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HEAVY TRAFFIC
Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York cartoonist named Michael Corleone, using pinball imagery as a metaphor for inner-city life. Heavy Traffic was Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz’s follow-up to the successful but controversial film Fritz the Cat, the first animated feature to receive an X rating. The film received positive reviews and is widely considered to be Bakshi’s biggest critical success. (Park Circus)

DIRECTOR Ralph Bakshi
WRITER Ralph Bakshi
YEAR 1973
COUNTRY USA
FORMAT 35mm
RUNNING TIME 77 minutes