View source for Ralph Bakshi

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[[File:ralphbakshirenstimpy.gif|frame|Bakshi, pictured here with [[The Ren and Stimpy Show (Animation)|two unidentified fans]].]]


{{quote|''"Ralph Bakshi is a force of nature. He saved the [[Western Animation|TV animation]] industry -- the creative part of it -- by giving back the art to the artists."''|'''[[John Kricfalusi (Creator)|John Kricfalusi]]''', creator of ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]''}}

{{quote|''"Baby, I'm the world's most [[Follow the Leader|ripped-off]] cartoonist, and that's all I'm gonna say."''|'''Ralph Bakshi'''}}

Ralph Bakshi is one of animation's greatest unsung heroes.

Bakshi was born in Haifa (then part of the British mandate of Palestine) in 1937. When he was one year old, he traveled with his family to America and settled in Brownsville, New York, the seedy lower-income community that became the inspiration for the [[Darker and Edgier|dark and gritty]] urban setting of many of his cartoons. [[World War Two|World War II]] was about to break out; in fact, when traveling past the Mediterranean, the ship on which the Bakshis were sailing was boarded by Nazi troopers, but the ship's American affiliations prevented the incident from becoming hostile.

Bakshi became interested in cartooning when he encountered a book titled ''The Complete Guide to Cartooning'' by Gene Byrnes in the Brownsville public library (which he promptly stole), circa 1952. Despite being a poor student and disliked by his teachers, who considered him a talentless punk, Ralph was one of only 10 students of art who passed a drawing exam to enter Manhattan's School of Industrial Arts.

He got his start working for famed [[The Golden Age of Animation|golden-age]] American cartoonist [[Terry Toons|Paul Terry]], a man who regarded cartoons as all business and no art. Bakshi's inventiveness, disregard for the rules, and all-around moxie eventually earned him a certain degree of prestige. He created the obscure [[Newspaper Comics|comic strips]] ''Bonefoot & Fudge'' and ''Junktown'', and launched some larger-scale animation projects like his animated film ''[[Wizards]]'' and ''[[The Mighty Heroes (Animation)|The Mighty Heroes]]'', which he pitched on the spot to [[CBS]] execs, making up the show as he went along. 

Nowadays, Ralph Bakshi may be best remembered for his work on a film adaptation of [[Robert Crumb]]'s risqué underground comic strip ''[[Fritz the Cat (Comic Book)|Fritz The Cat]]'', which became [[Fritz the Cat (Animation)|the first American cartoon to be rated X by the MPAA]], much to Bakshi's chagrin. He worked for the [[The Eighties|1980s]] revival of the classic "[[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Mickey Mouse]]" cartoon, ''[[Mighty Mouse (Animation)|Mighty Mouse]]'', which was later canned for [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|getting too much crap past the radar]]. It was eventually pulled off due to a scene where Mighty Mouse sniffed a flower that was reminiscent of cocaine consumption, but it was extremely influential on pretty much every animated series that followed it over the next decade.

Bakshi's filmography certainly does not stop there; he is also the creative mind behind such underground cartoon milestones as the animated version of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Animation)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', the [[Cult Classic]] ''[[Fire and Ice (Animation)|Fire and Ice]]'', ''Heavy Traffic'' (a gritty, [[Black Comedy|darkly humorous]] modern-day fable about urban violence), ''[[Coonskin]]'' (his highly controversial reimagining of the tales of Uncle Remus, considered racist by many due largely to its "blackface" character designs, although the film is supportive of the black community and approved by the NAACP) and ''[[Cool World]]'', a film he envisioned as the first animated horror film, but was [[Executive Meddling|radically changed by Paramount Pictures without Bakshi's consent]] and wound up as a subpar imitation of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Film)|Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]''.

Also worth noting is that Bakshi also produced and directed ''[[Rocket Robin Hood]]'' and the second and third seasons of the 1960s ''[[Spider Man]]'' cartoon. The latter varied between in quality under Bakshi's tenure, although a lot of this was due to [[Executive Meddling]]. The suits continually cut both Bakshi's budget and his lead times, forcing him to continually reuse stock footage in the same way that [[Filmation]] later would. By the end, Bakshi was reduced to literally stitching together new episodes ''entirely'' out of stock footage. 

The book ''Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi'' provides much information on the life, influences and work of this [[Needs More Love|sadly underrated]] animation maverick. His final work, ''The Last Days of Coney Island'', is currently in [[Development Hell]].

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=== Films ===

* [[Fritz the Cat (Animation)|Fritz the Cat]] (1972)
* [[Heavy Traffic]] (1973)
* [[Coonskin]] (1975)
* [[Wizards]] (1977)
* [[The Lord of the Rings (Animation)|The Lord of the Rings]] (1978)
* [[American Pop (Animation)|American Pop]] (1981)
* [[Hey Good Lookin]]' (1982)
* [[Fire and Ice (Animation)|Fire and Ice]] (1983)
* [[Cool World]] (1992)
* [[Cool and The Crazy]] (1994)
* [[Development Hell|Last Days of Coney Island]] (unfinished)

=== Television animation ===

* [[Dr. Seuss|The Butter Battle Book]] TV special (1989)
* [[The Mighty Heroes (Animation)|The Mighty Heroes]] (1966)
* [[Mighty Mouse (Animation)|Mighty Mouse]]: The New Adventures (1987-1988)
* [[What a Cartoon Show (Animation)|What a Cartoon Show]] shorts: "Babe He Calls Me" and "Malcom and Melvin" (1997)
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=== Some recurring characteristics of Ralph Bakshi's work: ===

* [[Adam Westing]]: He voiced an [[Ink Suit Actor|animated version of himself]] in the ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show (Animation)|Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon]]'' episode "Fire Dogs II". It was probably a favor for John, since Ralph was his mentor and John is Ralph's best friend.
* [[All Animation Is Disney]]: Ralph didn't work for Disney, but he's often mistaken for a few things that he was believed to have part of but had no connection with whatsoever.
** Some people [[Did Not Do the Research|cite him]] as the director of ''[[The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (Animation)|The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat]]''. During the time, he was believed to have taken part of ''[[Rock and Rule (Animation)|Rock and Rule]]'' with [[Don Bluth]] as a collaboration (Despite the fact that he hates Don Bluth's works). ''[[Elf Quest (Comic Book)|Elf Quest]]'' has been mistaken for Bakshi's comic. Although the creator worked for Bakshi during ''Wizards'' but left during production.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: His films in contrast to other animated films made at the time.
* [[Deranged Animation]]: In most everything he's touched, save for ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Animation)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', ''[[American Pop (Animation)|American Pop]]'', and ''[[Fire and Ice (Animation)|Fire and Ice]]'', which were realistic, rotoscoped animation.
* [[Development Hell]]: ''Last Days of Coney island'' is in this, though according [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bBdVUnZpKo according] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dk42LkKXRw to] [http://ericaglasier.com/2011/05/06/theres-nothing-wrong-with-this-town-ralph-bakshi-on-winnipeg/ some sources], a Toronto backer wants to help out the funding for the feature.
* [[Death By Cameo]]: He himself makes a cameo in each of his films where he gets killed with the exceptions of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Animation)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', ''[[Fire and Ice (Animation)|Fire and Ice]]'', ''[[American Pop (Animation)|American Pop]]'', and ''[[Cool World]]''. 
* [[Disney School of Acting and Mime]]: Ralph dislikes Disney acting, feeling that its become stale and cliche, and that animators should try and experiment with new types of acting:
{{quote| ''"When I hear 2D animators today talking about acting in hand-drawn cartoons, I ask, what kind of acting? Are you talking about the old fashioned acting that [[Seen It a Million Times|animators have always done]]? You know… the hand on the hip, finger-pointing, broad action, lots of [[The Twelve Principles of Animation|overlapping action]], screeching to a halt- all that turn-of-the-century old fashioned mime stuff. Is that what you’re talking about? Well, forget about it. If you’re gonna compete with computer animation, you better go all out and do something that’s totally different. Call it “new acting”. Blow the computer out of the water."'' }}
* [[Doing It for The Art]]: Ralph made his films very personal and gritty to contrast to Disney's obsessiveness with slickness and escapist entertainment. 
* [[Executive Meddling]]: He's a frequent victim of this, particularly with ''[[Cool World]]'' and his TV series ''Spicy City'' (which led to the latter being cancelled despite decent ratings). 
* [[Furry Denial]]: Bakshi's reasoning for why the anthropomorphic characters in his films never act like animals is that it would ruin what he was trying to create, which was a more realistic and mature form of animation.
* [[George Jetson Job Security]]: Bakshi is known within the animation industry for this, especially on the ''[[Mighty Mouse (Animation)|Mighty Mouse]]: The New Adventures'' show. [[John Kricfalusi (Creator)|John Kricfalusi]] (who's also been fired several times) in particular has stated that he lost count on how many times Ralph fired him from the show.
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Obviously, his two ''[[What a Cartoon Show (Animation)|What a Cartoon Show]]'' shorts weren't as adult as most of his theatrical films.
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: ''[[Wizards]]'' has [[What Measure Is a Non Cute]] enforced by [[Designated Hero|Designated Heroes]] who think [[Science Is Bad]] and yet aren't afraid to {{spoiler|[[Hypocritical Humor|shoot the villain]].}} Actually, Bakshi has stated that the message behind ''Wizards'' isn't that [[Science Is Bad]], it's that propaganda is bad. Note that this is a common theme in Bakshi's work. 
* [[Mushroom Samba]]- Heavy traffic, Coonskin, and Hey good lookin have scenes that describe this perfectly. 
* [[Roger Rabbit Effect]]: ''Heavy Traffic'', ''Coonskin'' and ''[[Cool World]]''
* [[Rotoscoping]]: On ''[[American Pop (Animation)|American Pop]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Animation)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. Although Ralph [[Old Shame|regretted using it]] for ''Lord of the Rings''.
* [[Shown Their Work]]: In the special features on the DVD of Wizards, Ralph talks about some of the animators that worked on the film.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Sometime during the 1980's when Ralph was working on ''Mighty Mouse'', he had recognized John K's talent. Ralph and John were planning on teaming up to do an animated film called "Bobby's girl". [[Teen Drama|Which was set to be a parody of the teen comedies during the time]]. However Tri-Star [[Executive Meddling|canceled the project]]. But artwork of this proposed project can be seen in the [http://www.amazon.com/Unfiltered-Complete-Bakshi-Behind-Mighty/dp/0789316846 Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi] book. One can wonder what would have happened if this film had been made. 
** Ralph had an interest of doing a film of ''[[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|The Catcher in The Rye]]''. He intended to shoot the story's bracketing sequences in live action and to animate the core flashback scenes. J.D. Salinger rejected this offer (as well as the other offers that were made beforehand to adapt the book).
** Originally, Ralph Bakshi envisioned ''[[Cool World]]'' as an animated erotic horror film about a cartoonist who has sex with his hot female creation and spawns a half-human, half-cartoon daughter who sets out to kill her parents for being born a freak. Sadly, due to [[Executive Meddling]], the premise was changed into a wannabe ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Film)|Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' with nothing (except for the taboo of humans and animated characters having sex) from his original vision.
** One of the ''[[Elf Quest (Comic Book)|Elf Quest]]'' supplement books contains a couple of character sketches done by Bakshi with commentary and pointers from artist Wendy Pini (since his elves and Pini's elves have a measure of similarity) as part of an (ultimately fruitless) project to create an ''ElfQuest'' animated series.

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[[Category:Animators]]
[[Category:Directors]]
[[Category:Ralph Bakshi]]
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