The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat

To start this off, I love the original, I think it is brilliant social satire, plus I'm a huge Ralph Bakshi fan. So, even though I knew Bakshi wasn't involved with this sequel I'd figured I'd give it a chance. Well it was pretty bad, instead of making a social comment most of Fritz's Nine Lives just degenerate into dumb slapstick, and gross out gags. The film is dumb, lifeless, and not very funny. Oh and just a note if you're going to use live action footage as your background, make it less interesting than the animated foreground(something this film does horribly). Ultimately the whole movie seems pointless and dumb. However the animation is good and the soundtrack is decent, even though the soundtrack of the original is really good. To those "Wizards" fans Bob Holt the voice of Avatar is a number of voices in this film, he's even credited as "Many Voices", look for him with his Avatar voice as a cigar smoking astronaut.

Disjointed by design but not great. The series of sketches are are simple, crude, and cynical; not inherently a bad thing but it doesn't really spark interest for the whole length. You kind of understand the film after the first 15 minutes and then it just keeps going not adding much. There are extended sections of nothing really happening. There is a proper 70's counter culture but it doesn't have much substance. Bit to big for it's breeches, constantly playing with big characters and concepts the same way a kid plays with his food. Some nice moments in any case. Generally lacks a voice and is annoying.

Worth playing in the background and being surprised by but not great to focus on as it is numbing.

I think that I went into this film expecting something completely different from what the film actually represented because I was expecting something completely raunchy and funny. While I appreciated the animation, I was left pretty flat by most of the social commentary/satire. There were images and messages that I of course understood (Hitler, Kissinger, etc.) but the majority of the subject matter was fairly relevant to the present time.

Unfortunately, especially during the bizarre psychedelic freak out moments I found myself looking at the clock which is actually kind of sad considering the film was only just over an hour to begin with. Having said that however, I am glad that I finally saw this film so that I know what it was actually about, and I give the filmmakers a lot more credit for having created something that transcended novelty smut.

--Shelly

It is always a good idea to watch something all the way through before writing about it.

This film has some excellent sideways kicks at society and anybody who does not have the education to understand or concentration span should switch off after ten minutes.

BTW. The word "boob" means mistake what women have are breasts. To apply that word boob to a woman`s body is sexist and what one would probably expect from a redneck.

This film does not have the cutting edge of the original and although some very good moments does tend to lose its way. However, these two films were landmarks and the satire has not been equaled via cartoon until South Park arrived.

This film is twisted and dirty. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Now to my review. I was fascinated by the idea of an R rated cartoon, and Fritz the cat seemed the obvious choice. The film begins with Fritz' wife harassing him about the state of his life. To escape the ranting, he lights up a joint and reminiscences how he came to lose many of his lives. The film ultimately shows that Fritz has no chance to improve his life, as every opportunity he gets he sees as another chance to have sex, smoke, cheat the system, and make an idiot of himself. some trippy scenes follow in this dark movie. I would not recommend this to the faint hearted, the violent scenes of murder and assassination are examples, but if you're looking for something different, give it a look.