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Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi
On par with auteurs like Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Art Spiegelman, Ralph Bakshi redefined animation and became a hero to countless generations of fans and filmmakers. If Disney’s life and work evoke images of chaste princesses in gleaming castles, Bakshi’s is a lady of ill repute camped out in a dim back alley. His name is synonymous with the great tradition of American cartooning. Bakshi is responsible for such memorable films and television shows such Fritz the Cat, the first x-rated animated feature film, The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, Spider-man, Heavy Traffic, Cool World, and The Lord of the Rings, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in 2008.This is the only book chronicling the career of one of the pioneers of animation. Unfiltered highlights Bakshi’s early years, as well as each of his groundbreaking films, TV shows, and other projects. Unfiltered contains hundreds of pieces of pre-production art, animation cells, and never-before-seen rough sketches, line drawings, and doodles, all culled from Bakshi’s personal archives containing more than thirty years of his life’s work.With contributions from animators, producers, and directors who have been influenced by his work, this is a book like no other, about a man like no other.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 8, 2021
Ralph Bakshi's incredible animation artwork gets the full work out in this fantastic book. But his controversial work will challenge many readers due to its adult material.
I would classify Bakshi as an X-rated version of Walt Disney with his 1970s adult and confronting animation pics like 'Fritz the Cat' (72), 'Heavy Traffic' (73), 'The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat' (74) and 'Coonskin' (75) to more general audience items like "Wizards' (77) , 'The Lord of the Rings' (78) and 'American Pop' (81).
Also covered in superfluous manner are his Terrytoons (including 'Mighty Mouse' and 'Deputy Dawg') made during the 1960s; his shorts for Paramount Pictures Cartoon Studios and later work in the 1990s including the feature 'Cool World' (92). Plus an awesome portfolio of his wild and crazy paintings!
This volume includes a wide selection of pre-production art, animation cels, rough sketches, line drawings and doodles, all culled from Bakshi's personal archives. A superbly designed book crammed to over flowing with Ralph's wonderfully creative artwork.
With a thoughtful introduction by Quentin Tarantino, a small section of which is quoted below:
"His urbanized retelling of the Uncle Remus' Brer Rabbit tales, 'Coonskin' - released in 1975 during, but just after the peak of the blaxploitation movement - is hands down the most incendiary piece of work in the entire genre. Using negro folklore and slave tales of non-violent resistance, along with the White American/European media's racist caricatures of the past (i.e., Disney's Black Crows, Warner Brothers' 'Coal Black,' every James River pickaninny that smilingly stared back from grocery shelves, the spaghetti benders of 'Lady and the Tramp,' and the Jews of the Nazi Party produced "The Eternal Jew,' Bakshi, with zero timidity, challenged his audiences' sensibilities in ways that made all the other blaxploitation titles seem like the wish-fulfillment fantasies they were.
"In fact, the only voice of the time that had a symbiotic relationship to Bakshi's work could be found in Richard Pryor's monologues. To discover that the two gentlemen were friends, and Pryor was a huge fan of 'Coonskin', comes as no surprise."
I would classify Bakshi as an X-rated version of Walt Disney with his 1970s adult and confronting animation pics like 'Fritz the Cat' (72), 'Heavy Traffic' (73), 'The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat' (74) and 'Coonskin' (75) to more general audience items like "Wizards' (77) , 'The Lord of the Rings' (78) and 'American Pop' (81).
Also covered in superfluous manner are his Terrytoons (including 'Mighty Mouse' and 'Deputy Dawg') made during the 1960s; his shorts for Paramount Pictures Cartoon Studios and later work in the 1990s including the feature 'Cool World' (92). Plus an awesome portfolio of his wild and crazy paintings!
This volume includes a wide selection of pre-production art, animation cels, rough sketches, line drawings and doodles, all culled from Bakshi's personal archives. A superbly designed book crammed to over flowing with Ralph's wonderfully creative artwork.
With a thoughtful introduction by Quentin Tarantino, a small section of which is quoted below:
"His urbanized retelling of the Uncle Remus' Brer Rabbit tales, 'Coonskin' - released in 1975 during, but just after the peak of the blaxploitation movement - is hands down the most incendiary piece of work in the entire genre. Using negro folklore and slave tales of non-violent resistance, along with the White American/European media's racist caricatures of the past (i.e., Disney's Black Crows, Warner Brothers' 'Coal Black,' every James River pickaninny that smilingly stared back from grocery shelves, the spaghetti benders of 'Lady and the Tramp,' and the Jews of the Nazi Party produced "The Eternal Jew,' Bakshi, with zero timidity, challenged his audiences' sensibilities in ways that made all the other blaxploitation titles seem like the wish-fulfillment fantasies they were.
"In fact, the only voice of the time that had a symbiotic relationship to Bakshi's work could be found in Richard Pryor's monologues. To discover that the two gentlemen were friends, and Pryor was a huge fan of 'Coonskin', comes as no surprise."
April 13, 2010
This book was phenomenal. If you are looking for a critical biography or critical examination, then no, it is lacking. This book is a fan work. It over flows with love for animation and Bakshi's work. The text creates a warm nostalgic legend about an underdog who doesn't give up on his vision. It may or may not be true, but if you are a Bakshi fan, it makes great reading.
As an over-sized "coffee-table book", it also is jam packed with artwork. cells from films, production work, sketchbook material, photographs, paintings (including paintings by back ground artists and Bakshi's 'fine art' work of later years). jam-packed on every page.
It was hard to put this book down. I picked it up during my exams and couldn't just gorge on it in one sitting, and it was hard, really hard to set it aside. It just sat in my bed in between readings, waiting to be finished.
I don't normally spend a lot of money on individual books--i read too much to afford it. When I bought this book, I thought it was expensive (32 bucks from the chapters website). It turns out that price was dirt cheap. It's one to buy and one to keep! I can't say enough how great this book was.
God bless Bakshi films!
As an over-sized "coffee-table book", it also is jam packed with artwork. cells from films, production work, sketchbook material, photographs, paintings (including paintings by back ground artists and Bakshi's 'fine art' work of later years). jam-packed on every page.
It was hard to put this book down. I picked it up during my exams and couldn't just gorge on it in one sitting, and it was hard, really hard to set it aside. It just sat in my bed in between readings, waiting to be finished.
I don't normally spend a lot of money on individual books--i read too much to afford it. When I bought this book, I thought it was expensive (32 bucks from the chapters website). It turns out that price was dirt cheap. It's one to buy and one to keep! I can't say enough how great this book was.
God bless Bakshi films!
May 5, 2020
Nice art biography / art-book with a cornucopia of archival photos and artwork from a master class career in animation. Nice pieces of biography with many quotes from the man himself on his careers triumphs and pitfalls. I very much enjoyed the displays from various animation houses as well as many of Bakshi's personal memoirs and pieces. Although it does lack critical artwork and pieces from some of his major works such as Lord of the Rings and Cool World, most likely due to studio permissions. I found this book worthwhile for anyone interested in the avant-garde animators career.
December 1, 2024
Similar to protege Kricfalusi’s autobio but in the third person with copious quotes from Ralph — it’s a good accessible overview of RB’s career highs and lows, key innovations (rotoscoping, tracing, xeroxing, underpaying talented people who couldn’t find work elsewhere, and general corner cutting) and blunders (too many to note here, he’d tell you), and a heaping helping of original art. The complete list of his work at the end is helpful for people tracking it down on streaming or elsewhere. Recommended.
September 14, 2022
Great overview of Bakshi's films - however - each film only gets a page or two of coverage with the remaining space filled with images. That's only a minor complaint as this is the only place you'll find most of this stuff.
Fritz the Cat and Coonskin get the most information as they are easily the most controversial of the filmography.
Had to find this via interlibrary loan as its $100+ on Amazon - worth the time and effort if you can get your hands on a copy.
Fritz the Cat and Coonskin get the most information as they are easily the most controversial of the filmography.
Had to find this via interlibrary loan as its $100+ on Amazon - worth the time and effort if you can get your hands on a copy.
November 7, 2008
There are a lot of great things in this survey of Ralph Bakshi's work. Through his films, Bakshi is in some ways the essence of 1970s by-the-seat-of-your-pants filmmaking. His films, though, are always compromised, if not by budget then by his own shortsighted vision. "Fritz" and "Heavy Traffic" have some great, even beautiful, moments but the pacing is off in each. His reliance on rotoscope in later features is gimmicky, just as motion-capture is today.
After reading this book, I got the impression that in the end, Bakshi is a sentimental old softy. The pacing in his own career was a bit off at times, especially with later projects such as "Cool World" and "Spicy City", of which art is scant in this book save for some publicity stills. The cringe-inducing writing is sparse on details and heavy on the hero worship. Bakshi's own jab at R. Crumb for the "Fritz" fighting seems petty and stale.
The developmental art, film stills, and doodles are the real treasure of this book. Among them, the rich studied caricatures by Louis Zingarelli and the fantasy archetypes by the legendary Frank Frazetta.
After reading this book, I got the impression that in the end, Bakshi is a sentimental old softy. The pacing in his own career was a bit off at times, especially with later projects such as "Cool World" and "Spicy City", of which art is scant in this book save for some publicity stills. The cringe-inducing writing is sparse on details and heavy on the hero worship. Bakshi's own jab at R. Crumb for the "Fritz" fighting seems petty and stale.
The developmental art, film stills, and doodles are the real treasure of this book. Among them, the rich studied caricatures by Louis Zingarelli and the fantasy archetypes by the legendary Frank Frazetta.
August 3, 2011
While I appreciated that this was a fast read because it contains fantastic art reproduction and because it's written in a loose, casual style, I also ended up wanting more detail - more citations of reviews, more oral history style interviews. But that's not what this book is, so I'm not going to judge it by a biographical standard (it just makes me doubt the use of the word "complete" in the title - after all, there isn't even any reproduction of the art of the Lord of the Rings in the chapter about the Lord of the Rings). It's more like a call to finally pay more attention to Ralph Bakshi. Accordingly, I have put nearly all of his work in my Netflix queue.
Did you know:
Thomas Kinkaide worked under Bakshi in production for Fire and Ice (fantasy movie with Frank Frazetta)?
John Kricfalusi got his start working under Bakshi for a Rolling Stones video, and ended up working on The New Mighty Mouse?
If you're a fan of underdog artists and people who don't compromise their vision, even if it ends up being to their detriment, you'll want to read this. And if you find animation to be thrilling in some elemental way (like me) you will also like it.
Did you know:
Thomas Kinkaide worked under Bakshi in production for Fire and Ice (fantasy movie with Frank Frazetta)?
John Kricfalusi got his start working under Bakshi for a Rolling Stones video, and ended up working on The New Mighty Mouse?
If you're a fan of underdog artists and people who don't compromise their vision, even if it ends up being to their detriment, you'll want to read this. And if you find animation to be thrilling in some elemental way (like me) you will also like it.
December 9, 2012
I met Ralph Bakshi back in October 2012. Having grown up in the 70s I saw several of his films and watched, as a kid, several of his cartoons. This work is the ultimate (and I think only) collection of Ralph's work.
The book has about 30% written text and 70% artwork. The artwork is fantastic, esp. for those of you whop really enjoy Bakshi's work. If you are interested in his films, cartoons, his life, upbringing, history, and artwork, you will not want to be without this book. While it's no longer in print, it's still fairly easy to find a used copy in great condition.
This book details Bakshi's road to fame, the height of his career, the mistakes he made, regrets he had, and his work. Each film he made is detailed with text and artwork. I highly recommend this book if you have an interest in the artist and/or his work.
The book has about 30% written text and 70% artwork. The artwork is fantastic, esp. for those of you whop really enjoy Bakshi's work. If you are interested in his films, cartoons, his life, upbringing, history, and artwork, you will not want to be without this book. While it's no longer in print, it's still fairly easy to find a used copy in great condition.
This book details Bakshi's road to fame, the height of his career, the mistakes he made, regrets he had, and his work. Each film he made is detailed with text and artwork. I highly recommend this book if you have an interest in the artist and/or his work.
February 4, 2020
a visual story of a mad genius
This is one of the few nonfiction books I read an review on goodreads, which is new territory for me. So here it goes.
Ralph Bakshi is the american innovator of animation that added in swearing, nudity, and adult subject matter like racism and fascism into his work. Through animation stills, production photos, and pictures of Ralph's life, the summation of his lifestyle and goals of his art are for the reader to discover.
For fans of animation, this is a great place to look into one of the masters. His mind set and his philosophy is shown through the attempts at making art and controversy in the process. Through his debut, Fritz the Cat through to the end with works like Cool World, his entire animation catalogue is on display in some way or another.
This is one of the few nonfiction books I read an review on goodreads, which is new territory for me. So here it goes.
Ralph Bakshi is the american innovator of animation that added in swearing, nudity, and adult subject matter like racism and fascism into his work. Through animation stills, production photos, and pictures of Ralph's life, the summation of his lifestyle and goals of his art are for the reader to discover.
For fans of animation, this is a great place to look into one of the masters. His mind set and his philosophy is shown through the attempts at making art and controversy in the process. Through his debut, Fritz the Cat through to the end with works like Cool World, his entire animation catalogue is on display in some way or another.
January 4, 2009
Huge fan of this animation giant. Very thorough review of his career and great coverage of all the major films he did. Takes you into the real process from methods to artists to the business side of everything. The guy is so jealous of Walt Disney, hates him so much it's kinda comical. An animator who choose an adult audience when no one else was he felt much resistance but that's the shit that fuels any artist, right?
October 25, 2012
Some parts of the writing could have been longer - I would have liked more about Lord of the Rings and Cool World, two of the most problematic yet most fascinating and engaging films Bakshi made - but it gets 10 stars for the art-work alone, which ranges across Bakshi's career as an animator and a painter.
April 26, 2008
A fascinating look at an artistic life. Loaded with production art and animation cels from Bakshi's 40+ years in the film industry--interesting and worth reading even if you're not a fan of his films.
January 11, 2014
A very enjoyable read. Lots of quotes, photos and artwork from Bakshi himself. After finishing the book and leaving a "thanks" on the Ralph Bakshi facebook page, I was contacted (private message) by Bakshi's son about new animation projects in the works.
April 1, 2016
It is, for all intents and purposes, the essence of Ralph Bakshi distilled into a single book.
You owe it to yourself to pick this up, especially if you're an animation fan. It's one of the best coffee-table books I've ever read.
You owe it to yourself to pick this up, especially if you're an animation fan. It's one of the best coffee-table books I've ever read.
August 13, 2011
Really great book - not a lot of text, but enough to allow the images to tell the story. I learned a lot and the quality of the printed book is very good.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews