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Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
I have been hinting and talking to Fox for about 15 years on Wizards II. Each new generation of executives gets spoken to by me. If it wasn't for your petition - Wizards wouldn't have gotten out on DVD. I would love to do Wizards II having already have written the screenplay. I don't get it - with the success of Lord of the Rings and new technology available - I am shocked that Fox doesn't move forward.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
The cost for the music for American Pop has skyrocketed since I made the film - So the movie company can not afford to release it now. None of the lawyers at the movie companies thought of locking up record rights. The amount of music was so spectcular in the picture - it would be millions -
Fantasy was a record company - and they did the music - so they could release it
Hey Good Looking! has the same problem as American Pop.
Coonskin had it's own problems and changed distributors so many time I don't know who owns it or if they are even in the film business anymore...
"It was just animation in those days - that's all I ws doin in those days"
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Wizards II live action section...
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Anonymous wrote:
What do you think of Japanese anime movies?
What are your favorite anime movies(if any)?
Anime movies work when they work because
a) they're purely japanese in the sense of the Japanese character and that comes throught
b) their attention to detail is over the top and puts you in a very surreal place that I like
c) They try all kind of subject matter at various film ratings which is perfect and they love the craft which shows at times
d) and they really try to stretch the boundaries
Usually when they fail they try to be too American - and when American's fail they try to be too Disney
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Zevaluz wrote:
-grin-
What question do you think people should ask you.. that they haven't asked? In other words, what should people be asking you about in interviews that they just aren't touching?
What's really behind my films and the many American photographers, painters, and writers that are driving me...and the whole beat, Jazz, Jackson Pollack that I grew up with.
(Look at 'This Ain't BeBop' Ralph's live action movie - it's very autobiographical - Victoria)
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Heavy wrote:
Are you familiar with other kinds of animation? Stop-motion, for instance?!
I am not sure 100% of what I mean...but this is what I am thinking.
I think because of the computer - things have gotten extremely slick and tight again. When realism and painting got that tight - the people that went against it like Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Pollack etc. created new art forms in painting. I went against Disney by being extremely crude on purpose, in backgrounds, subject matter, and the carefully orchestrated lack of great animation. (Grafitti art as opposed to museum art. Naked Lunch as opposed to Gone with the Wind. All animation styles now are perfect if animators stop talking about Disney quality in their hand drawn animation and go for crudeness shakiness, unslickness go against the computer aniamtion and go the other way make organically crude films artistically in any crude style.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
JAM wrote:
I had no idea this was going to be a different version .
One of the reasons I finally buckled and went into painting was because of all the cuts of my movies in the 70's when the studios didn't understand anything. I got so tired of all the different versions of my films I though if I just drew or painted a picture - no one could change it. But I miss doing animation now.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
time4akshun wrote:
Hey All,
If you have a chance, catch the new documentary on Frank Frazetta
Time
Working with Frank - was, of course, an amazing experience for me. Artistically. He also became, for me, another guy out of Brooklyn that I grew up with. We both never laughed so much in our entire lives during that time. I also had to act as the psychiatrist to most of my animators who were having nightmares that Frazetta would walk over to their desk and tell them they were wrong. Or, tell them they were right. They never believed him when they were right. As far as Tom Kinkade, the Background artist, who I hired out of college along with James Gurney, they were a team, Frazetta's painting lessons to Kinkade turned him into a master of light. The animation production turned him into a master of painting production. What can I say.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
McPlatinum wrote:
Ralph, how did you first meet Barry Jackson? I think his background designs are absolutely brilliant. My favorite work of his was from "Cool World". Did you help create/design some of the background painting with him?
I hired Barry right out of art school because he was great. I feel the same way about Ian Miller. Barry needs no help from me designing backgrounds. What I do with Barry is discuss my intent , certain things I'd like to see - teeth on buildings etc. - but mainly I tell Barry "don't hold back, gimme everything you got" I treat Ian Miller the same way. After that, Barry will show me a finished painting, it is usually right there or we discuss a few changes. But they usually have more to do with story then how the background was painted. Barry is on the computer now and every few months I call him up and yell at him! A brilliant painter who I would rather see starve as long as he was painting. But of course, I don't pay his rent.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Chris Hoffman wrote:
I was curious if the line "Fritz,they killed Fritz" from Wizards had anything to do with R. Crumb's killing off Fritz the Cat in his comic? I know the character in Wizards was Fritz as well,but wondered if that was a nod to Fritz the Cat.
I know...truly a "get a life" question.I had one but lost it somewhere.
Chris - Good Catch - Wonderful. You're the first person to get that. I named the character Fritz, in Wizards, just so I could scream "They killed Fritz!" To kill such a cat, would make Don Marcus commit suicide...?
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
dobidy wrote:
Coonskin (and Fritz) changed my career choice and pushed me from construction labourer to animator/illustrator. I used to rent Coonskin and Fritz from the local truckstop/video store in the 80's. They are eye-opening films and for a northern Canada kid, completely different from life in the sticks.
As an artist I love the freedom of Ralph's work, someday I would reach that point. I recently purchased some Model Sheets off eBay from Coonskin, just so I can deconstruct how the drawings were made.
Weird, huh??
Dear dobiddy-
Buying model sheets and deconstructing them is the correct way for all animators. When I was younger, it was early Disney, Fleischer and Terrytoons model charts that drove me into great joy. As far as the freedom I had, there was a movement in the 50's that I grew up with which they now call the beat movement - who's real basis was that music and art should be aimed at the working class and come from the working class to be effective. Jackson Pollack, Kerouac, Coltraine, etc. Those were some of my heroes and they led me in the proper direction. Henceforth, my movies in truck stops are absolutely where they should be. Good Luck....Ralph
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Kula wrote:
I was wondering, does Ralph or anybody remember/know which music libraries were used for the episodes?
Is there any record as to what tracks were used for each episode & licensed by whom?
...it has been so long. But the way I worked as director is that on the moviola - I would have music that Krantz Films owned as I was free to use any of the music in any position that I wanted to. So in effect I music edited the series. But where the music came from , I never found out. Hell, I was lucky to get to the bathroom in those days.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
JC101 wrote:
Yet, another question about Cool World 4 Mr. Bakshi.
So my question is, about the themes in the film...because after watching it numerous times...it seems 2 be more like a satire...is that true?
I've noticed a lot of "imagery" in the film...many refferences 2 evil...and things like temptation, death, lust, and envy...and on top of that, an animated city that appears very morbid...it just seems like it's mocking something...our own society...I mean call me crazy, but that is what I get from it.
I think a good example was catching the glimpse of some sort of demonic creature in the backround during the apocalyptic scene after Holli pulls the spike at the tower in Las Vegas...I don't know how many people out there noticed and caught a glimpse of it...but it kinda took the film 2 a whole 'nother level 4 me after I saw it...it only lasts 4 about a split-second.
Was all this done on purpose?
When I had my own company on Traffic and Coonskin, all metaphors were able to get to the screen clearly. In Cool World, with the producer and Paramount watching me carefully to make sure I was in good taste, I instinctively poured stuff into the picture that I wanted to talk abou. But when you force stuff, it's not really very clear. But, I have a great love for Max Fleischer, especially some of his Black & White Betty Boops with their strange Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong black folk tale jazz hipness that part of Cool World was a homage in style to those films and that style of cartooning. The Grim Reaper is right out of a Max Fleischer cartoon or old Terrytoons, which is why I hired and love Milton Knight the artist. He understands totally the Uncle Remus fable like qualities behind Fleischer and Terrytoons. Milton Knight is probably the purest artist of that style in the business. He has a hard time because studios think he is old fashioned...but that's the point.
McPlatinum
Joined: 18 Aug 2004
Posts: 62
Location: Boston, Ma.
Producer - Frank Mancuso, Jr.
I heard in a Ralph Bakshi interview that Ralph and Frank Mancuso, Jr. got in a huge fight on "Cool World" and Ralph punched him in the mouth! Who started the fight? Was the fight over the script?
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Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
His father ran Paramount - so of course he had all the answers and knew more about animation than I did.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Cool World wrote:
Mr. Bakshi-Was there any scenes that you filmed but removed from the final version of the film? I noticed in UK the film was originally rated 12 (Similar to PG-13) and then related 18 (Similar to R).
Thats interesting, I didn't know that. The original concept of mine was to be an R. It was changed to PG during production. When it changed to PG during production - about 50-60 seq. that I had already stoyboarded were thrown out. Once the studio finally saw their way once the mancuso's were gone - but it was too late for the film. A rating doesn't make a film, integrety does. Meaning - that subject matter - pg, R or x, should be followed through without flinching faithfully. Deviations cause confusion.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
tetsuo wrote:
What did the Germans think of the Nazi representations of the villains in Wizards?
I can't answer for the overall response was from the Germans. I can only talk about the overall response was from me and why I did it. Wizards basically being an anti- fascist film and anti extreme wild use of technology - which by the way - the germans used at the beginning of WWII through propaganda and amazing use of new equipment to overrun people who still believed in the use of magic. It's not only the Jews that werre destroyed by the Germans - look what happenned in Russia to the Russians. Fascism, Hitler, and what happenned in Germany in the 30's must always be written and drawn about and never forgotten. Hopefully the German people would have learned something from the horror that they created. What they think about Wizards would be very important to me to know...but they never told me.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Thoth-Amon wrote:
I heard that Matt Gronening use Bakshi as inspiration for Comic Book Store guy from the Simpsons. It´s true?
I have been waiting a very, very long time until someone can finally see how Homer Simpson is designed exactly from Angie Corleone. I never wanted to bring it up because I hate bitching and moaning - but now that someone else finally said it...there is no question about it. But I will take it as a compliment, unless I starve to death. Hopefully my films will give other animators and cartoonists ways to go also. By the way, I finally saw American Splendor and loved it.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Hugh Jass wrote:
I have a question about Wizards. The one I saw was an old VHS copy. At about 20 or so minutes into the movie, during the first battle, an orange mutant walks in front of the screen from left to right. There is a big circular blob in front of him that covers him up as he walks. I think this same mutant is shown during the last battle walking from right to left, again with the circular thing. What gives?
I heard about it - it is a censorship circle - but I never saw it. If you want to talk about censorship - I got thrown out of junior high school so many times in Brooklyn, I didn't even get a reportcard! I have had circles and squares chasing me my whole life.
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
Highwing wrote:
What would you say your top 3 favorite projects were? Also for any members who would like to post there 3 favorite Bakshi films please feel free too, here is my list.
So far these are my favorites(haven't seen them all)
1.Fritz The Cat
2.Wizards
3.American Pop
1- Heavy Traffic
2- Coonskin
3- It should be Fritz - but it might be Hey Good Lookin
Ralph B
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 69
Location: New Mexico
the anarchist wrote:
Ralph, what are your thoughts on 'Hey Good Lookin'?
Hey Good Lookin I love very much. But like Coonskin, it had run into a lot of trouble with the studio - Warner Bros - The original HGL was shot like Roger Rabbit (before RR) meaning - all the characters, except for Vinnie, Rozzi, Crazy & Eva were live action people shot on live action sets. I love that film - but Warner Brothers told me live action and animation would never work when they saw it - no one would believe it. So I had to throw out all the live action and reanimate it. But because I had to pay for it (another story) it took me 4-5 more years to complete it around other films. So of course, a lot of the spectacular live scenes never appeared in animation I even had live action of the New York Dolls in live action in a punk scene - David Johanson and everyone else - If you look at the end rumble scene, some of which we rotoscoped, you'll see s lot of dancing that looks a lot like breakdancing. The black live action actors who originally did it - showed me stuff I had never seen before in my life and I got it.. All in all - Hey Good Lookin captured a lot of what I felt it was like growing up in Brooklyn in 52 abd '53. Vinny, This is my song to you - love Rosyln.
Ralph B