
Directing
Ralph Bakshi
Born 1938-10-29 · Haifa, Mandatory Palestine [now Israel]
Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is a Palestinian-born American animator and filmmaker. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote. He has been involved in numerous television projects as director, writer, producer and animator. Beginning his career at the Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher, Bakshi was eventually promoted to director. He moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in 1968. Through producer Steve Krantz, Bakshi made his debut feature film, Fritz the Cat, released in 1972. It was the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, and the most successful independent animated feature of all time. Over the next eleven years, Bakshi directed seven additional animated features. He is well known for his fantasy films, which include Wizards (1977), The Lord of the Rings (1978) and Fire and Ice (1983). In 1987, Bakshi returned to television work, producing the series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which ran for two years before it was canceled due to complaints from a conservative political group over perceived drug references. After a nine-year hiatus from feature films, he directed Cool World (1992), which was largely rewritten during production and received poor reviews. Bakshi returned to television with the live-action film Cool and the Crazy (1994) and the anthology series Spicy City (1997). He founded the Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning in 2003. During the 2000s, he has focused largely on painting. He has received several awards for his work, including the 1980 Golden Gryphon for The Lord of the Rings at the Giffoni Film Festival, the 1988 Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation, and the 2003 Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest Film Festival.
Acting credits
6.2In late 1960s New York City, fed up with monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees NYC, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz participates in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers.
Fritz the Cat
1972
6.2After the death of his mother, evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army, and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination — even if it means eliminating his own flesh and blood.
Wizards
1977
6.2After the death of his mother, evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army, and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination — even if it means eliminating his own flesh and blood.
Wizards
1977
6.1A multi-layered satire of race relations in America. Live-action sequences of a prison break bracket the animated tale of Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox, who rise to the top of the crime ranks in Harlem by going up against a con-man, a racist cop, and the Mafia.
Coonskin
1975
6.9The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.
American Pop
1981
6.5A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Heavy Traffic
1973
2.0A documentary film about Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton. This is a portrait piece that includes interviews with family, friends, colleagues, critics, and fans.
Adventures in Plymptoons!
2011
NRA new Bakshi joint. A poem about the American Midwest. One from a series of new work by Ralph and his grandson, Miles Bakshi.
Midwest
2023
6.0Documentary about Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures.
Breaking the Mold: The Re-Making of Mighty Mouse
2010
6.7A documentary on the life of painter Frank Frazetta, who revolutionized science fiction, fantasy and comic art with breathtaking realistic paintings of fantastic heroes, most famously Conan the Barbarian.
Frazetta: Painting with Fire
2003
6.7Melvin is an alienated loser until he meets Malcom, a trumpeter cockroach who has a huge talent.
Malcom and Melvin
1997
7.5Melvin's saga continues as his partnership with Malcom is compromised by an urban superhero's intrusion. Meanwhile, Melvin's mother aids a criminal after being unable to meet with her son.
Babe, He Calls Me
1997
10.0A deep look at how Ralph Bakshi made his version of Lord of the Rings (1978). With Ralph Bakshi, Victoria Bakshi-Yudis, Chris Conkling, Timothy Galfas, Scott Kleinman, & Tom Tataranowicz.
Forging Through the Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for 'The Lord of the Rings'
2010
4.0The Cigarette and the Weed tells the story of a weed growing on a street corner, and a discarded cigarette butt that rolls up to the weed. The two converse before the cigarette rolls into a puddle and is extinguished.
The Cigarette and the Weed
1981
Behind the camera
6.6Young Hobbit Frodo Baggins is thrown into an amazing adventure when he's tasked with destroying the One Ring, created by the dark lord Sauron. Frodo must travel in a small fellowship of nine warriors and accomplices. But it won't be an easy journey for the Fellowship of the Ring, on the ultimate quest to rid Middle-earth of evil.
The Lord of the Rings
1978
6.7The villainous Nekron and his mother, Queen Juliana, plot against the human race from their frigid fortress. Creating mass destruction with huge glaciers, mother and son incur the wrath of Larn, a warrior whose entire village was destroyed by ice. When Nekron's underlings kidnap the beautiful Princess Teegra, Larn sets out to rescue her, assisted by the fierce and enigmatic Darkwolf.
Fire and Ice
1983
6.7The villainous Nekron and his mother, Queen Juliana, plot against the human race from their frigid fortress. Creating mass destruction with huge glaciers, mother and son incur the wrath of Larn, a warrior whose entire village was destroyed by ice. When Nekron's underlings kidnap the beautiful Princess Teegra, Larn sets out to rescue her, assisted by the fierce and enigmatic Darkwolf.
Fire and Ice
1983
5.7While incarcerated for murder, cartoonist Jack Deebs found escape by creating Cool World, a series featuring a voluptuous femme fatale named Holli Would. But the artist becomes a prisoner of his own fantasies when Holli transports Jack into Cool World with a scheme to seduce him and bring herself to life. Hard-boiled detective Frank Harris – the only other human in Cool World – cautions Jack with the law: Noids (humans) don't have sex with doodles (cartoons). However, flesh proves weaker than ink as Holli takes human form in Las Vegas, staring in a trans-universal chase that threatens the destruction of both worlds.
Cool World
1992
6.2In late 1960s New York City, fed up with monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees NYC, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz participates in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers.
Fritz the Cat
1972
6.2In late 1960s New York City, fed up with monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees NYC, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz participates in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers.
Fritz the Cat
1972
6.2After the death of his mother, evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army, and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination — even if it means eliminating his own flesh and blood.
Wizards
1977
6.2After the death of his mother, evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army, and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination — even if it means eliminating his own flesh and blood.
Wizards
1977
6.2After the death of his mother, evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army, and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination — even if it means eliminating his own flesh and blood.
Wizards
1977
6.1A multi-layered satire of race relations in America. Live-action sequences of a prison break bracket the animated tale of Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox, who rise to the top of the crime ranks in Harlem by going up against a con-man, a racist cop, and the Mafia.
Coonskin
1975
6.1A multi-layered satire of race relations in America. Live-action sequences of a prison break bracket the animated tale of Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox, who rise to the top of the crime ranks in Harlem by going up against a con-man, a racist cop, and the Mafia.
Coonskin
1975
6.9The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.
American Pop
1981
6.9The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.
American Pop
1981
6.5A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Heavy Traffic
1973
6.5A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Heavy Traffic
1973
4.6Told by an anthropomorphic saxophone, a young girl named Debbie, her pet dog, and her toy doll Muffet are sent to a magical world called Tattertown, where Muffet comes to life and, seeking freedom, refuses to go back to Debbie. As Debbie learns more about Tattertown, she realizes that they have no Christmas, so she tries to bring some holiday cheer to the little town. However, Christmas reminds Muffet of the day she was given to Debbie and plots to sabotage it with the help of her minion Spider. A pilot for Nickelodeon's second-ever series, created by Ralph Bakshi, and later repurposed into a Christmas special.
Christmas in Tattertown
1988
8.0An inept superhero tries to stop a tiny hairball that has been scaring various New Yorkers.
The Fuz
1967
4.4High school sweethearts Roslyn and Michael, now in their twenties, co-exist in a deeply unfulfilling marriage with kids. Both embark on extramarital affairs, unaware of the violent repercussions that await.
Cool and the Crazy
1994
4.4High school sweethearts Roslyn and Michael, now in their twenties, co-exist in a deeply unfulfilling marriage with kids. Both embark on extramarital affairs, unaware of the violent repercussions that await.
Cool and the Crazy
1994
5.5In 1953 Brooklyn, charismatic hood and The Stompers leader Vinnie Genzianna, his friend and second-in-command Crazy Shapiro, and their respective girlfriends Roz and Eva get wrapped up in an escalating conflict with the rival Black gang, The Chaplains, lead by Boogaloo Jones.
Hey Good Lookin'
1982
5.5In 1953 Brooklyn, charismatic hood and The Stompers leader Vinnie Genzianna, his friend and second-in-command Crazy Shapiro, and their respective girlfriends Roz and Eva get wrapped up in an escalating conflict with the rival Black gang, The Chaplains, lead by Boogaloo Jones.
Hey Good Lookin'
1982
5.5In 1953 Brooklyn, charismatic hood and The Stompers leader Vinnie Genzianna, his friend and second-in-command Crazy Shapiro, and their respective girlfriends Roz and Eva get wrapped up in an escalating conflict with the rival Black gang, The Chaplains, lead by Boogaloo Jones.
Hey Good Lookin'
1982
5.0The misadventures of a small mutt named Rusty and his human family and canine friends.
Hound Town
1989
7.0Mini-Squirts (1967) shows two kids (a boy and a girl) playing house, only to take the roles of husband and wife in a movie/soap-opera fashion, complete with organ music and overly-dramatic dialogues.
Mini-Squirts
1967