FILMOGRAPHY
Writer, Director, Producer
Last Days of Coney Island is a 2015 American animated short film written, produced, directed and animated by Ralph Bakshi. The story concerns a NYPD detective, the prostitute he alternately loves and arrests, and the seedy characters that haunt the streets of New York City's run-down amusement district.
Ralph Bakshi had previously pitched the film to major studios such as Pixar and DreamWorks, but was unable to find anyone who wanted to take on the project. When technology began advancing to the point where Bakshi could begin the project on a lower budget, he decided to take on the project himself and produce it independently. A Kickstarter campaign was launched on February 1, 2013 to complete funding for the first short in the film. On March 3, the film was successfully funded and raised $174,195 from 1,290 backers. Last Days of Coney Island premiered on Ralph Bakshi's 77th birthday on October 29, 2015 on Vimeo.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Ralph Bakshi, Eddie Bakshi, Adam Rackoff, Matthew Modine
Writer: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Omar Jones, Libby Aubrey, Ron Thompson, Tina Romanus, Richard Singer, Jonathan Yudis, Robert Costanzo, Joey Camen
Music: Mark Taylor
Cinematography: Eddie Bakshi, Jess Gorell
Creator (HBO)
A science fiction anthology series set in a futuristic city with a seamy side. Each episode is introduced by Raven, a nightclub hostess who also makes brief appearances in the tales.
Creator: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Catherine Winder
Directors: John Kafka, Ralph Bakshi, Ennio Torresan, Jr.
Writers: Preston Bakshi, Lawrence Chua, Willie Perdomo, Franz Henkel, Lou Walker, Douglas Brooks West
Composer: John McCarthy
Writer, Director, Producer (Hanna-Barbera)
Malcolm and Melvin
Melvin is an alienated loser until he meets Malcom, a trumpeter cockroach who has a huge talent.
Babe! He... Calls Me
Melvin'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.
Writer, Director (Showtime)
Cool and the Crazy is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Jared Leto and Alicia Silverstone. The story revolves around an unhappily married couple in the late 1950s who both lead separate affairs. The film was Bakshi's first feature-length live-action film, being primarily known as a director of animated films which heavily utilize live-action sequences, such as Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, Wizards, American Pop and The Lord of the Rings. Cool and the Crazy first aired on the cable television network Showtime in 1994 as part of the series Rebel Highway.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producers: Lou Arkoff, Debra Hill, Willie Kutner
Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer
Starring: Jared Leto, Alicia Silverstone
Cool World (1993)
Director (Paramount Pictures)
Cool World is a 1992 American live-action/animated film directed by Ralph Bakshi, and starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of a cartoonist who finds himself in the animated world he thinks he created, and is seduced by one of the characters, a comic strip vamp who wants to be real.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Frank Mancuso, Jr.
Writers: Michael Grais, Mark Victor
Music: Mark Isham
Cinematography: John A. Alonzo
Starring: Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, Brad Pitt
Director, Producer (TNT)
This was an animated TV special directed by Ralph Bakshi, narrated by Charles Durning and produced by and aired on TNT on November 13, 1989. The special followed the book closely, notably in its preservation of its original cliffhanger ending, with the title card "The end... maybe" at the conclusion of the story. Seuss himself called the short the most faithful adaptation of his work.
The Butter Battle Book – a New York Times Notable Book of the Year – is an anti-war story; a parable about mutually assured destruction and nuclear weapons. This book was written during the Cold War era, and reflects the concerns of the time, especially the perceived possibility that all life on earth could be destroyed in a nuclear war. It can also be seen as a satirical work, with its depiction of a deadly war based on a senseless conflict over something as trivial as a breakfast food.
Director, Producer (Nickelodeon)
Christmas in Tattertown is a 1988 television special created and directed by Ralph Bakshi about a place where everything discarded in the world came alive. It aired on the cable television network Nickelodeon.
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987)
Creator, Director (CBS)
In this series, each episode had two self-contained 11-minute cartoon segments. It differed from the earlier incarnations of Mighty Mouse in many ways. It gave Mighty Mouse the secret identity of Mike Mouse, a sidekick in the form of the orphan Scrappy Mouse (who knows the hero's secret identity), heroic colleagues such as the Bat-Bat and his sidekick Tick the Bug Wonder, and the League of Super-Rodents. The series introduced antagonists like Petey Pate, Big Murray, Madame Marsupial and The Cow (actually a bull, because he is Madame Marsupial's boyfriend and he possesses male traits).
Unlike other American animated TV shows of the time (and Mighty Mouse's past theatrical shorts) the show's format was loose and episodes did not follow a particular formula. Episodes varied from superhero type stories to parodies of shows like The Honeymooners ("Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy") and the 1960s Batman series ("Night of the Bat-Bat" and "Bat With a Golden Tongue"), movies like Fantastic Voyage ("Mundane Voyage") and Japanese monster films (the opening of "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy"), comic books ("See You in the Funny Papers"), and even lampooned other cartoons ("Don't Touch That Dial!") and specifically Alvin and the Chipmunks ("Mighty's Benefit Plan").
The series resurrected other Terrytoons characters, but acknowledged the passage of time: perennial menace Oil Can Harry returns to chase Pearl Pureheart once more ("Still Oily After All These Years"); 1940s characters Gandy Goose and Sourpuss and 1960s Deputy Dawg are revived (Gandy and Dawg frozen in time in blocks of ice) in "The Ice Goose Cometh"; "Gaston Le Crayon" has a cameo ("Still Oily After All These Years").
Bakshi's own 1960 creations — The Mighty Heroes — appear, aged, in the episode "Heroes and Zeroes". Fellow Terrytoons characters Heckle and Jeckle also appear, in "Mighty's Wedlock Whimsy".
The show was considered revolutionary at the time, and, along with 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, inspired a wave of animated shows that were much zanier than those that had dominated children's animation in the previous two decades. It is credited by some as the impetus for the ‘creator-driven’ animation revolution of the 1990s.
It was a huge springboard for many cartoonists and animators who would later become famous, including John Kricfalusi (creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show), Bruce W. Timm (producer of Warner Bros. Batman: The Animated Series), Jim Reardon (writer for Tiny Toon Adventures and Disney/Pixar's Wall-E) Tom Minton (writer and producer for many Warner Bros. television cartoons, including Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Baby Looney Tunes and Duck Dodgers), Lynne Naylor (co-founder of Spümcø, character designer for Batman: The Animated Series and storyboard artist for Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls and Cow and Chicken among other work), Rich Moore (animation director for Fox/Comedy Central's Futurama and director of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph), Andrew Stanton (director of Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo and Wall-E) and others.
John Kricfalusi supervised the production for the first season and directed eight of its twenty-six segments. Kent Butterworth supervised the second season, after John Kricfalusi's departure to work on the similarly short-lived 1988 animated series The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil. The show was licensed as a comic book series published by Marvel Comics in 1990 and 1991, which ran for 10 issues.
Writer, Director
This Ain't Bebop is Ralph Bakshi's first live action short, starring Harvey Keitel and featuring Ron Thompson (Tony & Pete of American Pop) as the beatnik poet and Rick Singer (Benny of American Pop) as Jackson Pollock.
Mark Bakshi produced the film; his first professional collaboration with his father. Ralph Bakshi wrote a poem influenced by Jack Kerouac, jazz, the Beat Generation and Brooklyn that served as the narration, which was spoken by Harvey Keitel.
After a car crash, Bakshi completed the post-production in stitches and casts. Bakshi said of the work, "It's the most proud I've been of a picture since Coonskin — the last real thing I did with total integrity."
The Rolling Stones - "Harlem Shuffle"(1986)
Director
In 1985, Ralph Bakshi received a phone call from The Rolling Stones' manager, Tony King, who told Bakshi that the band had recorded a cover of Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle", and wanted Bakshi to direct the music video. He was told that the live-action shoot needed to be completed within one day (January 28, 1986) for it to be shown at the Grammy Awards.
Production designer Wolf Kroeger was forced to drastically compact his sets, and animation director and designer John Kricfalusi had to push his team, including Lynne Naylor, Jim Smith and Bob Jaques, to complete the animation within a few weeks.
The band's arrival at the set was delayed by a snowstorm and several takes were ruined when the cameras crossed paths. Bakshi was forced to pay the union wages out of his own fees, and the continuity between Kricfalusi's animation and the live-action footage did not match; however, the video was completed on time
Director, Producer
Fire and Ice was a collaboration between Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox, which also distributed Bakshi's 1977 release, Wizards. The animated feature, based on characters Bakshi and Frazetta co-created, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live action and then traced onto animation cels.
The screenplay was written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, both of whom had written Conan stories for Marvel Comics. Background painter was James Gurney, the author and artist of the Dinotopia illustrated novels. Thomas Kinkade also worked on the backgrounds to various scenes.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Ralph Bakshi, Frank Frazetta
Writer: Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas
Starring: Susan Tyrrell, Maggie Roswell, William Ostrander, Stephen Mendel, Steve Sandor
Music: William Kraft
Cinematography: Francis Grumman
Editor: A. David Marshall
Writer, Director, Producer
Hey Good Lookin' is a 1982 American adult animated coming of age comedy film written, directed, and produced by Ralph Bakshi. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1950s and focuses on Vinnie, the leader of a gang named "the Stompers," his friend, Crazy Shapiro, and their girls, Roz and Eva. It features the voices of Richard Romanus, David Proval, Tina Bowman, and Jesse Welles.
Hey Good Lookin' was first completed in 1975 as a live-action/animated combination, in which only the main characters were animated and the rest were portrayed by live actors, but the film's release was pushed back, and later postponed indefinitely. Warner Bros. claimed that this version of the film was unsatisfactory; concerns over controversy as the result of the backlash against the film Coonskin were also cited.
In 1982, a very different version of the film was released; much of the live-action sequences were replaced by animated ones, and dialogue was heavily rewritten and reedited. The original version of the film remains unreleased.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Ralph Bakshi
Writer: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Richard Romanus, David Proval, Jesse Welles, Tina Bowman
Music: John Madara, Ric Sandler
Editor: Donald W. Ernst
Director, Producer
American Pop is a 1981 American animated musical drama film starring Ron Thompson and produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi. It was the fourth animated feature film to be presented in Dolby sound. The film tells the story of four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians whose careers parallel the history of American popular music.
The majority of the film's animation was completed through rotoscoping, a process in which live actors are filmed and the subsequent footage is used for animators to draw over. However, the film also uses a variety of other mixed media including water colors, computer graphics, live-action shots, and archival footage.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Ralph Bakshi, Martin Ransohoff
Writer: Ronni Kern
Starring: Ron Thompson, Lisa Jane Persky, Jeffrey Lippa, Richard Singer, Marya Small
Music: Lee Holdridge
Editor: David Ramirez
Director
The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 American high fantasy animated film directed by Ralph Bakshi. The screenplay was written by Peter S. Beagle, based on an earlier draft by Chris Conkling. It is an adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, comprising The Fellowship of the Ring and the first half of The Two Towers. Set in Middle-earth, the film follows a group of hobbits, elves, men, dwarves, and wizards who form a fellowship. They embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring made by the Dark Lord Sauron, and ensure his destruction.
Ralph Bakshi encountered Tolkien's writing early in his career, and had made several attempts to produce The Lord of the Rings as an animated film before being given funding by producer Saul Zaentz and distributor United Artists.
The film is notable for its extensive use of rotoscoping, a technique in which scenes are first shot in live-action, then traced onto animation cels. It uses a hybrid of traditional cel animation and rotoscoped live action footage.
The film features the voices of William Squire, John Hurt, Michael Graham Cox, and Anthony Daniels of Star Wars fame, and was one of the first animated films to be presented theatrically in the Dolby Stereo sound system.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Saul Zaentz
Screenplay: Peter S. Beagle, Chris Conkling
Starring: Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, Dominic Guard, Michael Graham Cox, Anthony Daniels, David Buck
Music: Leonard Rosenman, Paul Kont
Cinematography: Timothy Galfas
Editor: Donald W. Ernst
Writer, Director, Producer
Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, one representing the forces of magic and one representing the forces of industrial technology.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: by Ralph Bakshi
Writer: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Bob Holt, Jesse Welles, Richard Romanus, David Proval, Steve Gravers
Narrator: Susan Tyrrell
Music: Andrew Belling
Cinematography: C. Bemiller
Editor: Donald W. Ernst
Writer, Director
Coonskin is a 1975 American live action/animated crime film about an African American rabbit, fox, and bear who rise to the top of the organized crime racket in Harlem, encountering corrupt law enforcement, con artists, and the Mafia.
The film, which combines live-action with animation, stars Philip Thomas, Charles Gordone, Barry White, and Scatman Crothers, all of whom appear in both live-action and animated sequences.
Coonskin makes reference to various elements from African-American culture, ranging from African folk tales to the work of cartoonist George Herriman, and satirizes racist and other stereotypes, as well as the blaxploitation genre, Song of the South, and The Godfather (which was another film produced by Albert S. Ruddy).
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Albert S. Ruddy
Writer: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Barry White, Charles Gordone, Philip Thomas, Scatman Crothers
Music: Chico Hamilton
Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Edited: Donald W. Ernst
Writer, Director
Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American adult animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York cartoonist named Michael Corleone, using pinball imagery as a metaphor for inner-city life.
Heavy Traffic was Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz's follow-up to the successful and coolly controversial film Fritz the Cat, the first animated feature to receive an X rating. Though producer Krantz made varied attempts to produce an R-rated film, Heavy Traffic was given an X rating by the MPAA. The film received positive reviews and is widely considered to be Bakshi's biggest critical success.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Samuel Z. Arkoff, Steve Krantz
Writer: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Joseph Kaufmann, Beverly Hope Atkinson, Frank Dekova, Terri Haven, Mary Dean Lauria
Music: Ed Bogas, Ray Shanklin
Cinematography: Ted C. Bemiller, Gregg Heschong
Editor: Donald W. Ernst
Writer, Director
Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American adult animated comedy film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi as his feature film debut.
Based on the comic strip of the same name by Robert Crumb, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States.
It focuses on Fritz (voiced by Skip Hinnant), an anthropomorphic feline in mid-1960s New York City who explores the ideals of hedonism and sociopolitical consciousness. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics.
Fritz the Cat is the most successful independent animated feature of all time, grossing over $90 million worldwide.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Steve Krantz
Screenplay: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, Ralph Bakshi, Phil Seuling, John McCurry, Mary Dean
Music: Ed Bogas, Ray Shanklin
Cinematography: Ted Bemiller, Gene Borghi
Editor: Renn Reynolds
Executive Producer, Animation Series Director, Story Supervision (25 episodes)
Spider-Man is a Canadian-American animated television series that satirizes the superhero genre. It was the first animated adaptation of the Spider-Man comic book series created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and was jointly produced in Canada (for voice talent) and in the United States (for animation).
The first two seasons aired on the ABC television network, and the third was distributed in syndication. Grantray-Lawrence Animation produced the first season, and seasons 2 and 3 were produced by Krantz Films in New York City. The show stars Paul Soles as Peter Parker A.K.A. Spider-Man. The series ran from September 9, 1967 through June 14, 1970.