Fritz the Cat
Dublin Core
Title
Fritz the Cat
Description
Note: This film contains sexual content, sexual violence, and violence.
The decision to depict Black individuals as crows, stems from a previously coded history. As instanced by the crows in Dumbo (Sharpsteen, 1941) or earlier with the 1920s to 1930s comedy duo Mack and Moran, who were known as the “Two Black Crows” and performed in blackface.
In the BBC article, "Fritz the Cat at 50: The X-rated Cartoon That Shocked the US" Tamlin Magee states that this coding was adapted from the original Crumb comix. Both Crumb and Bakshi chose this coding to critique the political climate through the use of previously established visual stereotypes. However, this does not minimize the racist history and pain connected with this type of imagery.
With a critical gaze on the 1960s, Fritz meanders through life and along the way experiences a variety of adventures: from orgies disrupted by the police, starting a fire in his dormitory at NYU, instigating a race riot, and participating in bombing a power plant with white supremacists.
This X-rated film set a new standard for adult animation, and the 70s saw an increase in animated media targeted towards a much older audience. Many of these films contained queer representation and some are examined in this archive (see Heavy Traffic or Down and Dirty Duck).
The decision to depict Black individuals as crows, stems from a previously coded history. As instanced by the crows in Dumbo (Sharpsteen, 1941) or earlier with the 1920s to 1930s comedy duo Mack and Moran, who were known as the “Two Black Crows” and performed in blackface.
In the BBC article, "Fritz the Cat at 50: The X-rated Cartoon That Shocked the US" Tamlin Magee states that this coding was adapted from the original Crumb comix. Both Crumb and Bakshi chose this coding to critique the political climate through the use of previously established visual stereotypes. However, this does not minimize the racist history and pain connected with this type of imagery.
With a critical gaze on the 1960s, Fritz meanders through life and along the way experiences a variety of adventures: from orgies disrupted by the police, starting a fire in his dormitory at NYU, instigating a race riot, and participating in bombing a power plant with white supremacists.
This X-rated film set a new standard for adult animation, and the 70s saw an increase in animated media targeted towards a much older audience. Many of these films contained queer representation and some are examined in this archive (see Heavy Traffic or Down and Dirty Duck).
Source
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Year: 1972
Country: United States
Gender and Sexuality: Bisexual, lesbian, queer coded
Animation Style: Traditional
Genre: Adventure, comedy, drama
Type: Explicit, feature, implicit
Can currently be watched on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/fritzthecat1972_202002
Year: 1972
Country: United States
Gender and Sexuality: Bisexual, lesbian, queer coded
Animation Style: Traditional
Genre: Adventure, comedy, drama
Type: Explicit, feature, implicit
Can currently be watched on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/fritzthecat1972_202002
Files
Citation
“Fritz the Cat,” Queer Animation, accessed October 12, 2024, https://queeranimation.omeka.net/items/show/63.