Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi (The Force Behind Fritz the Cat, Mighty Mouse, Cool World, and The Lord of the Rings) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Chris McDonnell (Author), Ralph Bakshi (Afterword), Quentin Tarantino (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a loving behind-the-scenes tribute to a true American iconoclast." ~Playboy

"The artwork and honor are all contained within, chronicling the acclaimed career of this key animation pioneer that we have to thank for much of popular culture's influence." ~Juxtapoz

"The book, which features hundreds of rough sketches, doodles, and animation cells, is tremendously entertaining, if a little worshipful." ~Planet Magazine

"Stuffed with sketches, paintings and stills from the completed films, the book emerges an eye-candy tribute to an important and idiosyncratic creator." ~Sci Fi Magazine

"...a behind-the-scenes look at the legend from his childhood spent drawing the characters of Brownsville, Brooklyn to his bitter retirement after losing creative control of the...feature Cool World." ~Tokion

Product Description

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 as: 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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Universe; 1st edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789316846
• ISBN-13: 978-0789316844
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #428,850 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long Overdue Book About A Giant of Animation, April 6, 2008

By	Stephen W. Worth "bigshot" (Hollywood USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If all you know about Bakshi is his rotoscope pictures, you're in for a surprise. Ralph is one of the most innovative and wildly creative geniuses of recent times. His influence on animation is immense. On the back cover, Frank Frazetta is quoted as saying, 'Ralph Bakshi is one of the finest artists I've ever met.' He isn't exaggerating a bit.

If you are an artist working in animation, whether you know it or not, Ralph Bakshi is the reason you're here. Don't believe me? Throw your mind back to 1970. Look at what the animation business had turned into... Disney was cranking out Robin Hood, a film without a single new idea. On TV, Filmation was lowering the bar so Hanna Barbera could play 'quality limbo' with them. Animation was dying, animators were choosing retirement over flogging the dead carcass of the art form they loved, and it looked like it the situation would never get any better.

Enter Bakshi. With his first three films, he turned animation upside down. He showed that it wasn't just a medium for big bears with Phil Harris's voice and crappy sitcom characters in outer space. His films shocked and terrified people... they were crass and sloppy. They were made on a shoestring, and sometimes it showed. But they had something honest to say, and that got noticed. Ralph showed that animation- the most collaborative art form ever- could be an intensely personal medium.

Ralph's first three films- Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, and Coonskin- came totally out of the blue. They are the animation equivalent of Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives. Great old time animators like Irv Spence, Ambi Paliwoda and Virgil Ross were offered the opportunity to cut loose and make films that weren't just cats chasing mice and dogs chasing cats. These films dealt with what it meant to be an artist, the battle of the sexes, race relations, and the unsenimentalized realities of urban life. They were improvisational and had no rules.

These three films, made in the darkest of the dark ages of animation, offered a glint of hope for what animation could become. If all you've seen of Ralph's work is Lord of the Rings and Fire and Ice you don't know what I'm talking about here. All of the adult targeted animation you see in the US today has its roots in Ralph's example in these three films. They stirred up controversy and caused riots at screenings back in the day, but now they seem to us like they could have been made yesterday, not three decades ago- except for the fact that today's world has trouble accepting brutal honesty when it comes to politically charged topics. Ralph has never been one to pull punches.

In the 1980s, Ralph did for television animation what he did for theatrical features, blowing the lid off of CBS's Saturday morning schedule with Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. Ralph took a chance on the ideas of a kid named John Kricfalusi, and set up the studio after the unit structure model used at Warners. Artists were cut loose to create cartoons. Without Mighty Mouse, there never would have been Ren & Stimpy or The Simpsons. The artists who worked on Mighty Mouse have gone on to lead the TV animation industry. Ralph is an absolute genius when it comes to spotting raw talent. He can take a kid straight out of school and turn him into a pro faster than anyone else. Every film had its 'graduating class' of kids. Those kids now populate the animation business on every level, from the top Producer at Disney feature to the creative sparks at Warners. I know of Bakshi alumni who are top dogs at Dreamworks and the CGI companies too.

As a filmmaker, Ralph is one-of-a-kind. He doesn't make films for executives... he doesn't even make films for a specific audience. He makes them for himself. You can count the number of animators capable of using this unweildy medium for personal expression on one hand and still have fingers left. Ralph is one of them. But Ralph is not only the greatest living animation artist. He is the catylist that has more than once pulled the industry out of a hole so deep people had just about given up on cartoons. For that alone, he deserves the respect of any and all animators, whether they like his work or not.

If the animation business needs anything right now, it's another go round with Bakshi. The era of shi-shi 'distressed' animation desks complete with faux wormholes, and middle management producers driving Jaguars paid for by their bonus checks is over. That was great for the people lucky enough to hook up to the gravy train while it lasted. But times have changed. The people left standing will be the ones who REALLY CARE about the medium of animation.

You can take my word for the fact that no one loves cartoons more than Ralph. Read this book and hear him talk about Jim Tyer. (Ralph was Tyer's assistant...) Listen to what he has to say about Spence or Maltese or any of the other old timers he brought in to work on his films. Ralph lives and breathes animation. His drawings are imbued with the whole history of the medium. He announces his retirement every once in a while, and swears off cartoons forever, but it's in his blood. Just count the days till the bellowing voice out of the blue hollers 'BAKSHI'S BACK, YOU BASTUHDS!' over the studio intercom again.

It's time for Ralph to rent a warehouse, fill it full of kids with big dreams, raw talent and lots of ideas and crank out a film. It doesn't even matter if it turns out crappy. It'll be a shot in the arm to the whole business, and it just might lead to something even better. I know I'd love to be a part of it.

UNFILTERED: The Complete Ralph Bakshi isn't one of those 'art books' with postage stamp sized pictures floating in oceans of tasteful white space and huge text blocks of scholarly blather that crowds out the images. It's just pictures, pictures and more pictures... along with just enough text to put them in context. Artwork by Frank Frazetta, John Kricfalusi, Barry Jackson, Louise Zingarelli, Michael Ploog, Ian Miller, Irv Spence, Robert Dranko, Mark Kausler and Ambi Paliwoda. The book is organized to show Ralph's career from his earliest days at Terry-Toons, to his groundbreaking features, to his revolutionary TV work, to his most recent fine art paintings. BUY THIS BOOK!

Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Behind the Scenes Brilliance, April 6, 2008

By	Senior Golfer (Florida) - See all my reviews

This book took you behind the scenes to Bakshi's creative & imaginative mind while featuring some great, colorful pictures of his "ahead-of-the-curve" animation. I personally liked how each of his feature films had a section of their own summarizing Bakshi's story-line and how his direction to the artists resulted in some excellent art. I loved the last section of the book showing how Bakshi changed from animator to serious painter. Art lovers and film lovers will enjoy viewing throughout this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for any animator or artist. , April 24, 2008

By	Douglas Anderson "Restless" (chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi is one of the best animator/animation books I have read in the last 10 yrs. It is not only full of information on Ralph Bakshi, but also with tons and tons of his artwork. This ranges from cells to ink drawings to roughs and at the end they have put a bunch of his paintings. This book has really inspired me and is an easy read.
Before reading this book I had only seen Fritz the Cat and some of the Mighty Mouse series. I knew I liked Ralph Bakshi, but after this book I have such a stronger love of his work, and how he changed the Animation industry. His films were real, and based on his experience growing up in New York. They might be vulgar and push the line of decency, but his works reflect who he is and how he grew up. They were vulgar for a reason, not just to be vulgar for vulgar's sake. The movies reflect the man.