‘Fritz’ may prove catty for some

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 11

‘Fritz’ may prove catty for some

R-memcr

hans petrovk

FRITZ THE CAT Directed and written by Ralph Bakshi named after him (Savoy), is a very nice individual — he is a student, likes sex, is liberal in his politics, is worried about racist problems and occasionally smokes “pot.” To my mind, he is a healthv “cat.”

At the start, he spends as much ' time talking about idealism, in both Western culture and sub-culture, as he spends with pussies, puppies and bunnies in a bathtub.

However, he is naive, and that, is what his story is about:

He wants to “groove” but his bourgeois upbringing proves to be a problem; Fritz knows how to swear and falls into a couple of booby traps, but usually manages to stay above the milieu through which he wanders.

In fact, the cat and film are both very moral — the only trouble being that “Fritz" was talking nine years ago about things which New Zealand is only now starting to accept as real but unpleasant facts of life.

the creative cartoon work of Ralph Bakshi made these statements about life in the United States — Harlem, California and the places in between — in 1972. This was the time when you could have gone to a folk concert and they might have sung 60 versions of “Lemon Tree” before you arrived; and when “dumb chicks were easily impressed by spades

talking about James Baldwin.” New Zealand’s censors could not digest Bakshi’s nicely-put points then and have only now come out with an expurgated version; which is as silly as banning Marlon Brando’s early movie about the bikies or “Mad Max” because it might have had an unsalutary effect on our gangs. ' Although some of the publicity for “Fritz the Cat” asserts that this is an uncut version, this is not true — what is true is that the censor did not cut it. New Zealand censors had their first look at “Fritz” about 1972 and would not let it in; the film was again submitted in 1977 and again rejected. This year, an al-ready-cut version was passed bv the censors. ' This is a pity, because what we get to see of a visually exciting film is only slightly more than one hour long: and the scenes that were cut (Fritz having his consciousness raised by a big black woman, and the rape of a Hell’s Angels woman) are strikingly memorable in their own way. If you think that I may have seen this film before, you’re right. And that is why

I'm so puzzled that I could not see the whole thing again about eight or nine years later.

What is equally important iis that “Fritz” was Bakshi’s first major work. He moved to adult animation, and made his cartoon characters into more than Disney ducks.

Working on this basis, he could have his not-so-cute animals doing things which it ’ ould be difficult to portray on film while using humans as the main characters. The credits, show that more than a dozen artists worked on this job, and there certainly is an exciting variety of styles presented — all pertinent and pleasing.

After that, Bakshi went on to make “Traffic.” “The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat” and “Coonskin,” all of which presented Bakshi’s raunchy but moral view of life. None of these films have been shown in this country to my knowledge.

Since then, Bakshi seems to have mellowed a little, coming out with cute sword and socery epics, like “Wizards” and “The Lord of the Rings,” which have been shown here.

Talking about the release of “Fritz the Cat” now as an R.lB, the chief censor (Mr Bernie Tunnicliffe) said that this “is not one of those films which could be called a little ahead of community attitudes now.”

I guess that means that it is all right for some of the older teenagers to see it. However, don’t take your cat — it may put a few ideas into its head, and who knows what it might get up to on the back fence this evening.