Reaction & Review | Coonskin

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 1974. That movie is "Coonskin".

Oh yes, guys, I'm finally gonna be tackling one of Ralph Bakshi's movies after 160+ episodes of doing this series. I probably should've gotten to one of these movies sooner, but due to various reasons such as not finding a copy of any of his movies that I haven't seen yet, and the ones that I have seen were a little bit disappointing, let's just put it that way.

Now for those of you who don't anything about Ralph Bakshi's work, he was mostly known for making animated movies that weren't strictly limited to children. The only exception to this was when he had a hand in making the "Spider-Man" animated series from the 1960's. But he wanted to move away from that, because he felt that he could prove that animation could appeal to adults as well, and not just to children, as some adults back in the day would view it. And thus, he went on to create quite a number of movies that were catered more towards adults, which gave Bakshi a ton of success throughout the 70's and 80's. Now while most people would say that "Cool World" was his last movie, that's not entirely accurate, he did make one more short movie known as "Last Days Of Coney Island", which was funded through kickstarter. In fact, you can probably find this movie on YouTube for free if you're interested in checking it out.

Now as for myself, I've only seen about 3 of Bakshi's movies. I've seen his attempt at "The Lord of the Rings", which, admittedly, wasn't that good, but I still kinda enjoyed it. I've seen most of "Hey Good Lookin'", which was OK at best. And then I saw "Wizards". I loved the first half of "Wizards". Second half of the movie...was rather disappointing. But I will say that, from the few movies I've seen from him, I'm still interested in checking out more of his work, because Bakshi definitely has a lot of potential in my eyes.

Which then leads into tonight's movie. Most people who've seen Bakshi's movies would say that this is his best one. So my hopes of this thing being good are pretty high. Now the only other thing that I know about this movie is that it involves some controversy. You see, before "Coonskin" was released in theaters, the Congress of Racial Equity came out and claimed that this movie was racist, seeing as how one of this movie's themes involves racism. Which then later led to this movie being repackaged under a couple of different titles. One of them was just called "Street Fight", while the other one I can't remember. Regardless, the movie did see re-appraisal and was released in it's natural form with all of the content still intact.

So with all that history aside, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. I'm certainly hoping that it's gonna be as good as everyone says it is. However, as I just stated earlier, the previous movies I've seen from Bakshi have been somewhat disappointing. So there is a possibility that this film could also be disappointing as well .However, I'm still gonna hold out for the best here, because I really want to like this movie. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Coonskin".

2 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm really digging this opening song here. Unfortunately, I don't really know who's singing it. But I will say that it is catchy as shit. It REALLY is. I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come.

14 minutes later

OK, I probably shouldn't be asking this sort of question, but I am sorta curious about something here. So, this woman is basically telling her story about how a cockroach named Malcolm left her and her baby. And while it is sorta fascinating to listen to, I'm left wondering how exactly you get hitched with a cockroach? I mean, our other three animal characters look rather humanoid...but the cockroach is still it's normal small size, and the woman is just a regular human. I probably should be more shocked about this, but then again, I've seen fictionalized rabbits and hedgehogs being paired up with human girls twice their size, so who am I to judge?

10 minutes later

So, I just saw Black Jesus shoot still images of John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and...somebody else that I didn't quite recognize. I think that's suppose to be Richard Nixon, but I'm not totally sure if that's him or not. I probably should be offended by this, considering that I am a massive fan of John Wayne. But honestly, it was kinda funny. I'm genuinely impressed by that.

7 minutes later

Well, guys, I think I've found one of the most creative kills in this movie, where Brother Bear just stomped on a piece of wooden flooring, sending one guy up towards the ceiling fan, thus decapitating his head entirely. I wasn't expecting it, but it was definitely creative.

12 minutes later

Guys, I don't know what the hell kind of drugs Managan was forced to take, but I will say that the visual imagery looks pretty cool. Kinda messed up, but then again, that's what most drugs would probably do to you.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, I just learned something new today. I learned that mimes can play actual music. Funny, I always thought mimes were suppose to be silent at all times, but I will say that the music that they're playing here is pretty good. In fact, the music, so far, has been amazing in this movie, and I'm honestly loving it.

19 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys. But somehow, this scene is actually even more stranger than when Managan died earlier. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it is definitely weird. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but at least the movie is doing it's job properly.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Coonskin". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Wow, um...where to begin with? Well, I stated earlier that my previous experiences with Bakshi's movies have been somewhat disappointing. Not truly bad, just not as good as I was hoping they would be. So when I went into this movie, I was both interested and cautious at the same time. Since this movie was being heralded was one of Bakshi's best films, I had to slightly lower my expectations, because there was a possibility that this movie wasn't gonna be as good as everyone made it out to be. Well, after finally watching this movie, I can officially say that this movie definitely lives up to all that praise. It really is a fantastic movie.

So, let's just jump right into this thing by talking about the movie itself. I'm gonna start with the writing. Writing in this movie is incredibly sharp. In fact, not only is it sharp, but it's also incredibly funny. There were moments in this movie where I genuinely laughed at how well the humor was written for this movie. Whether it's the stuff involving Sonny's death, or how it's satirizing the nature of how black people were being portrayed as back in the day, or anything involving the Miss America segments, almost everything about this movie's humor was fantastic. I normally don't view Bakshi as a humorous writer, but I will say that he definitely nailed the humor here, because he knows how to write satire perfectly. Now yes, this movie is, obvious, pretty damn offensive, but I do believe that was intentional in order for this kind of story to work. It's not really trying to take itself too seriously, and I do think that it mostly work's to this movie's advantage. Now obviously, if you're easily offended by this kind of stuff, then there's no way in hell I could say that you'll like what is here in terms of it's content. But for someone like myself, who doesn't really get offended too easily anyways, I was able to overlook a lot of the stuff that they were taking shots at, because I was easily hooked as to what was going on in this movie, and wanted to see where it was going to go next.

As for our story, well, it actually starts off with live-action footage of several guys who plan on busting out a couple of prisoners. Which then cuts to them, as they make it outside, but they have to wait for a certain period of time until their friends can bust them out of there. And this is where our framing device comes in, in which the older guy tells the other prisoner, Randy, a story about several animal characters, all of which resemble Randy and a couple of our other main characters from a little earlier ago. And from there, most of the story is told through animation, although there are some bits in the movie where it does have some live-action segments. I should probably mention that this movie is rather unique in which it tries to cross both live-action and hand drawn animation together. While it's not exactly on the same level as something like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", it still looks pretty good here, especially for something that came out in 1974. So for the most part, it mostly does a good job on trying to mix both mediums in it's own way. Now when I say that it tries to mix in both mediums, I'm mostly talking about the still photography that they use for backgrounds shots in which the animated characters take part in. Very rarely, do you ever see animated characters interacting with the live-action actors that are taking part in the movie. I can really only think of two different times in which that happens. The first time is during the beginning of the movie, where our main characters enter a night club that's suppose to be a church. I'll talk about that scene in a moment, because I found something quite hilarious about all that. The other bit is during the latter portion of the movie, in which two live-action actors are interacting with several of the animated characters in front of a blue screen. But that's as far as it goes in terms of being a lite version of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

I mentioned earlier about how well this movie's satire was written. There's one bit of it that I find incredibly ironic, considering the time period in which this movie was made. It happens shortly after the movie goes into animation, as we follow our three main characters, Brother Rabbit, Preacher Fox, and Brother Bear. They move into Harlem, and one of the first things that they do is go to a night club as it's being run by this morbidly obese guy known as Black Jesus. He basically preaches about how, as a black guy, is being "oppressed" by the whites, and how this is a "black revolution" while showcasing himself being "oppressed" by a couple of short characters wearing white bags over their heads, with the images of the 3 celebrities I mentioned earlier. And then he finally asks the people there, who, I should mention, are also all black, to donate to the cause of this revolution to "kill the whites". However, in reality, it just turns out to be a huge money-grabbing scam when our three main characters quickly expose this scheme. And what I find funny about all this, at least to me, is that this entire scene was, unintentionally, satirizing BLM. In which both groups tried to preach about the same topics. However, all they really wanted, in the end, was your money, and that's about it. Now granted, I know that's probably a stretch considering, again, this thing came out in 1974. But honestly, I couldn't help but notice it. And I can't wait for the hate mail that I may potentially get just for making that comparison.

But anyway, setting aside all that, the rest of the writing in this movie is really strong. Our characters here are fleshed out are pretty well, and the story here is mostly easy to follow. It doesn't get off topic very much, unless you really want to count the drug-inducing scenes that I sorta mentioned earlier on. But honestly, I was able to follow this story pretty well. Which is more than what I could say about last week's movie that I watched. But anyway, guys, the writing here is fantastic, and I honestly don't have very many complaints about it. Now as for the acting, it's mostly really good. There were a couple of actors that sorta phoned it in, such as the two live-action actors in that one scene where they're interacting with several animated characters. Those two actors kinda sucked. However, just about everyone else here had a lot more to work with, and it makes their performances stand out. What I find kinda hilarious is who voiced the Godfather in this movie. The one who voices him is Al Lewis. And what's funny to me about it is the fact that this is the second movie in a row, that I watched, in which he had a hand in starring in. The previous movie, in case some of you are wondering that I covered, was "Fright House". I honestly didn't intend for that to happen, considering that I only found this out after looking up the cast list for this movie. But anyway, regardless of all that, the acting here is mostly good, save for a couple of live-action actors that sorta phoned it in.

Now let's get to the animation. And the first thing that I have to mention are the character designs. A good portion of the character designs in this movie are drawn almost pitch black, which is an obvious poke at the racist stereotypes that this movie was trying to aim for. And again, if you're easily offended by this kind of thing, then you're probably going HATE the look of this movie, I just wanted to warn you there. Now aside from that, the animation looks pretty good for 1974 standards. The art-style here is unique, from the different animal designs, to Miss America, to the Itailian Mafia. All of it has a unique look to them, again, as long as you have a high tolerance for how some of the characters look in this movie. There is one thing that I did have an issue with, and it goes back to this movie trying to cross both mediums of live-action and animation. It's during the scene I mentioned earlier where our three main characters first interact with Black Jesus and his revolution. So when Black Jesus is on stage and is heading towards his podium, the way that both he, and the podium, are both drawn looks REALLY small. Because when you view the photographic background that's behind them, the stage itself looks really big. And when you compare it with the drawings of both Black Jesus and the podium that he's using, the size difference between the two is almost astronomical in size. It probably could've been fixed with either using a different photographic image of a stage in which it's not too big, or do another draft of animation in which the black character and the podium look to be regular-sized with the background stage that they're using. Honestly though, that's, like, the only real issue I had when this movie tried to cross both mediums. Everything else, like I said, looks really good for the most part, and the character interactions with those settings look really good for the most part.

Camerawork here for the live-action segments is fine. The lighting here is also fine. The sound-mix is also perfectly competent. The music is fantastic. In fact, I mentioned at the beginning that there was this really catchy song that was playing during the opening credits. And upon looking it up, I found out it was Scatman Crothers, who also did the voices of a few different characters in this movie. I apologize in advance to anyone who is a fan of his music, I just didn't know who he was until I did the scant amount of research on this movie. But anyway, the songs here are great. Most of it is jazz music, and I really enjoy listening to jazz music. So this movie's music, both in score and in soundtrack, were really awesome.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Coonskin"? Absolutely, yes. As long as if, again, you're not easily offended by what this movie is trying to aim for, in terms of it's satire. I know I've kept beating this horse, but honestly, it's not something I can just easily recommend to anybody. Especially to children for obvious reasons. I know a lot of people get easily offended by this kind of shit. So if you really can't stomach this kind of movie, then you can easily avoid this movie at all costs. However, if you're able to look past all that, then what you have is a really sharp, well written movie that knows what it's trying to satire. The story is really good, the humor is sharp, and this is, at least so far, in my opinion, Ralph Bakshi's best film. I really wanted to find a movie from him that I would like and enjoy, and, my god, did I ever get a great movie out of him. This movie was fantastic, and I loved almost everything about it. I don't know how his other movies are gonna fare out, if I ever get to them at some point, but I can at least add one of his movies to my DVD collection, and it will definitely have a nice spot on there, too. Now...you know how I mentioned last week that Al Lewis made me want to go marathon some episodes of "The Munsters"? Well, I still have more episodes left that I didn't get to finish. So, I'm gonna go and marathon some more episodes of that right now, because it sorta motivated me to finish up the rest of the first season of that show. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna go do next, after I'm done putting this review together.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.