Coonskin [1975]

Back in 1974, there was a lot of controversy about whether or not Ralph Bakshi's part-animated follow-up to Fritz the Cat was racist or not. It certainly includes some pretty extreme black stereotypes in its urban riff on the Br'er Rabbit tales as Rabbit [a pre-Miami Vice Philip Michael Thomas] comes to Harlem and lays down some Black Caesar licks by taking over the rackets and going up against whitey cops and the bloated Godfather. However, the white characters are even more disgustingly caricatured than the black and 1999 sensibilities are more likely to be upset by the truly hateful depictions of women, with Miss America as a huge-titted nympho tease who shoots venereal bullets, and gays, in the Godfather's bunch of limp-wristed sons. Bakshi, as ever, manages moments of brilliant animation - a bloated corpse that won't cram into the grave, a dying old woman turning into a beautiful butterfly girl - but the live-action stuff is grotty and there's more shouting than substance. Mercifully, Barry White doesn't sing but Scatman Crothers does.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: Empire [issue unknown]

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