Movies - The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat

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	Movies - The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat

The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat is an R-rated animated film from 1974. It was produced by Steve Krantz, directed by Robert Taylor, co-written by Taylor, Fred Halliday, and Eric Monte, and distributed by American International Pictures. The music score was composed and performed by Tom Scott. It was the sequel to the groundbreaking 1972 film Fritz the Cat
, based on Robert Crumb's underground comic book of the same name, which was the first feature-length animated movie from the United States to receive an X rating.

Because of the success of the 1972 film, Krantz had asked director Ralph Bakshi to write and direct a sequel for him, but Bakshi refused and instead moved on to Heavy Traffic
. He later stated that he had said all he had to say about the character with the first film, and wanted to move on to different material. Bakshi has also stated that to this day, he has not seen The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (Despite this fact, several film guides erronously credit Bakshi as the director for the sequel). Steve Krantz wound up giving the job to Robert Taylor, an animator who had worked on Bakshi's superhero spoof from the 1960s called The Mighty Heroes.

The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat was the first animated feature in Cannes history to compete as part of the official competition. The film featured a series of drug-induced vignettes both related and unrelated to life in the 1970s, each ending with the title character being killed at the end. The film came out shortly after creator Robert Crumb had drawn and published a story in which Fritz was killed off at the end. What's even more ironic is that Crumb had drawn the story in an attempt to keep any more films from being made.

The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat had a relatively short life at the box office, was denounced by critics, and faded into obscurity. It was re-released by Orion Pictures Corporation during the 1980s, and is now available on VHS and DVD by MGM and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the current Region 1 copyright owners of the Orion and AIP film catalogues.

A home video edition of the film released in the UK had the warning: "Adult Cartoon, totally, absolutely and unashamedly unsuitable for children."

On March 27, 2006, UK distributor Arrow Films will release both Fritz the Cat films together with a bonus disc of special features as a DVD box set entitled The Fritz the Cat Collection.

Plot Overview

The film begins with several long pans across a trashed "hippie" apartment. This is the living area of Fritz the Cat (voiced by Skip Hinnant) who is now married (Reva Rose voicing Fritz's Old Lady), with a child. He still hasn't learned anything. As his wife screams at him, and his infant son masturbates, Fritz sits on the couch, staring off into space, smoking a joint. Tired of listening to his wife nag at him, he fades off into his own little world.

The first character he meets on his stoned journey is Juan (voice of Peter Leeds), a Puerto-Rican type character who brings Fritz to his home, where the tomcat finds Juan's sister (voice: Louisa Moritz), Chita, to be somewhat of a hot little number. Juan goes to the store, leaving Fritz and Chita alone. As Fritz lounges in the couch, smoking a joint, Juan's sister complains that he blows smoke in her eyes. His reaction is to tell her to loosen up and embrace her fellow man...and before she knows what hit her, he has shoved a joint into her mouth, taking her off into her own hallucinogenic fantasy. The pot makes her horny.

Meanwhile, outside, a pair of crows are about to rob the place, but decide to stay outside and watch what happens inside instead. A car pulls up: it's what Fritz perceives to be Juan's old man, who blows Fritz apart with a shotgun. This violent display turns off the two crows, who decide that it's best to rob the place at a later time.

As this story ends, Fritz is swung back into reality with his nagging wife, who continues on ranting, saying that he has done nothing for his son, "Ralphie," other than teaching him how to masturbate.

A conversation with God leads up to the next story, in which Fritz hallucinates that he is a soldier in WWII-Era Nazi Germany. After being caught having a Ménage à trois with two German girls by a commanding officer (the two girls being the poor swine's wife and daughter), Fritz escapes, and winds up being an assistant to Adolf Hitler.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat ]

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