Ralph Bakshi's Heavy Traffic almost manages to beat his earlier 'Fritz the Cat' with its downbeat, very dark urban look and outrageous humor about different sides of life. It combines animation of different techniques and real-life footage with snippets of pop art, comics, advertisements and classic old movies. The result is simply a firework of a film. The main character Michael gets to know some hard facts of life while pin-balling between crazy home life and even crazier city life. The takes on sex, religion, race issues etc. may partly be a little dated in their early 70's ways but some deeper points and especially the humor still works in a timeless way. Bakshi's handling of the rather short but winding story and his technical ability to create memorable adult animation deserves repeated viewings in my eyes.
Review of Heavy Traffic
