Review of Marvin Digs

In honor of Ralph Bakshi's 69th birthday on this day in 2007, Jerry Beck linked from YouTube on Cartoon Brew this, Marvin Digs, the first one Bakshi made for the fading Parmount Cartoon Studio (formerly Famous Studios). Very much of its time, the title character is a teenager with hair all over him who exasperates his father because he lays around all day without working for a living and gives flowers to everyone he meets outside. So he gets him to do what his wife wanted her husband to do while she's gone: Paint the house. When the mayor on TV, however, asks his audience to decorate the city as they would their own home, Marvin enlists his friends to help decorate the entire apartment building in psychedelic colors to the horrors of his dad. After the mayor comes by and praises the effort though, dad has a newfound admiration for him as he tells stories of his youth to him as the cartoon ends...What a radical effort from Bakshi away from his former home studio Terrytoons in the waning days of theatrical short animation from the major studios as Marvin Digs hints at his more ambitious efforts in feature films like Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic. Wonderful vocal rock score by The Life Cycle and such imaginative backgrounds by Cosmo Anzilotti, James Simon, John Zago, and Bakshi himself. Well worth seeking out if you're a die-hard Ralph Bakshi fan.