Michael is an underground artist in New York City who draws strips of the people he sees around him. He hooks up with the beautiful Carol, but she loses her job in a bar and so the two go searching for the high life.
Bakshi's films are hard to find, but it's more than worth the effort. Outside of Japan, he's really the only director in the world who has managed to make adult-oriented animation features, and his films are completely unique. Heavy Traffic is his most personal and probably his best too - it sucks you into the seedy seventies world of NYC and doesn't let go. On one level it's a shocking freakshow, filled with hustlers, transsexuals, down-and-outs, hookers and thugs, but only if you're a bit of a prude. It's really just a slice-of-life series of observations; some satirical, some gross, some tragic and all rendered in a wild array of visual styles - traditional cell animation, live action, multiple composites, filters and negatives, pencil-tests (the Maybellene sequence), near-subliminal stills, real movie clips (the film Michael watches in the empty cinema is Red Dust, with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow), stock shots, what have you. If nothing else, it bombards the viewer with a myriad of dazzling visual techniques. The film has many influences (Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, a sudden mock-up shot of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks) but Bakshi's direction is unique and his fearless experimentation with cinematic style is both admirable and rewarding. He not only plays with animation, he plays with styles within animation, like the incredible bullet-in-the-head moment, or the whole Mother Pile / Wanda The Last sequence. If the film has a weakness, it's that it's a bit episodic - crazy New York nights - but it's so overloaded with wild ideas and freaky moments that it doesn't spoil the flow, but just contributes to the freewheeling anarchy. The voice cast are cool, notably Atkinson, and there's a fabulous score by Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin, featuring a memorable soul-fuelled cover of the traditional ballad Scarborough Fair. An acquired taste, for sure, but a must for real fans of animation, and check out any of Bakshi's other films (particularly Wizards and Cool World).
Bakshi's films are hard to find, but it's more than worth the effort. Outside of Japan, he's really the only director in the world who has managed to make adult-oriented animation features, and his films are completely unique. Heavy Traffic is his most personal and probably his best too - it sucks you into the seedy seventies world of NYC and doesn't let go. On one level it's a shocking freakshow, filled with hustlers, transsexuals, down-and-outs, hookers and thugs, but only if you're a bit of a prude. It's really just a slice-of-life series of observations; some satirical, some gross, some tragic and all rendered in a wild array of visual styles - traditional cell animation, live action, multiple composites, filters and negatives, pencil-tests (the Maybellene sequence), near-subliminal stills, real movie clips (the film Michael watches in the empty cinema is Red Dust, with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow), stock shots, what have you. If nothing else, it bombards the viewer with a myriad of dazzling visual techniques. The film has many influences (Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, a sudden mock-up shot of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks) but Bakshi's direction is unique and his fearless experimentation with cinematic style is both admirable and rewarding. He not only plays with animation, he plays with styles within animation, like the incredible bullet-in-the-head moment, or the whole Mother Pile / Wanda The Last sequence. If the film has a weakness, it's that it's a bit episodic - crazy New York nights - but it's so overloaded with wild ideas and freaky moments that it doesn't spoil the flow, but just contributes to the freewheeling anarchy. The voice cast are cool, notably Atkinson, and there's a fabulous score by Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin, featuring a memorable soul-fuelled cover of the traditional ballad Scarborough Fair. An acquired taste, for sure, but a must for real fans of animation, and check out any of Bakshi's other films (particularly Wizards and Cool World).