You could forgive Bakshi for having a chip on his shoulder by the late 70's. First this movie gets yanked when Warner decide its mixture of live footage and animation is unsaleable, then within a year 'Coonskin' gets yanked from cinemas within a week because of supposed blaxpolitation (do you know how hard it must have been to get yanked for blaxploitation in 1975?), then George Lucas pressures him to change the name of his next movie from 'War Wizards' so it doesn't clash with 'Star Wars', and then releases 'Star Wars' two weeks after 'Wizards' opens, effectively yanking that one from the cinemas as well.

So the upshot is that 'Coonskin' emerges later as 'Street Fight', and this one emerges seven years later in 1982, now fully animated. Emerges somewhat incongruously, it must be said, between 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Fire and Ice'. Perhaps this is why I was thrown by it when I saw it in the late 80's. It seemed like a throwback to Bakshi's earlier, urban style - which of course it was.

To be honest I haven't seen the movie since, nor have I even seen a copy of it to rent, however I remember being impressed by that trademark spontaneous dialog which marked Bakshi's early films - even if this time it didn't have a film as strong as 'Heavy Traffic' to back it up. I'd like to get another look at it, but 2.5 stars seems about right based on my memory of it. As usual it's seedy, violent, and not for the kids. Not a great Bakshi film, but shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

At least those who hate Bakshi's rotoscoping will be happy to know that this one is 100% non-rotoscoped!