Sunday, January 7, 2018

Coonskin (1975)

Director: Ralph Bakshi

Writer: Ralph Bakshi

Composer: Chico Hamilton

Starring: Barry White, Charles Gordone, Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas, Danny Rees, Buddy Douglas, Jim Moore, Ralph Bakshi, Ben Gage, Al Lewis, Richard Paul

More info: IMDb

Tagline: BARRY WHITE and his men are bustin' out to win! They'll stop the man from calling them "Coonskin"

Plot: Rabbit, a country-born trickster, takes over the organized crime racket in Harlem, facing opposition from the institutionalized racism of the Mafia and corrupt police.



My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Bakshi pitched this as a sequel of sorts to Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH (1946) in an effort to get financial backing.  It worked.  The similarities are easily found.  He mixes live action and animation in some neat (and some awful) ways.  I dig Scatman Crothers in this picture.  I get some of the social commentary Bakshi put in about racial injustice and so on.  I'm not black but I'm certain this would resonate a lot more if I were or, to a lesser degree, if I were an adult in 70s.  Regardless, it's still worth checking out.  There's a little animated nudity if it helps.   That man sure knew how to make boobs bounce, I'll say that much.  There are a few laughs but today this feels more like an experimental curiosity.  It's probably the only animated Blaxploitation picture ever made.  If it's not then I needs to see what else there is.  I dig the genre.

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