What a fun cartoon! I’ve never seen it before, but it does have some unmistakable Bakshi elements.

that was cool thanks for posting

Happy birthday, Ralph!

Somebody put “The Mighty Heroes”, “Coonskin”, and “Mighty Mouse-The New Adventures” on DVD so the young ‘uns can view the genius that is Bakshi.

Coonskin IS on DVD under the title STREETFIGHT.

The Bakshi film that OUGHT to be restored and released on DVD is Bakshi’s ORIGINAL version of HEY GOODLOOKIN.’

After Coonskin came out and was met by all that ridiculous “controversy,” Warners got cold feet and held back the next Bakshi feature which was HEY GOODLOOKIN’. It finally came out in a much edited version in 1982 minus its orginal sounbdtrack by The New York Dolls and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

I saw the original version as I worked on Goodlookin’. In its director’s cut, it may well be the best Bakshi film this side of Heavy Traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptGXx2Y7brI

The amazing HEAVY TRAFFIC on you tube.
(not for the faint hearted or easily offended)

HAPPY birthday to a true individual!

Whatever happened to the Winston Sharples, I ask you? :)

I swear I saw this cartoon a dozen times or so with the family going to the drive-in movies (remember those?) back in the late 60′s and 70′s. Makes me want a hotdog real bad!!!!

Thanks for this Jerry! I remember having seen this maybe only once a decade ago when Nickelodeon once used to show the Paramount library of 1962-67 cartoons shown either in it’s own half-hour slot or on another program.

Wow, I’ve never even heard of this cartoon before! Thanks, and a happy birthday to Bakshi too!

> Whatever happened to the Winston Sharples, I ask you? :)

It does kinda have that look of the production being hijacked by some new upstart and this is his take on ‘music’ which was like a slap in the fact of the old guard at the studio who had clinged to the Win Sharple renditions for as long as they remembered. :-)

> Bakshi says he threw up after watching this. I don’t actually mind it myself.

I would say the story in this isn’t too original however, as I think we’ve all seen that concept done a number of times before. The “kid with wild ideas and dreams is looked down upon by his old man, whom changes his tune once he see’s his kid getting praised for his achievement” sort of thing. I still enjoy the deisgn and social relevance contained, and I could see how Ralph might think differently about it today, he at least had the chance to work then at a time when he was going through studios and other places before settling on what he would eventually do a decade later.

> Whoa! Radically different from any Paramount/Famous cartoon I’m familiar with. Thanks for posting this rare offering.

In particular, the cartoons from the Culhane/Bakshi era are some of the more innovative of the studio’s final years. I only wish we could see “The Plumber” land on YouTube. In the meantime, here’s one rendered in what appears to be crayon cut-outs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–p5QtguFQA

Great snapshot of a more innocent moment in time. It’s economic but it works works works.

Zekey: last word I heard was that Bakshi was working on a movie called Last Days of Coney Island and had finished about ten minutes as a sales reel, but hadn’t gotten funding yet.

Far out, man!! I had been wishing to see MARVIN DIGS since… well, since I read about it in Leonard Maltin´s OF MICE AND MAGIC about 25 years ago!! Even if the script is not terrific, everything works on this cartoon: the characters´design, the backgrounds, the color, the music… and the message. This is truly one of the few theatrical cartoons made in the 60´s which truly catch the spirit of that decade (together with DePatie-Freleng´s HURTS AND FLOWERS and PSYCHEDELIC PINK and probably -I say ‘probably’ because I haven´t seen yet that one- Warner´s NORMAN NORMAL). Sadly, the Paramount/Famous animation studio closed shop shortly after this, when it had taken a new direction… had it not disapperared, this studio certainly would have offered us many more animated little gems like this one.
Now, everybody shout all toghether with me: We want the Shamus Culhane/Ralph Bashki Paramount cartoons on DVD! When do we want them? Now!!!

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen NORMAN NORMAL. It’s the best cartoon Warners did in the 1960′s, and the most atypical. There is nothing else like it partly because it didn’t have its genesis in the Warner cartoon studio. It was a project brought to them, they did the animation and Warners released it as a one shot special. Few cartoons stand the test of time better than NORMAN NORMAL. The story is about integrity, so of course Warners never knew what to do with it.

I caught the credits of Halloween 3 on AMC today, and noticed that Bakshi Productions was credited for providing animation. Interesting.

> I can’t get over the fact that Winston Sharples arranged the music.

It does go against everything ‘wholesome’ people would equate Sharples for!

> You haven’t lived until you’ve seen NORMAN NORMAL. It’s the best cartoon Warners did in the 1960’s, and the most atypical. There is nothing else like it partly because it didn’t have its genesis in the Warner cartoon studio. It was a project brought to them, they did the animation and Warners released it as a one shot special. Few cartoons stand the test of time better than NORMAN NORMAL. The story is about integrity, so of course Warners never knew what to do with it.

Same could be said for another short that was lumped in with WB’s usual cartoon package from Ken Mundie, “The Door”. There was just rather unusual pickings during that time if only more interest had been given to see further projects develop.

Really, thinking of shorts like this kinda made me wonder how this could’ve played out if a thought came to do away with the usual studio system and allow for individual efforts on the same vain as that of the National Film Board of Canada or Zagreb Film or such, leading to more shorts such as the ones stated above to flourish in America into the 70′s. Theatrical animated shorts wouldn’t have to die out the way they had if it could’ve found a new place among the generation of young people who might wanted to see something that wouldn’t just be the same ol’ formulas in favor of more contemporary and social commentaries of their world and themselves.

In response to Doug Drowns posting of 10/07: FYI: Winston Sharples did not arrange the music for “Marvin Digs”. All music was written and arranged by Gary W. Lantz of the group Life Cycle, based at that time in NYC. Vocals were performed by myself and Verna Martel and and the instrumental tracks were performed by myself (guitars and melodium), Johnny Cappadonna (drums, percussion, and some sound FX), and Sal Guglielmo (Fender Bass). Winston Sharples was the music director for the project.