Coonskin (1975)

Wow! Such a good movie.

One of my all time favorites.

I'll tell you why so serious

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Man, I wish I could give this movie a 0 because it's just so chronic! The animation was pure rubbish and by god, I hadn't a clue on what every character was saying. The story and its theme are just so poor. I don't care about the bad language but less words on using "Ni**a" all the time and more concentration on what the hell is going on!Even the music at the beginning, it made my ears bleed. That was not even a song from Scatman Crothers, it was more like a bad record player needing to be dusted because it hadn't been cleaned for a while! I swear, avoid watching this at all costs!

Just seeing this 1975 blacksploitation film in 2016, it still holds up to its jab at stereotypes of black, whites, gays and, mostly, Disney's "Song of the South". It also isn't as pointed as many of the current late night comedians of the present day are about race and didn't make this honky feel like he needed to close his curtains while he watched it (like Boondocks does). I was surprised how tame it was...but loved the nods to Disney.It uses a mix of (mostly)animation by the wonderful Bakshi as well as new footage to set a very loose story, as well as using vintage footage for backdrop and storytelling. It doesn't make much sense at times but will quickly move on to skewer another stereotype from the time and it is very entertaining throughout. Very bonus kudos to the fact that Barry White plays a main character, both in new footage and animation. It's surprising he turned down the South Park creators years later when clearly his tongue is in his cheek here.Don't let the title scare you away...it's worth a look 40 years later.

Coonskin has been dragged into the darkest realms of cinematic obscurity. When it was released in 1975, people panicked. Not since the 1940's has such racially insensitive jokes been made on African Americans. CORE and the NAACP screamed for blood and demanded this film to never be released, or shown to anyone for that matter. Leading Paramount Pictures to drop this movie from its original distribution and was forced to be shown in Grindhouse theaters nationwide and distributed by a mafioso production company. How devastatingly ironic, because this film HATES the mafia. Perhaps it was due to its off putting title. But I think more importantly, it was its trailer. The film's theatrical trailer is one of the most surreal, unholy debaucheries of a motion picture you will ever see. Just a bunch of scenes (some of which are pivotal to the plot of the film) thrown aimlessly together without any explanation of what the movie could be about. Of course, people speculated the worst from this film. But it wasn't what anyone thought it was. Coonskin is an absolute trip. It' points out the sad, painful truth about racism as we know it and threw it in our faces whether we could handle it or not. If anything, it advocates for the good of African Americans and slanders everyone that took advantage of it. It's a tale about three brothers, losing their way in the slums of Manhattan, as they try to get back at the "man". It's classic blaxploitation fare with a tendency for screwing with the audience and shocking them with the cold hard truth. Ralph worked his hardest with this film and insisted on making this his masterpiece, and it shows with explosive results. I loved the characters. The three brothers are dangerously cool, especially Brother Rabbit. Miss America is without a doubt the sexiest animated woman ever drawn. Unfortunately, she represents everything bloated, superficial, perverted and wrong with America. Which makes her a wickedly evil villain. The main villain, the Godfather was a little hard to swallow being Italian and all. But the Mafia was just begging for a Hollywood beating, and Bakshi let them have it. If I was to sum up Coonskin in one sentence, I would call it the Pulp Fiction of animation. It has the same level of genius and wit as that movie did, and will grow on you for an awfully long time. It's too bad not many people will ever see it. Hopefully, a home video release will finally surface in the future, and we can all celebrate this controversial classic.

After finally watching Walt Disney's Song of the South on myspace, I decided to watch Ralph Bakshi's response to that movie-Coonskin-on Afro Video which I linked from Google Video. In this one, during the live-action sequences, Preacherman (Charles Gordone) takes his friend Sampson (Barry White) with him to pick up Pappy (Scatman Crothers) and Randy (Philip Thomas, years before he added Michael for his middle name professionally) as the latter two escape from prison. During their attempt, Pappy tells Randy a tale of Brother Rabbit (voice of Thomas), Brother Bear (White), and Preacher Fox (Gordone) and their adventures in Harlem. As expected in many of these Bakshi efforts, there's a mix of animation and live-action that provides a unique point-of-view from the writer/director that is sure to offend some people. Another fascinating animated character is Miss America who's a big-as in gigantic in every way-white blonde woman dressed in skin-tight red, white, and blue stars and stripes who has a hold on a little black man and has him shot in one of the most sexually violent ways that was shockingly funny to me! There are plenty of such scenes sprinkled throughout the picture of which another one concerning Brother Bear's frontal anatomy also provided big laughs from me. There's also a segment of a woman telling her baby of a "cockroach" she was friends with who left her that was touching with that part seeming to be a tribute to the comic strip artist George Herriman. I was also fascinated hearing Grover Washington Jr.'s version of "Ain't No Sunshine" heard as part of the score. Most compelling part of the picture was seeing the Scatman himself depicted with his head in silhouette during the opening credit sequence singing and scatting to a song that has him using the N-word in a satirical way. When I saw a VHS cover of this movie years ago, it had depicted Brother Rabbit in insolent mode in front of what looked like the Warner circles with the slogan, "This movie will offend EVERYBODY". That is ample warning to anyone who thinks all cartoons are meant for children. That said, I definitely recommend Coonskin to fans of Bakshi and of every form of animation.