American Pop (1981)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ralph Bakshi

Writer:

Ronni Kern (written by)

Release Date:

13 February 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Music

Tagline:

All those years, all those dreams, all those sons... one of them is going to be a star.

Plot:

The story of four generations of a Russian Jewish family of musicians parallels the history of American popular music in the 20th century.

Plot Keywords:

Musician | Russia | 1980s | Jewish | Pop

Cast

Ron Thompson	...	Tony / Pete (voice)
Mews Small	...	Frankie (voice) (as Marya Small)
Jerry Holland	...	Louie (voice)
Lisa Jane Persky	...	Bella (voice)
Jeffrey Lippa	...	Zalmie (voice)
Roz Kelly	...	Eva Tanguay (voice)
Frank DeKova	...	Crisco (voice) (as Frank De Kova)
Richard Singer	...	Benny (voice)
Elsa Raven	...	Hannele (voice)
Ben Frommer	...	Palumbo (voice)
Amy Levitt	...	Nancy (voice)
Leonard Stone	...	Leo Stern (voice)
Eric Taslitz	...	Little Pete (voice)
Gene Borkan	...	Izzy (voice)
Richard Moll	...	Beat Poet (voice)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | Russian | Yiddish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Singapore:PG | USA:R (No. 25799) | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Iceland:L | UK:15 (video rating) | UK:AA

Company:

Bakshi Productions

Trivia:

Except for a few bits of live-action stock footage and the still drawings in the opening credits, the movie is entirely rotoscoped.

Quotes:

Tony: What is this?
The Blonde: Corn.
Tony: Corn? Corn comes in a little white box from Birdseye. Corn? Kansas is corny! Can ya eat it?
The Blonde: Yeah.
Tony: Can ya smoke it? Can ya drink it? Can ya lie in it?
The Blonde: Sure.
Tony: Then lie in it with me.
The Blonde: Are you crazy?
Tony: Yeah, I'm crazy. I'm crazy in love with your blue eyes... and your corn-silked hair. Your corn-silked hair. I'll never eat corn again without thinking' about you. Canned corn, candy corn, popcorn, Crackerjacks! You're the prize in my box! And my box is this country. It's all tinfoil on the outside. Corn and sweetness on the inside.

Movie Connections:

References The Jazz Singer (1927)

Soundtrack:

Moanin'

What's cooler than cool? Ice cold!

American Pop is very well one of the finest animated features I have ever seen. The story surrounds four generations of father and sons, the events in their lives painted across the backdrop of the evolution of music. The movie begins with a young boy and his mother fleeing the chaos in turn-of-the-century Russia, where they migrate to the states. The young boy sets things off with the clamor of jazz bands in a burlesque parlor, and the movie ends in the late 70s, with a drug dealing man desperate for a start in the music business. So, the story traces some sixty years of music, offering a highly extensive soundtrack and featuring all sorts of musical genres as a way of teaching histories and cultures.

The first thing that truly caught my attention with this movie was not the story (because the story itself is pretty unusual when you're not used to this style to begin with), but the incredible animation. Long before computer graphics and surpassing any animation styles of earlier Bakshi films, the characters of American Pop are so life-like even down to the smallest details of hair texture or breathing. I was just aghast to watch it purely for the artistic effort of the film, as it simply one of Bakshi's best (rid yourself of those preconceived notions based on earlier Bakshi films you may've seen like 'Heavy Traffic'), and certainly one of the best animated films I'd ever seen.

There are many Bakshi trademarks going on here. Some of the animated scenes get pretty wild and often mix life action backgrounds with animated foreground characters, especially during the hallucination scenes that take place during the mock Jefferson Airplane scenes. It's quiet a scene, man.

American Pop is definitely a rich education in music as it touches on everything from radio jazz, swing, classical, rock n' roll, psychadellia, and hell, even punk. In fact, the general elements of American Pop are often more interesting than the characters and situations. I highly recommend watching it.