Ralph Bakshi was born on October 29,1938 and is an American animator, filmmaker, and painter.
108 Facts About Ralph Bakshi
2.
Ralph Bakshi has been involved in numerous television projects as director, writer, producer, and animator.
3.
Ralph Bakshi moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in 1968.
4.
Ralph Bakshi is well known for such films as Wizards, The Lord of the Rings, American Pop, and Fire and Ice.
5.
In 1987, Ralph Bakshi returned to television work, producing the series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which ran for two years.
6.
Ralph Bakshi returned to television with the live-action film Cool and the Crazy and the anthology series Spicy City.
7.
Ralph Bakshi has received several awards for his work, including the 1980 Golden Gryphon for The Lord of the Rings at the Giffoni Film Festival, the 1988 Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation, and the 2003 Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest Film Festival.
8.
Ralph Bakshi was born on October 29,1938, in Haifa, British Mandate of Palestine, to a Krymchak Jewish family.
9.
The family lived in a low-rent apartment, where Ralph Bakshi became fascinated with the urban milieu.
10.
Ralph Bakshi liked the feeling when he looked out the window and saw the sun as a little boy, and whenever he would walk out in the streets, someone would break the wooden crates, that were filled with food, in the push carts open.
11.
Ralph Bakshi recalls, "I had a great feeling with wood, cement, and nails".
12.
The racial segregation of local schools meant that the nearest white school was several miles away; Ralph Bakshi obtained his mother's permission to attend the nearby black school with his friends.
13.
At the age of 15, after discovering Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide to Cartooning at the public library, Ralph Bakshi took up cartooning to document his experiences and create fantasy-influenced artwork.
14.
Ralph Bakshi stole a copy of the book and learned every lesson in it.
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In June 1956, Ralph Bakshi graduated from the school with an award in cartooning.
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When Ralph Bakshi was 18, his friend Cosmo Anzilotti was hired by the cartoon studio Terrytoons; Anzilotti recommended Ralph Bakshi to the studio's production manager, Frank Schudde.
17.
Ralph Bakshi was hired as a cel polisher and commuted four hours each day to the studio, based in suburban New Rochelle.
18.
Ralph Bakshi began to practice animating; to give himself more time, at one point he slipped 10 cels he was supposed to work on into the "to-do" pile of a fellow painter, Leo Giuliani.
19.
Ralph Bakshi's deception was not noticed until two days later, when he was called to Schudde's office because the cels had been painted on the wrong side.
20.
When Ralph Bakshi explained that Giuliani had made the mistake, an argument ensued between the three.
21.
Ralph Bakshi married his first wife, Elaine, when he was 21.
22.
Deitch was not convinced that Ralph Bakshi had a modern design sensibility.
23.
Ralph Bakshi began to see Rasinski as a father figure; Rasinski, childless, was happy to serve as Ralph Bakshi's mentor.
24.
In 1966, Bill Weiss asked Ralph Bakshi to help him carry presentation boards to Manhattan for a meeting with CBS.
25.
Once Silverman saw the character designs, he confirmed that CBS would greenlight the show, on the condition that Ralph Bakshi would serve as its creative director and to oversee the entire project.
26.
Ralph Bakshi received a pay raise, but was not as satisfied with his career advancement as he had anticipated; Rasinski had died in 1965, Ralph Bakshi did not have creative control over The Mighty Heroes, and he was unhappy with the quality of the animation, writing, timing, and voice acting.
27.
Ralph Bakshi met with Burt Hampft, a lawyer for the studio, and was hired to replace Culhane.
28.
Ralph Bakshi enlisted comic-book and pulp-fiction artists and writers Harvey Kurtzman, Lin Carter, Gray Morrow, Archie Goodwin, Wally Wood, and Jim Steranko to work at the studio.
29.
Ralph Bakshi served as head of the studio for eight months before Paramount closed its animation division on December 1,1967.
30.
Ralph Bakshi learned that his position was always intended to be temporary and that Paramount never intended to pick up his pitches.
31.
Ralph Bakshi narrowly avoided capture before being stopped by an American border guard, who asked him what he was doing.
32.
Ralph Bakshi Productions paid its employees higher salaries than other studios and expanded opportunities for female and minority animators.
33.
Ralph Bakshi's second child, Preston, was born in June 1970.
34.
Ralph Bakshi was uninterested in the kind of animation the studio was turning out, and wanted to produce something personal.
35.
Ralph Bakshi soon developed Heavy Traffic, a tale of inner-city street life.
36.
Krantz told Ralph Bakshi that Hollywood studio executives would be unwilling to fund the film because of its content and Ralph Bakshi's lack of film experience, and would likely consider it if his first film was an adaptation, luckily he would find a Comic that would become his first animated feature.
37.
Krantz arranged a meeting with Crumb, during which Ralph Bakshi presented the drawings he had created while learning the artist's distinctive style to prove that he could adapt Crumb's artwork to animation.
38.
Artist Vaughn Bode warned Ralph Bakshi against working with Crumb, describing him as "slick".
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Ralph Bakshi later agreed with Bode's assessment, calling Crumb "one of the slickest hustlers you'll ever see in your life".
40.
Two weeks after Ralph Bakshi returned to New York, Krantz entered his office and told Ralph Bakshi that he had acquired the film rights through Dana, who had Crumb's power of attorney and signed the contract.
41.
Krantz produced a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, to which Ralph Bakshi was steadfastly opposed, having wanted to kill Fritz off to avoid further movies.
42.
Ralph Bakshi hired animators with whom he had worked in the past, including Vita, Tyer, Anzilotti, and Nick Tafuri, and began the layouts and animation.
43.
Krantz intended to release the sequence as a 15-minute short in case the picture's financing fell through; Ralph Bakshi was determined to complete the film as a feature.
44.
Ralph Bakshi eventually made a deal with Jerry Gross, the owner of Cinemation Industries, a distributor specializing in exploitation films.
45.
In May 1971, Ralph Bakshi moved his studio to Los Angeles to hire additional animators.
46.
Inspiration for the film came from penny arcades, where Ralph Bakshi often played pinball, sometimes accompanied by his 12-year-old son, Mark.
47.
Ralph Bakshi did not have a lawyer, so he sought advice from fellow directors with whom he had become friendly, including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg.
48.
Ralph Bakshi soon accused Krantz of ripping him off, which the producer denied.
49.
The idea interested producer Albert S Ruddy, whom Bakshi encountered at a screening of The Godfather.
50.
Ralph Bakshi received a call from Krantz, who questioned him about Harlem Nights.
51.
Ralph Bakshi said, "I can't talk about that", and hung up.
52.
Arkoff threatened to withdraw his financial backing unless Krantz rehired Ralph Bakshi, who returned a week later.
53.
Ralph Bakshi wanted the voices to sound organic, so he experimented with improvisation, allowing his actors to ad lib during the recording sessions.
54.
Ralph Bakshi became the first person in the animation industry since Walt Disney to have two financially successful movies released consecutively.
55.
However, it is an authentic work of movie art and Ralph Bakshi is certainly the most creative American animator since Disney.
56.
Harlem Nights, based on Ralph Bakshi's firsthand experiences with racism, was an attack on racist prejudices and stereotypes.
57.
Ralph Bakshi cast Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas, Barry White, and Charles Gordone in live-action and voice roles, cutting in and out of animation abruptly rather than seamlessly because he wanted to prove that the two media could "coexist with neither excuse nor apology".
58.
Ralph Bakshi wrote a song for Crothers to sing during the opening title sequence: "Ah'm a Niggerman".
59.
Ralph Bakshi has described its vocal style, backed by fast guitar licks, as an "early version of rap".
60.
Ralph Bakshi intended to attack stereotypes by portraying them directly, culling imagery from blackface iconography.
61.
Ralph Bakshi juxtaposed stereotypical designs of blacks with even more negative depictions of white racists, but the film's strongest criticism is directed at the Mafia.
62.
Ralph Bakshi hired several African-American animators to work on Coonskin, including Brenda Banks, the first African-American female animator.
63.
Ralph Bakshi hired graffiti artists and trained them to work as animators.
64.
Ralph Bakshi financed the film's completion himself from the director's fees for other projects such as Wizards, The Lord of the Rings, and American Pop.
65.
In 1976, Ralph Bakshi pitched War Wizards to 20th Century Fox.
66.
Ralph Bakshi chose rotoscoping as a cost-effective way to complete the movie's battle scenes with his own finances.
67.
The experiment worked, and Ralph Bakshi got the pages he needed for a penny per copy.
68.
In late 1976, Bakshi learned that John Boorman was contracted to direct an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, in which JR R Tolkien's three-volume novel would be condensed into a single film.
69.
Ralph Bakshi arranged a meeting with Mike Medavoy, United Artists' head of production, who agreed to let Ralph Bakshi direct in exchange for the $3 million that had been spent on Boorman's screenplay.
70.
Ralph Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who wrote a check to cover MGM's debt and agreed to fund the $8 million budget for the first of what was initially planned as a series of three films, and later negotiated down to two.
71.
Ralph Bakshi did not want to produce a broad cartoon version of the tale, so he planned to shoot the entire film in live action and animate the footage with rotoscoping.
72.
Ralph Bakshi did not want to repeat the process that had been used on Wizards, which was unsuitable for the level of detail he intended for The Lord of the Rings, so Bakshi and camera technician Ted Bemiller created their own photographic enlarger to process the footage cheaply.
73.
Animator Carl Bell loved drawing Aragorn so much that Ralph Bakshi gave Bell the live-action Aragorn costume, which he wore while animating.
74.
Once it was finished, Ralph Bakshi was told that audiences would not pay to see an incomplete story; over his objections, The Lord of the Rings was marketed with no indication that a second part would follow.
75.
Ralph Bakshi pitched American Pop to Columbia Pictures president Dan Melnick.
76.
Ralph Bakshi wanted to produce a film in which songs would be given a new context in juxtaposition to the visuals.
77.
Ralph Bakshi again used rotoscoping, in an attempt to capture the range of emotions and movement required for the film's story.
78.
Fire and Ice was the most action-oriented story Ralph Bakshi had directed, so he again used rotoscoping; the realism of the design and rotoscoped animation replicated Frazetta's artwork.
79.
Ralph Bakshi passed the latter to Ridley Scott, who adapted it into the 1982 film Blade Runner.
80.
Ralph Bakshi sent Salinger a letter explaining why he should be allowed to adapt the novel; the writer responded by thanking Ralph Bakshi and asserting that the novel was unfit for any medium other than its original form.
81.
Ralph Bakshi was told that the live-action shoot needed to be completed within one day for it to be shown at the Grammy Awards.
82.
Ralph Bakshi was forced to pay the union wages out of his own fees, and the continuity between Kricfalusi's animation and the live-action footage did not match; however, the video was completed on time.
83.
Ralph Bakshi recognized Kricfalusi's talent, and wanted to put him in charge of a project that would showcase the young animator's skills.
84.
Jeff Sagansky, president of production at TriStar Pictures, put up $150,000 to develop the project, prompting Ralph Bakshi to move back to Los Angeles.
85.
When Sagansky left TriStar, Ralph Bakshi was forced to pitch the film again, but the studio's new executives did not understand its appeal and cut off financing.
86.
Ralph Bakshi told her that he had the rights to Mighty Mouse, and she agreed to purchase the series.
87.
However, Ralph Bakshi did not own the rights and did not know who did.
88.
Ralph Bakshi did not initially view the footage; he believed that Klein was overreacting, but agreed to let him cut the scene.
89.
In 1988, Ralph Bakshi received an Annie Award for "Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation".
90.
Ralph Bakshi moved into a warehouse loft in downtown Los Angeles to clear his head, and was offered $50,000 to direct a half-hour live-action film for PBS's Imagining America anthology series.
91.
Mark Ralph Bakshi produced the film, This Ain't Bebop, his first professional collaboration with his father.
92.
Ralph Bakshi wrote a poem influenced by Jack Kerouac, jazz, the Beat Generation and Brooklyn that served as the narration, which was spoken by Harvey Keitel.
93.
Ralph Bakshi next directed the pilot Hound Town for NBC; he described the result as "an embarrassing piece of shit".
94.
In 1990, Ralph Bakshi pitched Cool World to Paramount Pictures as a partially animated horror film.
95.
The live-action footage was intended to look like "a living, walk-through painting", a visual concept Ralph Bakshi had long wanted to achieve.
96.
In 1993, Lou Arkoff, the son of Samuel Z Arkoff, approached Bakshi to write and direct a low-budget live-action feature for Showtime's Rebel Highway series.
97.
Ralph Bakshi was contacted by HBO, which was looking to launch the first animated series specifically for adults, an interest stirred by discussions involving a series based upon Trey Parker and Matt Stone's video Christmas card, Jesus vs Santa.
98.
Ralph Bakshi enlisted a team of writers, including his son Preston, to develop Spicy Detective, later renamed Spicy City, an anthology series set in a noir-ish, technology-driven future.
99.
Ralph Bakshi retired from animation once more, returning to his painting.
100.
Ralph Bakshi later became involved in several screen projects, including a development deal with the Sci Fi Channel, In September 2002, Bakshi, Liz and their dogs moved to New Mexico, where he became more productive than ever in his painting and began development on the Last Days of Coney Island film.
101.
In 2012, Ralph Bakshi began producing the short film series Ralph Bakshi Blues.
102.
In February 2013, Ralph Bakshi launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to obtain funding for his latest film, Last Days of Coney Island.
103.
Actor Matthew Modine was cast in the film in February 2013 after Modine, a longtime Ralph Bakshi fan, came across the film's Kickstarter campaign online.
104.
Ralph Bakshi released the film for free on YouTube on 13 October 2016.
105.
Ralph Bakshi continues to sell art on eBay and his website, both run by the Bakshi family.
106.
Ralph Bakshi currently sells an art series called Little Guys and Gals, which are fictional portraits of cartoon people.
107.
Ralph Bakshi appeared as a guest at a Canadian film festival which celebrates animation, SPARK Animation, which was held virtually, from October 28 to November 7,2021.
108.
In 2021, Ralph Bakshi won the Animafest Zagreb Lifetime Achievement Award for his animation career and the impact of his films.