Coonskin (1975) Review

"Because i was born and raised in a garbage can."

Lets continue our Ralph Bakshi marathon with not just the most controversial film in his filmography, but also one of the most controversial animated movies of all time that retells the classic Uncle Remus stories in a more urban setting; Coonskin.

In a small town in Oklahoma, The local Preacher takes a prayer, to the kids, then gives them a tour. When he gets there, he meets Sampson and plans to bust out their friend Randy from prison. As they rush to the prison, the two are stopped by a woman, who gives Sampson the price.
Meanwhile, Randy and another cellmate named Pappy escape from inside the prison and wait for Sampson and the Preacher to help them get out. While waiting for them, Randy unwillingly listens to Pappy tell a story about three guys that resemble Randy and his friends. Pappy's story is told in animation set against live-action background photos and footage.
Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox meet up with the sheriff and deputy, who arrive as customers only to find that one of the prostitutes was the sheriff's daughter. After shooting his deputy in a rage, the sheriff turned his gun on Rabbit, who threw a knife killing the sheriff.
The trio ran off deciding to move to Harlem, "home to every black man". This then leads to a lady telling a newborn a story about Malcolm. Rabbit, Bear, and Fox then stop the car and find that it is not all that it is made out to be, this also leads to an old man digging in the trash. They encounter a con man named Simple Savior, an obese and phony revolutionary leader who claims to be the cousin of "Black Jesus", and that he gives his followers "the strength to kill whites".
In a flashy stage performance in his "church", Savior acts out being brutalized by symbols of black oppression—represented by images of John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon, before asking his parishioners for "donations".
Rabbit and his friends quickly realize that Savior's "revolution" is merely a money-making scam, and they quickly argue about it, before leaving off. Rabbit openly steals a large portion of the donation money, prompting Savior to try to have him killed. After Rabbit tricks his would-be murderers (in a paraphrasing of the story of Br'er Rabbit and the brier patch), he and Bear kill Savior.
This allows Rabbit to take over Savior's racket, putting him in line to become the head of all organized crime in Harlem. Rabbit lays out his plan to keep all organized crime money in Harlem. But first, he has to get rid of a few other opponents.
Savior's former partners tell Rabbit they will join him but only if he can kill his opponents; otherwise they will kill him instead.
Will Rabbit be successful in building and maintaining his new criminal empire and take out his opponents?

The story is pretty solid and well written as even though it can feel disjointed with all the hopping between the main animated story and the live action B plot, and it can feel rushed at times, but overall the plot itself is pretty good as it does have some good and solid intrigue, some pretty intense and disturbing action, some pretty funny humor, some very well handled drama, and it does do a nice job at adapting the Uncle Remus stories in a more mature and urban setting. Also, all the political themes and topics explored in the movie are very well handled and executed as the movie isn't really about Brother Rabbit taking down the Mafia, but rather taking down a broken and corrupt system. This also gives the movie a very harsh and unapologetic tone.
The themes of the movie are highly admirable. Particularly, it's use of stereotypes. I know that there were some in "Fritz the Cat" and "Heavy Traffic", but i felt like waiting until now to mention Bakshi's use of negative stereotypes in his early films. Ralph implemented those stereotypes in his early works to not enforce them, but rather make a mockery of them. Yeah, in this movie the Black characters do look pretty bad, but everyone else is represented far worse like the Whites being depicted as slimy con men, Italians being depicted as grotesque crooks, police being depicted as corrupt brutes, gay guys being depicted as very flamboyant and horny, Miss America being a metaphor for how minorities, particularly black people, are sometimes treated as second class citizens by the system, and so on. 
The humor of the movie is pretty solid as while it does rely on shocking imagery and all the other taboo stuff found in Bakshi's early works, but thankfully the humor does land it's mark and does result in some pretty good laughs such as the banter between the main trio, the adult jokes and dark humor, the gags and visual humor, and so on.
The action scenes in the movie are pretty solid and intense as they do give the movie some good excitement and thrills. Mainly with Rabbit, Bear, and Fox taking on the head honcho criminals of Harlem and their goons, and evading the police.
The animation is about on par with "Heavy Traffic" in that it does look cheap due to it's low budget, but it does look pretty solid and maintains Bakshi's signature style in his early works like the characters all having some pretty solid designs, in spite of using negative stereotypes like the black characters, that are accompanied by some decently fluid and lively movements, the live-action backgrounds are very well implemented with the animation, and the drawn backgrounds that occasionally appear are well drawn and painted, and there are some nice effects.
The production design during the live action scenes are pretty solid as they do show their value from the low budget like the sets and actual filming locations featured are well crafted and implemented, and they do serve the film quite well. Not to mention there are some very nice shots of Harlem.
The characters are pretty decent as while they can be pretty crude and some can be flat out despicable, but the protagonists do manage to be likable and do have some nice chemistry and dynamics, wit and humor, and even some charm and charisma like Brother Rabbit being a very solid protagonist, Brother Bear and Preacher Fox being some very likable supporting characters which does give the trio some good chemistry, their live action counterparts, Randy, Sampson, and Preacherman, are also very likable and do have the same kind of chemistry as well as Pappy, and this movie has a large amount of villains and antagonists that are pretty solid like the Godfather and his sons, Savior, Managan, Miss America, and more. Not to mention the movie also has some pretty solid minor characters.
The acting in this movie is very solid as the actors all give some great performances like Phillip Michael Thomas as Brother Rabbit and Randy, Barry White as Brother Bear and Sampson, Charles Gordone as Preacher Fox and Preacherman, Scatman Crothers as Pappy, Al Lewis as the Godfather, Frank de Kova as Managan, Jesse Well as Miss America, and more.
The music is pretty solid as the music does sound very nice and funky, and it does manage very well to capture the movie's darkly comedic, provocative, violent, and uncomfortable tone.

Overall, while the movie can be a bit all over the place and a few aspects have aged horribly, this is still a very well crafted and very provocative and thought-provoking movie with a message that's still valid and important to this day. If you can get past the stereotypical depictions and get some context to why they're in the movie, then maybe you'll like it.

Cast:
Philip Michael Thomas as Randy, Brother Rabbit
Barry White as Sampson, Brother Bear
Charles Gordone as Preacherman, Preacher Fox
Scatman Crothers as Pappy, Old Man Bone, Minstrel
Danny Rees as Mario the Clown
Buddy Douglas as Referee
Jim Moore as The Mime
Al Lewis as The Godfather
Richard Paul as Sonny
Frank de Kova as Managan, Ruby
Ralph Bakshi as Cop with Megaphone
Theodore Wilson as Minstrel
Jesse Welles as Marrigold, Miss America

Crew:
Written and Directed by Ralph Bakshi
Produced by Albert S. Ruddy
Music by Chico Hamilton

Misc.
Based on the tales of Uncle Remus
Production companies: Bakshi Productions, Albert S. Ruddy Productions
Distributed by Bryanston Distributing Company
Release date: August 20, 1975
Runtime: 1 hour, 23 minutes