American Pop
by Ralph Bakshi
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DVD details
Actor: Jeffrey Lippa, Jerry Holland, Lisa Jane Persky, Mews Small, Ron ThompsonDirector: Ralph Bakshi
Brand: N/A
Writer: Ronni Kern
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-06-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of American Pop
DVD Review: A Family History of Music, Ambition, & Tragedy
Summary: 4 Stars
American Pop is Ralph Bakshi's animated tale of a family's struggle to realize it's musical ambitions through the 20th Century.
Zalmie is a Russian Jewish immigrant to NY, his father a cantor was killed in a pogrom by the Czar's Cossacks. Upon arriving in America his mother is killed in a sweatshop fire, and Zalmie is left to the streets of New York. Zalmie finds his place in the world on Vaudeville, at first distributing chorus slips to customers so they can sing along, then he moves up the Vaudeville ropes to singer. During a USO show in WWI France there's a German attack and Zalmie is wounded in the throat, ending his dream of being a singer. He returns to Vaudeville, becomes a comedian and meets the girl of his dreams, a stripper. Zalmie tries to turn her into a star but life intervenes again, she gets pregnant and Zalmie needing to earn a living falls in with the mob.
Zalmie's ambitions are resurrected in his son Benny a talented piano player, but Benny would rather play with a negro Jazz band than seriously pursue music as his father would like. To please his father Benny marries the mobsters daughter and his life would seem to be set until WWII breaks out and Benny is sent to Europe. While on patrol Benny comes across a piano in an abandoned building where he takes a minute to play a little music. The music rouses a wounded German soldier who for a moment seems to be lulled by Benny's playing, but in a moment that shows the ruthlessness of war, and proof that music doesn't always soothe the savage breast, the German soldier kills Benny.
The story flashes forward to Benny's son Tony, a teenager finding himself smothered in the inertia of the late 50's, early 60's suburban television life. Tony steals a car and is off on his own Jack Kerouac On The Road adventure. When he lands in Kansas he meets a beautiful girl and they have a night of passion. Tony makes his way to San Franscisco where he meets a rock band fronted by Frankie Hart who has a more than passing resemblance to Janis Joplin. Tony lies to them and tells them he writes songs, and Tony proceeds to writing a slew of hit songs, as well as providing drugs to the band. Eventually, the drugs take over and rule Tony's life, Frankie dies, and when the band finds itself in Kansas Tony adopts a kid named Little Petey who reminds him of the girl he meet in Kansas so many years before. Tony and Little Pete go to New York where Tony teaches Little Pete the ins and outs of writing songs and drug dealing, until one day Tony splits, leaving Pete with a legacy of loving music and drug dealing. When Petey grows up he uses his drug dealing connections to get a band interested in songs he's written which culminates in Petey becoming successful, Zalmie's dream realized at last.
If the plot and story seem a little stereotyped or like you've seen them before, you probably have. What Makes American Pop different from other movies is the animation and the music. Bakshi uses the animation to great effect, from what would ordinarily be an average movie to something special, and uses just enough vintage footage to set the tone of the era. The real star of the movie though, is the music. Most of the musical forms and writers of the 20th Century are represented, to name just a few George M Cohan, Scott Joplin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Dave Brubeck, Elvis, Lou Reed, Heart, Pat Benatar, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Seeger.
American Pop came out almost 30 years ago, and a couple of years ago I found myself intereseted in seeing the movie again, so I bought the DVD and hoped that I wouldn't find the material dated, and I wasn't disappointed the movie still holds its appeal. The only thing that could have enhanced the DVD was some bonus features, there isn't even a directors commentary, and maybe a documentary on the making of American Pop or on Bakshi's influence in the world of animation, I think it could arguably be said American Pop influenced the animation of today such as the Pixar movies.
Description of American Pop
No Description Available.Genre: Animation
Rating: R
Release Date: 5-OCT-2004
Media Type: DVD
Animator-director-screenwriter Ralph Bakshi audaciously tries to chronicle the history of 20th-century American popular music, while also placing each period into historical and social context--all in 97 minutes! Its animated, episodic narrative follows four generations of Jewish-American musicians as each painfully seeks fame through changing musical eras. Starting at the turn of the century with a piano-playing immigrant in New York, the film moves swiftly, following his offspring through such movements as Gershwin-era pop, jazz, folk music, '60s psychedelia, and punk--and only pauses for elaborate, energized musical numbers designed to showcase the work of Benny Goodman, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Lou Reed, the Jefferson Airplane, and numerous others. However, these electric set pieces provide brief dynamism in a relatively bleak film filled with hard-luck protagonists suffering through clichéd drug addiction, death, and alienation. While the film's scope is admirably ambitious, and Bakshi's stylized use of rotoscoping (tracing animation from live action) makes for fluid and often eye-popping visuals, his treatment also feels heavy handed and cuts numerous corners. And, when Baskshi ends his epic by mocking punk, and celebrating the future of rock & roll through the music of Bob Seger, one wonders whether or not he a knowledgeable grasp of his topic at all. The DVD version presents the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. --Dave McCoy
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