Ralph Bakshi

Ralph Bakshi born October 29 1938 is an American director of animated and liveaction films In the 1970s he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adultoriented productions Between 1972 and 1992 he directed nine theatrically released feature films five of which he wrote He has been involved in numerous television projects as director writer producer and animator Beginning his career at the Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher Bakshi was eventually promoted to director He moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio Bakshi Productions in 1968 Through producer Steve Krantz Bakshi made his debut feature film Fritz the Cat released in 1972 It was the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America and the most successful independent animated feature of all time Over the next eleven years Bakshi directed seven additional animated features He is well known for his fantasy films which include Wizards 1977 The Lord of the Rings 1978 and Fire and Ice 1983 In 1987 Bakshi returned to television work producing the series Mighty Mouse The New Adventures which ran for two years before it was canceled due to complaints from a conservative political group over perceived drug references After a nineyear hiatus from feature films he directed Cool World 1992 which was largely rewritten during production and received poor reviews Bakshi returned to television with the liveaction film Cool and the Crazy 1994 and the anthology series Spicy City 1997 He founded the Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning in 2003 During the 2000s he has focused largely on painting He 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 Description above from the Wikipedia article Ralph Bakshi licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia