open/close all folders
Main Characters
Michael Corleone
Michael Corleone
Played by: Joseph Kaufmann
The Protagonist. A 22-year-old pinball-playing virgin and aspiring underground cartoonist. Dreams of escaping his dead-end life in New York to make it big in California.- Anti-Hero: He's bitter, directionless, and willing to hurt people who he believes "have it coming", but he's also relatively sympathetic and affable. By the end of the movie he crosses over into being a Villain Protagonist as he freely murders people to steal their money and beats his girlfriend for being insubordinate to him. Considering that these events are revealed to have been All Just a Dream, though, it's hard to say if he's actually capable of doing them.
- The Art of Bra Removal: His cluelessness about the opposite sex effectively costs him a potential job at a garment center when he's made to unhook a model's bra and has no clue how to do it.
- Author Avatar: Somewhat; he's an underground cartoonist of Jewish descent from the streets of New York City who uses the Crapsack World around him as his primary creative inspiration, much like Ralph Bakshi. His main comic is also a post-apocalyptic story that darkly parodies and deconstructs religion, not unlike Bakshi's Wizards.
- Basement-Dweller: A downplayed example. He's 22, unemployed, and out of school, but he still lives with his parents and spends most of his days drawing cartoons in his room or bumming around the neighborhood.
- Birds of a Feather: His relationship with Carole blurs the line between this and Opposites Attract. While their personalities are near opposites, both of them are down on their luck young people who feel constrained by the big city and want to escape to greener pastures. They also seem to encourage each other's worst impulses, and go from morally gray to outright Villain Protagonists as they continue being a couple.
- Black Gal on White Guy Drama: His relationship with Carole causes Angie to disown and attempt to organize a hit on him.
- Butt-Monkey: While he doesn't suffer quite as much as Angie, Michael is still put through the ringer throughout the movie.
- Cannot Talk to Women: Gets tongue-tied at the sight of Rosalyn in her underwear and faints when Carole starts to get naked in his bedroom. Averted outside of sex-related stuff, where he holds his own just as well as he does with men.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: His parents charging at each other with knives doesn't even elicit a reaction from him.
- Dada Comic: His comics are all shown to be surreal, cynical, and incredibly nihilistic with a healthy dose of sexual and religious imagery thrown in for good measure.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has a one-liner ready for everyone he speaks with, his parents included.Ollie: Do I look like a nigger to you? I mean, I mean like, take a good, clean look.Michael: Yeah, a good clean look'd be refreshing, Ollie.
- Disney Death: Gets shot through the head by Shorty, only to be shown alive and well in the live action sequence that immediately follows.
- Freudian Excuse: His parents are in a violently loveless marriage and he's clearly spent his whole life seeing the absolute worst the Big Rotten Apple has to offer. His dad also has mob ties, so you can assume that he's grown up with violence and criminality as the norm.
- Generation Xerox: By the end of the movie, he seems to be on track to becoming a criminal in the same vein as his mafioso father, complete with having an abusive relationship with his spouse. Things seemingly end on a more hopeful note for him in the real world, as he reconciles with Carole and doesn't appear to have any blood on his hands.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He's the spitting image of his actor, which comes into play during the sequences that feature him in live action.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It's no coincidence that he gets a bullet through the head right after he resorts to murdering people for money.
- Loser Protagonist: He's a 22-year-old unemployed virgin who stills lives with his parents and gets bullied by local street toughs as though he were a high school nerd.
- Meet Cute: His relationship with Carole developed as he started drawing her cartoons in exchange for free booze while she was working as a bartender.
- Mr. Imagination: He has an incredibly wild and expressive (not to mention dark) imagination, as seen by his various comics. The ending also raises the possibility that the entire movie may have been an extended Imagination Spot in his head, though the details are too vague to say for sure.
- Mr. Vice Guy: He's very flawed, but he's also decent enough of a person and in bad enough of a situation that he still generally maintains the audience's sympathy throughout the movie.
- Nice to the Waiter: The first character we see him interact with outside of his apartment is Crazy Moe, who he treats as a friend and equal despite being a black Crazy Homeless Person.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Compared to most of the rest of the cast, particularly the other men, Michael is much more realistically proportioned and doesn't have any particularly exaggerated features.
- N-Word Privileges: Calls Crazy Moe the N-word without any repercussions. Possibly justified in that, along with seemingly being old friends with him, Crazy Moe is crazy. Notably, he never uses the word when speaking with Carole.
- Of Course I'm Not a Virgin: Futilely attempts to deny his virginity when Ollie and his gang tease him over it.
- Only Sane Man: He seems quite lucid compared to the people around him, though by the end he's stooped to being a low-down murderer.
- Pinball Protagonist: Emphasized by the visual metaphor of a live action version of himself playing a pinball table shown throughout the movie. Life bounces him from one mishap to another without giving him much in the way of agency, and once he finally tries to game the system and take matters into his own hands, he's punished for tilting.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Goes from a directionless cartoonist to a murderous pimp over the course of the plot, though it's ultimately unclear whether this was All Just a Dream or not.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Carole's red. Emphasized by his blue jacket and undershirt.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: He's the savvy guy to Carole's energetic girl in a distinctly not kid friendly take on this trope.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive guy to Angie's manly man. Angie is a wannabe gangster obsessed with honor and masculinity while Michael is an artist and a dreamer. Emphasized by their respective romantic entanglements; Angie is having a prolonged extramarital affair while Michael's still a virgin at 22.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: He and Carole are constantly blowing up at each other and he begins to physically abuse her near the end of the movie, but they always come running back together whenever they break apart. The ending leaves them off on a relatively happy note, dancing together in the park after an argument.
- Unlucky Everydude: He's fairly relatable, especially when compared to the rest of the cast, but can't land a job and doesn't have much in the way of luck with the ladies. His dreams of becoming a cartoonist also never go anywhere and the one chance he gets to realize them ends in an utter failure that may blacklist his name in the comic industry forever. He lampshades it himself after Carole rejects his initial invitation to stay at his house.Michael: "Y'know I'm, uh, really not too big with the girls... I mean, it's, uh, it's obvious Mick Jagger I'm not."
- Villain Protagonist: By the end of the movie he's a murderer who beats his significant other.
- Virgin-Shaming: Everyone in the city seems to know that he hasn't lost his V-card, and they often bring it up to mock or belittle him. Angie describes his prolonged virginity as "not Italian". Later on the four prostitutes also mockingly refer to him as a "boy" for similar reasons.
- Would Hit a Girl: Slaps Carole hard enough to knock her to the ground after she accidentally kills a client while trying to make it as a taxi dancer.
- Write What You Know: Invoked. His cartoons are inspired by the antics of the people around him, and we even see him sketching a few while the inspiration for them is happening in front of him (such as his parents fighting).
Carole
Carole
Played by: Beverly Hope Atkinson
Michael's black girlfriend. A headstrong woman whose attitude keeps her from holding down a job but constantly pushes her to find new ways to get by. Her influence steadily pushes Michael to be more proactive about leaving New York.- Anti-Hero: Like Michael, she's one of the more sympathetic characters despite being rude, standoffish, and manipulative. Also like him, she descends into being a Villain Protagonist by the end of the movie.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Her outfit usually consists of a bikini top and bell-bottom jeans.
- The Bartender: Introduced as this at the beginning of the movie. She's implied to have been working as one for a good while, and seems to do a good job at it, but quits early on.
- Birds of a Feather: Her relationship with Michael blurs the line between this and Opposites Attract. While their personalities are near opposites, both of them are down on their luck young people who feel constrained by the big city and want to escape to greener pastures. They also seem to encourage each other's worst impulses, and go from morally gray to outright Villain Protagonists as they continue being a couple.
- Boyfriend Bluff: Her relationship with Michael starts as this; she claims that they've been dating to get Shorty off her back. They're already close enough that they effectively do start dating as soon as she makes this declaration.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not to the same extent as Michael, but she delivers a few zingers here and there.
- Determinator: Every time life throws her a curve ball, she's quick to get back on her feet and seek out another way to get ahead.
- Dude Magnet: Michael and Shorty both pine for her, and she has no problem attracting clients while working as a dancer or a prostitute.
- Freudian Excuse: Her standoffish behavior is implied to be a response to having to constantly put up with racism stymying her attempts to improve her lot in life.
- George Jetson Job Security: Loses three jobs across the movie, generally due to her stubborn and uncompromising attitude. She can't even make it as a prostitute for long.
- Honey Trap: Poses as a prostitute in order to set up a businessman for Michael to kill, so they can both make off with his money.
- Hot-Blooded: Quick to anger and start conflicts when she's fed up with people.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: A staple of Ralph Bakshi's style; she has a large chest and hips and a tiny waste.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Like Michael, she's the spitting image of her actor, which comes into play during the final live action sequence.
- Lady Macbeth: A more sympathetic example than most, as it's made clear that her actions are knee-jerk attempts to try and make the best out of bad situations rather than a planned out con to drive Michael to kill.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Deconstructed to the point of being an Unbuilt Trope. While Carole is a feisty woman from another walk of life who encourages Michael to go against his parents and pursue his dreams more proactively, she's also a person with her own issues who is just as desperate and directionless as he is, and her influence only ends up making things worse for both of them.
- Meet Cute: Her relationship with Michael developed as he started drawing her cartoons in exchange for free booze while she was working as a bartender.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a curvy babe whose normal outfit makes her scantily clad from the waste up, and she's seen naked or in underwear on multiple occasions. She's so smoking hot that an old man has a heart attack just from looking at her panties.
- Non-Standard Character Design: She's one of the few characters to have a relatively realistic-looking design, though she's still fairly cartoonish when compared to Michael.
- Only One Name: As with most of the cast, we never learn her last name.
- The Oldest Profession: Her biggest fear appears to be getting reduced to prostitution. By the end of the movie, she starts a racket with Michael that involves her posing as one to set up marks for him to kill.
- Pretty in Mink: Wears a fur coat when outdoors.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Michael's blue. Emphasized by her hot pink bikini top and red pants.
- Sassy Black Woman: Deconstructed. Her no-nonsense and independent attitude only causes her problems as it keeps costing her employment.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: She's the energetic girl to Michael's savvy guy in a distinctly not kid friendly take on this trope.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Quits her job as a bartender on the spot when her boss chews her out for not sticking up for a regular customer and starts to bring her race into it.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: She and Michael are constantly blowing up at each other and he begins to physically abuse her near the end of the movie, but they always come running back together whenever they break apart. The ending leaves them off on a relatively happy note, dancing together in the park after an argument.
- Stripperific: Barely ever covers her upper body. It even gets her mistaken for a prostitute.
- Toxic Friend Influence: She steadily leads Michael down the path of a criminal, eventually to the point of killing people for money.
- Tsundere: She's usually quite icy with Michael but is genuinely fond of him when all is said and done. Best exemplified after she quits her job at the bar, where she harshly rejects his offer to let her stay with him only to come back and take him up on it after she realizes how she doesn't have a chance living out on the streets by herself. Even when she does this, her pride makes her keep up the veneer of doing it for his sake rather than her own.
- The Vamp: A less calculating example than most, but she uses her feminine wiles to push Michael down a dark path.
- Villain Protagonist: By the end of the movie she's complicit in Michael murdering a man for money.
Ida Corleone
Ida Corleone
Played by: Terri Haven
Michael's Jewish mother. A bitter old woman who violently hates her husband while doting on her son.
- Ax-Crazy: Charges at Angie with a carving knife with every intention to kill him on multiple occasions. She later uses an actual ax when she tries to kill Shorty.
- Awful Wedded Life: There is so little affection left in her marriage that she greets her husband by attempting to murder him.
- Broken Bird: Implied. She makes a few offhand references to having had happier times with Angie, but at present is a bitter homebody who is only not angry when she's drunk and reminiscing about the good old days.
- Domestic Abuse: While it's unclear who was the instigator of the violence in her relationship with Angie, both of them are absolutely brutal to each other.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Michael runs into her late into the movie drunk off her ass and reminiscing about happier times.
- Fan Disservice: A running gag has one of her breasts pop out of her dress, and we end up seeing her entire naked body at the end of Mike's imagination sequence.
- Freudian Excuse: Her husband is an absolute scumbag who does a very bad job of hiding the fact that he's having an affair.
- Going Commando: Shown to not be wearing any underwear when schmoozing at a night club in a skimpy dress.
- Ink-Suit Actor: A less overt version than Michael and Carole. Her actress' mannerisms lent themselves to how she was animated.
- I Was Quite the Looker: The pictures from her youth depict her as having once been quite pretty... and a live action person.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Calling her grouchy would be an understatement, but she genuinely loves her son and, to her credit, doesn't appear to have any objections to him dating Carole.
- Jewish Mother: A walking caricature of one, complete with gratuitous speaking in yiddish and showering her son with high calorie foods. She's actually quite a bit more reasonable than most examples, at least in terms of her interactions with Michael; she doesn't seem to care that he's dating a black woman and lines up a job opportunity for him without putting any pressure on him to get one.
- Lady Drunk: Michael encounters her absolutely plastered at a night club late into the movie.
- Mama Bear: Tries to rip Rosa away from Michael when she attempts to have sex with him. She also tries and fails to kill Shorty when he's sent out to kill Michael.
- My Beloved Smother: Her first scene features her badgering Michael about making him breakfast and has her bring him an enormous platter of food after he explicitly told her he wasn't hungry.
- Nostalgia Filter: Her rose-tinted memories of the past are emphasized via Medium Blending using real photographs.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Calls her husband all manner of racist slurs and seems convinced that his rotten personality is intrinsically linked to his being Italian. That being said, she does not seem to have a problem with her son dating a black woman.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When she confronts Shorty at the end of the movie. Subverted in that she fails to land a hit on him before he escapes.Ida: "No ya don't, ya degenerate! Ya got no legs, ya wanna try for no arms!?"
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: From what we see of him, Angie is a completely reprehensible bastard who she has every right to hate and fear their son following in the footsteps of. Trying to murder him in front of their son probably isn't the best way to prevent it, though.
Angelo Corleone
Angelo "Angie" Corleone
Played by: Frank DeKova
Michael's Italian father. A bumbling mafioso who is mortified that his son is dating a black woman.
- Abusive Parents: Attempts to force his son to have sex with a prostitute and later organizes a hit on him.
- Awful Wedded Life: He can't enter his house without having his wife try to kill him. For his part, he cheats on her with other women and gives as good as he gets with the violence.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: During his first scene with Michael he tries to play himself off as a concerned parent who wants his son to come out of his shell and experience the world. From the outset it's obvious that he's saying it because he's worried about how Michael will affect his reputation.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Browns his pants in fear after earning the Godfather's ire.
- The Chew Toy: Throughout the movie we see him get kicked around and humiliated in a variety of ways.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Has his pants get ripped off by Molly as she drives away in his car with them still caught in the door.
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Subverted; the movie goes out of its way to depict Angie's mobster lifestyle as being despicable and pathetic.
- Domestic Abuse: While it's unclear who was the instigator of the violence in his relationship with Ida, both of them are absolutely brutal to each other.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: While he and Ida both viciously attack each other, Angie is never the instigator of their fights, at least as far as is shown on screen.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Gets drunk off his ass after being hit by the one-two punch of learning that his son is dating a black woman and that he has failed the Godfather.
- Gag Penis: When Snowflake pulls him into a truck by his crotch, his penis is shown to be as long as a hose.
- Gratuitous Italian: Peppers his sentences with the occasional Italian. It's even grammatically correct.
- Hate Sink: In the World of Jerkass that is Heavy Traffic, Angie stands out as the most loathsome member of the cast.
- I Have No Son!: The revelation that Michael is dating a black woman causes him to declare his son to have "disgraced the family" and try to have the mafia put a hit on him. When that doesn't work he ends up getting Shorty to do it for him.
- It's All About Me: Only cares about his son in as much as his reputation depends on him to. When Michael does something that he deems a disgrace to their entire family, he disowns him.
- Karmic Rape: Gets dragged into a gangbang with Snowflake and his brothers after trying and failing to get the Godfather to order hit on Michael.
- Kavorka Man: He's an ugly middle-aged man who is in a relationship with the beautiful Molly. While this could be chalked up to him being her Sugar Daddy, Molly is shown to genuinely be in love with him and want him to leave his family to be with her full time.
- Offing the Offspring: Spends the second half of the movie trying to have his son killed for dating a black woman. And succeeds by the end. Maybe.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Almost exclusively called "Angie" throughout the movie.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The idea of his son dating a black woman is enough to make him disown him. His primary strategy for breaking up workers' unions is also by threatening to have them replaced by minorities.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: He's technically right that Carole is a bad influence on Michael, but not for the racist reasons that he thinks.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly man to Michael's sensitive guy. Angie is a wannabe gangster obsessed with honor and masculinity while Michael is an artist and a dreamer. Emphasized by their respective romantic entanglements; Angie is having a prolonged extramarital affair while Michael's still a virgin at 22.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Fancies himself to be a big wheel in the mafia who gets called in as a secret weapon whenever its workers try to unionize, but the one time we actually see him try to do this ends in utter failure and with him on the Godfather's shit list.
- Would Hit a Girl: Trades blows with Ida whenever they interact and violently kicks Molly out of his car when he's fed up with her.
Supporting Characters
Shorty
Shorty
A double amputee bouncer at the bar Carole works at. Has an unrequited crush on her and isn't happy about her relationship with Michael.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Carole won't even entertain his crush on her. She's at least friendly to him, though.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Comes off as one of the nicer members of the cast during his first scene by defending Snowflake from Bongo and showing rightful concern that Carole's behavior could get her fired, but ultimately reveals himself to be willing to kill someone for stealing his one-sided crush.
- Bouncer: His job at Mario's bar. From what we see of him, he's very good at it.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a legless dullard who moves around on a plank on wheels, but he's shown to be a very tough fighter.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Introduced relatively early on before dropping out of the plot for most of the movie. He comes back with a vengeance at the very end when he becomes Michael's killer.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Toward Carole. His niceness disappears as soon as she rejects him outright.
- Dumb Muscle: He's very strong but gives off the impression of being a bit of a dimwit through his voice.
- Entitled to Have You: Acts personally offended when Carole turns down his offer to let her stay with him despite her having already made it clear that she intended to leave New York.Shorty: "Ain't I always done everything for ya?!"
- Extreme Omnivore: Chews up a beer bottle after drinking its contents.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Doesn't like how close Carole is getting with Michael and is willing to kill him for it.
- Handicapped Badass: Despite lacking legs, he easily tosses the hulking Bongo out of the bar when he starts causing trouble.
- The Heavy: Ends up serving as this for Angie by the end of the movie.
- Lightning Bruiser: Along with being strong enough to effortlessly throw a large man several feet, he can move very fast by pushing himself on his wheeled plank. This lets him easily evade Ida's attacks when she tries to kill him late into the movie.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Assuming Shorty isn't his real name, that is.
- Riddle for the Ages: No information is provided to explain why he doesn't have any legs.
- Simpleton Voice: Along with his stutter, he slurs his words together and has poor grammar.
- Speech Impediment: Speaks with a pronounced stutter.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Exagerrated: His arms and torso are very muscular, but he has no legs whatsoever.
- Unknown Rival: Hates Michael with a passion, but Michael barely interacts with him.
- Yandere: Shorty is a pleasant enough guy when he thinks that he has a chance with Carole, but turns aggressive when she refuses his invitation to come live with him. Later he becomes willing to kill her boyfriend out of spite.
Molly
Molly
Played by: Mary Dean Luria
Angie's mistress. Utterly devoted to him despite his buffoonishness.
- The Alcoholic: Almost always seen chugging down a brown bottle when she appears.
- All Women Are Lustful: Spends most of her screentime trying to get Angie to stop what he's doing and have sex with her.
- Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally counters Angie's bluster with snark.
- Going Commando: Shown to not be wearing panties when her skirt rides up after Angie kicks her out of his car.
- History Repeats: She implied to be similar to Ida in throwing her entire life away after falling for Angie.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Like Carole, she's got large breasts and hips but a tiny waste.
- Love Martyr: Unlike Ida, she allows Angie to abuse and belittle her without ever striking back.
- Meaningful Name: Molly is one letter off from the word "moll". Ya'll can do the math.
- The Mistress: Angie's side piece. Their relationship is an Open Secret, as both Ida and Michael know full well about it and Angie himself doesn't make much of an effort to hide it.
- Ms. Fanservice: Like Carole, she's a courvaceous babe who the audience gets to see in various states of undress. Michael even expresses interest in her, though possibly only to annoy Angie.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Drawn to be far more realistic-looking than most of the cast.
- Only One Name: Like most of the cast, her last name is never given.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Joins Angie in laughing about screwing Puerto Rican migrant workers out of jobs during the opening scene.
- Satellite Character: She's Angie's mistress but is otherwise incidental to the plot.
- White Hair, Black Heart: She has white hair and is adjacent to the mob.
Crazy Moe
Crazy Moe
Played by: Charles Gordone
Michael's oddball neighbor. Occasionally hangs out with him on the roof of his apartment.
- Animal Motif: Pigeons. He coos like one while leaping across rooftops and accuses actual pigeons of acting like they're "there" by flying through the sky when they're really as lost as everyone else.
- Basement-Dweller: At least according to Michael, he rarely leaves his basement.
- Captivity Harmonica: Plays a somber harmonica throughout his appearance, though his captivity is a metaphorical one brought on by his frustrations with life rather than a literal one as in most examples.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Hangs around rooftops without a care in the world while cooing like a pigeon and attempts to kill actual pigeons for acting like they know better than him.
- Crazy Homeless Person: It's actually unclear if he's homeless or not (Michael mentions him being "down in [his] basement"), but he otherwise fits the trope like a glove.
- Dirty Old Man: An Informed Flaw of his; Michael accuses him of hanging out on rooftops to peek in on women but Moe claims in response that his peaking days are over.
- Hidden Depths: His speech about how nobody is "there" despite acting like it plays into the film's larger themes of directionlessness and discontent in life and suggests that he's quite insightful beneath his eccentricities.
- Mood-Swinger: Goes from attempting to murder Michael's pet pigeon to cheerfully laughing about how much he likes it after it gets set free.
- Odd Friendship: He's just about the only character other than Carole that Michael appears to be on good terms with, and unlike her he and Moe never have any kind of falling out.
- Verbal Tic: Peppers his speech with pigeon-like cooing.
- Wisdom from the Gutter: He's the only character who shows any kind of understanding of just why the big city has left everyone so miserable, though he's not great at articulating it.
