"These guys loved what we were doing. They were free to create, to say anything and man, could they animate. Not the slick, boring, perfect stuff, but the "I really feel this scene" kinda stuff. I believe in what I am drawing. I believe in what I am drawing. What adult animation means to me is not tits and ass, but the right to animate any subject or idea you have and let the ratings fall where they may. All I wanted to do was animate the things I thought about and not the dolls they thought about."
— Ralph Bakshi, "Draw What You Want To Draw"
"When I was young, I had a dream - and a rage over Disney’s insistence that nothing worked on the big screen unless it was perfect - redone and reworked until it was flawless. I always thought the difference between my films and the Disney ones was the difference between rock n’ roll and a symphony. I love them both if the music is right. But a lot of spoiled animators claimed that I was ruining every young kid’s life with my rough animation - and that Terry-Toons and I were nothing. I didn’t listen to them, because I always felt that honesty, leaving the pack, telling stories that were part of the director’s personal life and not some merchandiser’s idea - all those things were more important than Disney’s insistence on perfect animation."
—Ralph Bakshi
"Some history - Early on, hand-drawn was great - Fleischer’s Popeye, Jim Tyer, Freddie Moore, Rod Scribner, Bill Tytla, Johnny Gent... the direct, fresh stuff. But then suddenly, along came “real good animation” with all its complications, and the long painful looks, big shrugs, and sighs, batting eyelashes, cutesy pie phony crap until you want to vomit... Overnight, all the old greats were forced to either kill themselves, stay drunk all the time, or quickly fade away. Animation got saddled with a bunch of boring, repetitive, old-fashioned, dumb clichés. I am NOT going to tell computer animation to follow that road. Sure, computer animators should look at hand-drawn animation to learn. But don’t get down on your knees. Don’t make the same mistakes hand-drawn animation made at the end. Study the right stuff. There’s a hell of a lot more to learn from a Fleischer Popeye than there is from some “epic fantasy” like Prince of Egypt."
—Ralph Bakshi
"You could pick a still out of Lady and the Tramp and get the same impression."
—Ralph Bakshi on Rev. Wildmon's accusations of his Mighty Mouse snorting cocaine.
