Ralph Bakshi's "The Last Days of Coney Island" (2015)

Kon 'twas already noted above and my initial thoughts - I'm more intrigued by Tokyo Godfather's myself, though his repertoire as a whole does seem fairly intriguing.

And now I'm just reminded that there is still no easily accessible quality animation software out there...-sigh-

edited 12th Oct '15 8:04:31 PM by StarvingGecko

In regards to Wizards, I know Bakshi has been accused of plagiarism from at least two sources. From Vaughn Bode (Peace does look a whole heck of a lot like one of his characters, as does Avatar — not sure if the accusation was by Bode himself, or others) and Wally Wood, who did have a elf character named Weehawk (well before production on Wizards started) who later became Oddkin, the anti-hero of his Wizard King trilogy. Wood apparently felt that Bakshi stole a good bit of the story from him.

edited 12th Oct '15 9:38:42 PM by Robbery

I looked up Kon's filmography, and I realized I own one of his films but haven't watched it yet. (Perfect Blue—I really should get on that soon.)

Who the heck is Kon?

Satoshi Kon is a Japanese animator who made a number of shorts and a few really remarkable movies, which are all dealing with subject matters clearly designed for adults. Imho, he was poised to become the next Myazaki, especially since "Paprica" received quite a bit of attention. Sadly he passed away way too young from cancer.

Anyway, I think that even the animerama movies have more art in them than a Bakshi movie, and those are basically porn.

edited 12th Oct '15 11:46:33 PM by Swanpride

Robbery—I can safely assure you that Ralph did not plagiarize Vaughn Bode for Wizards. Ralph was friends with him, and Vaughn even worked on Wizards in it's pre-production phase. He was supposed to be actively involved in the final film, but he abruptly died before the film kicked into gear.

This is why you should probably read at least the last page of posts in a thread before posting in it, or reread if you're confused by something.

edited 13th Oct '15 6:13:16 AM by Odd1

I really wouldn't put it past Japan to make even their most risqué of animation as pretty as it looks - I mean, Osamu fookin' Tezuka was on the helm for those for crying out loud, among other details.

To be honest I think it kinda rings hollow to compare Bakshi to damn near anything in Japan though, as aside from the cultural aesthetics and goals bein' way different from each other, what Bakshi makes versus what Kon makes are completely different things with completely different production values and exploring concepts in fairly different ways.

I mean, I'm a much bigger fan of western animation than anime (though I've opened up more), but anime has like, ALWAYS had the advantage of being seen as the more adult/mature of the two since their content matter was less subject to scrutiny than their western counterparts back home, among other things. Much as people try to crunch them into the same category, it's still an apples and oranges thing, especially with someone as deviant as Bakshi was from everything else in the states or west like Disney, Bluth, etc (come to think of it though Bluth is one of those guys that's still kinda compared with him considering his own mixed repitiore; and then of course on the other hand you have the Disney influence in Japan...). That being said, guys like Sylvian Chomet are perhaps better compared examples on the western front.

...though I'd be of the personal opinion of finding Bakshi's stuff more interesting to look at; good-quality anime is always well drawn and animated, but a lot of the time their visuals are just "the usual business" to me. It's why I dig guys like Tezuka, Eiichiro Oda, Akira Toriyama, etc, if partly from an art standpoint.

edited 13th Oct '15 6:54:21 AM by StarvingGecko

I don't accept the excuse for the small budget because I have seen what other animation studios are able to do with a similar small budget. Just look at Watership Down. Also a production which is not really geared toward children, fluffy rabbits or not, and there are certain moments in it which are iffy...but also a lot of moments which stand out, in a good way. And those stand-out moments is something I miss in the Bakshi movies, unless you count him being crude for a cheap shock-effect.

Well yeah you can do a whole lot with a small budget, doesn't mean it still feels like a smidge of a hurdle comparing it to something as big as particular examples on the page; and even then I note it's not just wholly in budget.

I've already stated my opinion about shock bait and such on the other page, and I certainly don't think that's what Bakshi was hinging on in the end if his regrets about it ring true - at the very least if that is what it ended up it still did it's goal of making waves, whether they were meaningful or no. He's no Michael Bay though in that regard.

I strikes me though that such back and forth is something of a YMMV nature though, so perhaps it may be best to agree to our disagreements or at least know where we stand. At the very least I got a new anime director to check out of it.

edited 13th Oct '15 7:03:51 AM by StarvingGecko

I am btw not necessarily an anime fan. I am very picky when it comes to animation.

Admittedly I can be the same way - I used to be even worse when I was learning under Kricfalusi's blog about drawing and animation, but I mellowed out a lot since those high school days. In this case I suppose it's different strokes for different folks, I'm open to a lot of things really. I've also been working as a student of animation so I'm coming to grips with things in that area too.

edited 13th Oct '15 8:28:21 AM by StarvingGecko

To get back on subject. A trailer has been released. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lastdaysofconeyisland/142427253

Be warned it ain't safe for work.

The problem is, the japanese get it easy. Their society is not afraid of violence and sex on TV, not as much as this judeo-christian world of ours.

Bakshi never got it easy.

I'm not saying Satoshi Kon wasn't a great artist(the only things he worked I actually watched were the JJBA OV As from 1993-1994), but he had much more chances.

edited 14th Oct '15 6:49:36 PM by JusticEqualsVengeance

Okay...I have rarely seen a trailer which did such a good job of convincing me to not watch a movie....

This is why I never watch trailers.

The Last Days of Coney Island was just released on Vimeo-On-Demand yesterday! Ralph Bakshi has also said that if the film does well in sales, his next project will be a follow up to Wizards! Check it out!

Ralph Bakshi has now released The Last Days of Coney Island onto his youtube channel—for FREE! Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri4iphUqShM