Sadly Over-hyped

Purely Joyful Movie!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Street Fight is a brilliant piece of brutal satire. This is not a movie you just watch for fun. It is not a comfortable experience, although it does have some laugh-out-loud moments. This is a movie you watch when you need food for thought.To dismiss this film as simply racist is to miss the point entirely. This is not only a satire of Song of the South, it's also a biting commentary on the prejudices that Americans still have as a society. Every ethnic group portrayed in the movie gets shown as grotesque caricatures of their stereotypes, which in turn are grotesque caricatures of real people. Through this wild exaggeration, the filmmaker shows just how absurd these tightly-held beliefs really are.If you're the sort of person who's willing to acknowledge the ugliness of the prevalent prejudices American culture still holds, and if you're not afraid to look your own prejudices in the eye, this movie may be for you.

This is much better fare than Ralph Bakshi normally cranks out,probably because most of his other "political cartoon" films arepretty static and boring. This one acts almost as a self-parody ofBakshi's style of storytelling. All his pitch-black humor is present,along with the outrageous character sterotypes that come with it.But this time, it's put together in a way that does NOT wander intoan aimless mess and actually has something worthwhile to say.And it has "furries" sprinkled liberally throughout it to keep interestup (a rabbit, a bear, a fox, a mouse, a lion, an anteater, a monkey,a duck, etc.). The slapstick routines add a nice touch too, and itmanages to be funny. This is one of those rare occasions Bakshigot his head out of his butt, stopped whining and complainingabout how no one notices him, and made an actual CARTOON,dammit. Great viewing for people who are actually mature-mindedand not just over 17 with the brains of 10-year-olds. Keep a sharpeye out for references to "Song Of The South"!Definitely worth putting on DVD!

Streetfight (aka Coonskin) is a very unique film directed by animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi. It is an oddity of the cinema, and is very much worth seeing. It is live action mixed with animation, seemingly influenced on Disney's legendary Song of the South, almost as if it is a response to that flick. Philip Michael Thomas, later to become Don Johnson's sidekick on Miami Vice, and Scatman Crothers, most famous for his role in Kubrick's The Shining, are prison escapees. Charles Gordone and Barry White (yes, that Barry White) are Thomas' friends and plan to help him escape prison. They are stuck at a police roadblock, and Crothers tells Thomas a story about a black rabbit, a bear, and a fox who move from the South to Harlem in order to find a more peaceful existence. The story is animated, and provides a lot of wonderous things to see. Like all of Bakshi's films, most will be annoyed and will dislike the animation. True animation lovers will forgive its clunkiness and fall in love with its inventiveness. The movie is very violent, very sexual, and it is mostly about battles between the races. For a long time, I thought I was watching something extremely important, but after a while, especially after I got done watching it, it started to seem more like a run-of-the-mill blacksploitation flick, along the lines of Superfly. It's very sloppy and doesn't really say anything. Besides, isn't Bakshi white? Whatever the answer to that, Coonskin/Streetfight is still very much worth watching for animation aficionados as well as cult movie fans. 7/10.

Hard to believe that this flick ever did get made. It doesn't take much for people to label this as racist material, It came out at a time when black folks were able to get revenge on cinema. Well, they accomplish it well here. Ralph Bakshi's half animated, half live-action flick is actually a memorable one. Though it benefits from the Uncle Remus Tales as was already mentioned, Coonskin does have its own original elements that it seems no one else would touch. Watch for the clever voice-overs which perfectly fit the characters.I would'nt recommend this movie for everyone, thats for sure. But for die-hard animation freaks, here's one for ya!