I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
... View MoreIt's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
... View MoreGreat example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
... View MoreAfter playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
... View MoreHey Good Lookin was finished in mid-70's, and it was Bakshi's Fourth feature film. It's original version, featuring Animated Characters against live-action characters discussing girlfriends and haircuts must've been a treat to watch.But Warner Brothers delayed the film for 4 years before they officially scrapped it entirely, and ordered Bakshi to re-made the whole film in animation, and throughout the production of Wizards and Lord of the Rings, Bakshi used his gains from those movies to remake Hey Good Lookin in animation, but he didn't felt like it, so in the end, he didn't even watched the final film, so just like Cool World, Hey Good Lookin was just made without any love or care, it's just a shell of what it once was.The reason why this film would feel much different than the original version is because it probably had a charm to it, the new version doesn't has a charm, it's just colorful characters slapped on lifeless, static and bland backgrounds, there are a few scenes where the characters are against a Live-action background, and it looks great, not Roger-Rabbit great, but it's a different take, it's not supposed to look like they're really there, it's just an experiment Bakshi made to see of how far the suspension of disbelief went.However, there are a few scenes that I like in the current version, SPOILER ALERT, like the scene where Vinnie and Crazy hang out in Manhattan, or any of the scenes with Vinnie and Crazy in them, because they're really well acted, Richard Romanus and David Proval showed some really nice chemistry on their parts as best friends Vinnie and Crazy Shapiro. I like the rumble scene, where the dancing people are rotoscoped, quite surreal, and I like the scene where Vinnie griefs for the death of Crazy, and walks around by himself in Manhattan, it's kinda heartbreaking, to be honest, and I like the ending too, despite what some people say. I don't like sad endings, I like closure.All in all, I really want to see the original version of Hey Good Lookin. Come on Warners Brothers, time to dust off that Hey Good Lookin print sitting on your vault and restore it to it's full glory and release it on Blu-ray. You did it for the Theatrical Cut, why shouldn't you do it to the original version?
... View MoreThough, I usually watched family-oriented animated films. But I guess, I am like wholesome vs taboo. I first encountered Ralph Bakshi's films when I was a teenager; I don't know how old I was. I started with "The Lord of The Rings;" then "Wizards," that film became my favorite Bakshi film. And then I watched on YouTube : "Fire & Ice," "Cool World" (live action/animated), "Heavy Traffic" and this film "Hey Good Lookin'."Well anyway, this film takes on a gritty,outrageous look at Brooklyn, New York in the 1950s. But the film's story is about the gang-leader Vinnie, his gang called the Stompers; his relationship with his sexy girlfriend Roz and his "friend" "Crazy" Shapiro. And also the all-out rumble with the black rival gang called the Chaplins near the film's ending.I love the scene where we first meet Roz, it has a great homage to Tex Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood" cartoons. I also love the part where Vinny screamed at the corpse buried in the sand and all the Sicillians that are on the beach, dogpiled and beat up Shapiro; that guy is TOO MUCH!
... View MoreWhen "Coonskin/Streetfight" caused a load of controversy and the technical specs caused difficulty, this one sat on a shelf for WAY too long.And it may be Bakshi's best.This was like "Heavy Traffic" but two decades earlier. Take away the 70's lingo and bring in the greasers. Ralph seems to be exorcising a rough past with his father here. Not for the first time either.The best part of this film is the wrecking of the 50's myth. It wasn't all great economy and capitalism. The poor existed. Gangs ran rampant. And the races were at odds. This film points that out. And points again...The autobiographical angle shows too. Both this and "Traffic" have the struggling artist character getting heat from all around him.This was like a JD flick but VERY serious. Getting lost in that shuffle was the worst thing that could happen to it.Go see it.
... View MoreI became a Bashki film from the first time I saw American Pop. It was the most amazing cartoon I'd ever seen and since then, I'd been on the look out for more Bashki cartoons.Hey Good Lookin' is my second round of Bashki. And, though I didn't like it as much as American Pop, I did like it. It was a darkish cartoon look at rumble life of a couple of 1950s hoods. But, unlike American Pop, which also had the bazaar stlyistic drawings of dark alley life, Hey Good Lookin' has a lot of cartoonish humor like a guy being caught up in a basketball game and chucked in a basketball hoop. I liked it all except for the ending, which got me a little confused, getting wrapped up in Crazy's hypnotic dreaming sequence dancing around and shooting antennea's and stuff. I wasn't sure when it ended. But nonetheless, I did like this movie, and I'd definitely check out more Bashki films.
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