The Worst Film Ever

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I picked this film up on a whim, as part of a double-feature DVD set with "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" in the bargain bin at my local Best Buy. I figured, hey, I like "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" (it's one of my favorite anime films), and I enjoy the works of Ralph Bakshi (who directed great films like "Fritz the Cat", "Heavy Traffic" and "Coonskin"), so it seemed like a win-win. And hey, if I didn't like "American Pop", then it wouldn't be wasted money, $5 and all.As it turns out, "American Pop" has quickly become one of my favorite films, and one of Ralph Bakshi's strongest works. This surprisingly down-to-earth urban drama, set over a timespan of roughly 70 years, is a beautiful-looking, wonderful-sounding, exquisitely-written masterpiece. The characters are distinct (especially Pete), the music works wonderfully (I still can't get that cover of "Somebody to Love" outta my head), and the rotoscoped animation represents a world that is gritty and real, but at the same time fictionalized. Ralph Bakshi, if you're reading this, congratulations on a job well done. I'm not going to be parting with my "American Pop" DVD anytime soon.

In the early 1900's, a struggling Jewish Russian family named the Bliniskies have moved to America in New York City. A young boy named Zalmie becomes an overnight success in singing over the years as he's grown up with a wife and child leading to generations of musicians from 40's to early 80's.Highly underrated, powerful and entertaining animated drama from Ralph Bakshi is his best movie. I love how it's different and unique compared to his other movies of being truly mature without the sex and graphic violence but there is language and war violence in this movie. I also find it to be an intelligent and heartfelt tribute to the music of vaudeville to the early 80's with punk rock. The animation is well done including the use of Rotoscoping and it's a well written film, this is one of my favorite animated movies of all time.A highly recommended movie!

American Pop is a very interesting and underrated animated film.It has a fairly good storyline and also due to the technique of "rotoscoping", the film has great animation as well...especially for 1981! The film shows four generations of a Russian-American family starting from the 1800's and ending in the 1980's.It shows the different musical talents of the family members which also show the era of music they live in.It also shows other historical moments that happen during their time such as World War II.American Pop is a very good animated film.Definitely one of Bakshi's best and his most serious work.Do not expect a movie like "Fritz The Cat", this is a serious animated-drama.Worth watching if you can find it.

The narrative of this Bakshi animated film follows the showbiz aspirations of a Jewish émigré family through four generations (from turn-of-the-century to the present, i.e. early 1980s), taking in the various turbulent world events and reflecting the often radical changes in culture which occurred during all this time.An ambitious if heavy-handed undertaking (Bakshi's trademark realism, displayed through rotoscoped animation, occasionally interspersed with stock footage) which is patchy overall but frequently impressive - and undeniably evocative. The necessarily eclectic soundtrack, too, is a major asset even if the last half does lean too heavily on the the hippie/rock scene; it's also amusing how the script presents the band which the protagonist eventually forms part of as the talent behind many of the best-known rock songs from the era by the likes of Big Brother And The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Sex Pistols and even my own favorite, The Velvet Underground!!