Heavy Traffic (US Import DVD)

Heavy Traffic, the second feature from writer/director Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, Wizards, The Lord of the Rings, Fire and Ice), combines a quick-edit pace, a frenetic story line and an array of eye-popping animation and live-action styles. "Powerful, raw and valid" (Los Angeles Times), this "remarkable blend" of filmic styles is a "hypnotic, life-giving experience" (The Hollywood Reporter)! Michael Corleone (Joseph Kaufmann, Johnny Got His Jun, Jud, Brute Corps), a young cartoonist who lives with his neurotic mother and two-timing father, escapes the absurd and often ugly side of life on New York's tough streets by satirizing it's rich yet wacky characters in wildly entertaining cartoons. From the gruff homeless and wisecracking prostitutes to guntoting gangsters and corrupt cops, Michael's world becomes an outlandish kaleidoscope of shocking images and horrifying events that are either a testament of his wild imagination... or a reminder of the strangeness of reality. Beverly Hope Atkinson (TV's Sanford and Son, TV's Dark Shadows), Frank DeKova (The Ten Commandments, TV's F Troop, The Mechanic), Lillian Adams (The Jerk, Bruce Almighty, Private Benjamin), and Jamie Farr (TV's M*A*S*H, The Cannonball Run, Scrooged) round out the cast.