"Pop America" ( Eng. American Pop or Eng. An American Pop ) - the cult American animated film by Ralph Bakshi . The film tells the story of four generations of a Jewish family who emigrated from Russia (then the Russian Empire) to America . In parallel, it tells the story of popular American music [1] , starting with classical jazz and ending with modern (at the time of the premiere) punk rock . At the same time, the cartoon characters are in the thick of other high-profile events of the 20th century - World War I , the Great Depression , World War II , the formation of hippies , etc. Many characters enter the music business from the bottom, becoming pop stars, producers, and sometimes just fall down.
| Pop America | |
|---|---|
| American Pop (Eng.) | |
 Theatrical poster of the movie "Pop America" | |
| Other names | An American Pop (eng.) Pop America (rus.) Я メ リ カ ン ・ ポ ッ プ (jap.) AP, AAP |
| Type of cartoon | Painted |
| Genre | musical drama |
| Producer | Ralph Bakshi |
| Producer | Ralph Bakshi Martin ransohoff |
| written by | Ronnie kern |
| Roles voiced | Ron Thompson , Mevs Small , Deffery Lippa , Richard Stinger |
| Composer | Lee Holdridge |
| Animators | Karl Bell , Stevie I. Gordon , Tom Tataranovich |
| Studio | Bakshi Productions, Columbia pictures |
| A country |  USA |
| Distributor | Columbia pictures |
| Tongue | , and |
| Duration | 96 min |
| Premiere | February 13, 1981 |
| Fees | $ 6,000,000 |
| IMDb | ID 0082009 |
| BCdb | more |
| Rotten tomatoes | |
When shooting the film, a technology was used - rotoscoping , in which the figures of all the characters are written off from living models. And also in the cartoon you can hear many hits, corresponding to that time.
Content
Production
After the premiere of the Lord of the Rings animated film, Ralph Bakshi decided to start working on something more personal. [2] As a result, he proposed the idea of the cartoon "Pop America" to the president of Columbia Pictures, Dan Melnik. Bakshi wanted to remove the tape with an extensive soundtrack that will provide a completely new context in the movie. Although the film does not reflect the personal experience of Bakshi, his topics were strongly influenced by people with whom he met and spoke in Brownsville. [2] The character and appearance of each character in the process of filming were supplemented by artists Louise Zingarelli, Twisted, Barry Jackson and Marsay Adams, each of whom made their own contribution to the filming process. [2]
Bakshi again used the rotoscoping technology, in an attempt to capture the gamut of emotions and the plausibility of the movements necessary for the plot of the film. According to him: “Rotoscoping is terrible for subtleties, so it was difficult to get believable faces.” [2]
Story
In the Russian Empire, the Cossacks organize a pogrom in Jewish settlements and kill a local rabbi . His wife and son Zalmi Belinsky moved to America. In New York , Louis, the master of Cabaret, hires Zalmi to distribute texts for dancers. After his mother died in a fire at the Triangle factory , Zalmi began working with Louis on stage performing in a horse costume. Zalmi has a dream to sing. But during a performance for soldiers during the First World War, a raid of German aircraft begins, Zalmi is wounded in the neck, blocking the path to the singer’s career.
Back in New York, Zalmi begins to act as a clown and meets a stripper Bella, immediately falling in love with her. Bella has a dream to become a singer and to help her, Zalmi contacts the gangsters, who will help to promote her. Bella becomes popular, Zalmi uses the money of the mafia boss and arranges a wedding with her, soon they have a son, Benny. Upon learning of the deception, the gangsters send a package with a bomb to the house of Zalmi, which explodes to kill Bella. Years later, Benny becomes a jazz pianist, but despite the opinion of his father decides to engage with it. After that, he is enlisted in the army and dies in the Second World War.
His wife and son Tony live in Long Island , having matured Tony escapes from home and moves to Kansas . When he gets there he spends the night with the waitress of the local road café. In California, Tony accidentally meets a beginning group of six people. He begins to invent songs for them. Soon the group becomes popular among hippies and on one of the performances during the performance of Somebody to Love , Tony, being drunk, falls off the stage and breaks his arm. While Tony is in the hospital, the soloist of the group Frankie Hart and the drummer of the group marry, but after two weeks they leave, after Frankie begins the affair with Tony. Soon in the group begins discord because of addiction to heroin Frankie, also Tony appears addicted, he ceases to invent new songs. Before the performance after Jim Hendrix , behind the scenes Tony meets a blond boy of “small” Pete, after talking with him, Tony realizes that this is his son from the waitress with whom he had spent the night long ago. After a while, Frankie dies from an overdose, Tony takes it hard and gets depressed.
Tony with a "small" Pete returned from New York. Tony takes away all the money earned by Pete playing the guitar to buy drugs. After a dispute with Pete about the decision of Tony to pass the guitar to the pawnshop, he decides to give the boy his accordion belonging to his grandfather Zalmi. After that, he asks Pete to wait for him and leaves. The next morning, a man comes to Pete and sends him money and farewell words from Tony. Years later, Pete lives by selling drugs to popular rock bands, but once again he refuses and demands that he be given the opportunity to sing. The studio owners and group members initially refuse, but then agree to test his talent. In the next scene, Pete in front of a huge audience performs the famous Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley and becomes the idol of millions.
The film ends with a performance by Pete, during which images of his ancestors appear.
Filmmakers
Film crew
| Voiceover
| Russian dubbing
|
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the film was released on vinyl after the premiere, but was not reissued on CD. According to the director Ralph Bakshi , this happened because the cost of copyright on the songs from the film increased significantly compared with the time when the film was shot:
There is so much music in the film that the cost of the soundtrack will be millions.
Original Text (Eng.)It was millions.
Although the film features almost fifty popular songs, covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, the album offers only ten, nine of which are presented only in the third part of the film (from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s).
Song List
| Party A | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Title | Author | Duration | ||||||
| one. | " Hell is for Children " | Pat Benatar | 4:50 | ||||||
| 2 | " Summertime " | Big Brother and the Holding Company | 3:49 | ||||||
| 3 | " California Dreamin " | The mamas & the papas | 2:42 | ||||||
| four. | " This Train " | Peter, Paul and Mary | 2:10 | ||||||
| five. | " Somebody to Love " | Jefferson airplane | Two to three | ||||||
| Party B | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Title | Author | Duration | ||||||
| one. | Purple Haze | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 2:50 am | ||||||
| 2 | "Take Five" | The dave brubeck quartet | 5:23 | ||||||
| 3 | "You Send Me" | Sam cook | 2:45 | ||||||
| four. | "Turn Me Loose" | Fabian | 2:25 | ||||||
| five. | " People are Strange " | The doors | 2:12 | ||||||
Notes
- ↑ not to be confused with pop music
- 2 1 2 3 4 Gibson, Jon M. American Pop // Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi / Jon M. Gibson, Chris McDonnell. - Universe Publishing, 2008. - P. 148; 160; 164; 169. - ISBN 0789316846 .
Links
- Pop America on the Internet Movie Database
- Pop America (eng.) On the site allmovie
- Trailer for Pop America on Youtube
- Pop America on Ralph Bakshi.com
- Pop America (English) on the Rotten Tomatoes website