24 Years Later, the Weirdest Noir Fantasy of the '90s Is Officially Free on Streaming

It's time for a new generation to discover one of the strangest films of the '90s.

The short version

• It's a wonder that Ralph Bakshi's name isn't better-known than it is, because we're living in the future he created.
• If there's a single abiding theme in Bakshi's career, it's that he was usually too weird and surreal for audiences, critics, film executives, or all three at once.
• At the same time, you can see hints of Bakshi's influence in the surreal R-rated cartoons of the '90s and later, such as Liquid Television, Aeon Flux, or half the programs on the Adult Swim block.

What happened

Not a lot of people are familiar with Bakshi's work, but of those who are, many of them apparently went on to work in animation. Bakshi's last full-length film, 1992's Cool World , was a box office bomb that was abandoned almost on release by its distributor Paramount, and it still has a shockingly low critical average on Rotten Tomatoes .

Why it matters

This seems to be Bakshi’s lot as a creator; either you gel with his style of filmmaking or you hate it, with no middle ground.

Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Polygon via the links above and below.