Lack of good storyline.

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.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Michael is an underground artist in New York City who draws strips of the people he sees around him. He hooks up with the beautiful Carol, but she loses her job in a bar and so the two go searching for the high life.Bakshi's films are hard to find, but it's more than worth the effort. Outside of Japan, he's really the only director in the world who has managed to make adult-oriented animation features, and his films are completely unique. Heavy Traffic is his most personal and probably his best too - it sucks you into the seedy seventies world of NYC and doesn't let go. On one level it's a shocking freakshow, filled with hustlers, transsexuals, down-and-outs, hookers and thugs, but only if you're a bit of a prude. It's really just a slice-of-life series of observations; some satirical, some gross, some tragic and all rendered in a wild array of visual styles - traditional cell animation, live action, multiple composites, filters and negatives, pencil-tests (the Maybellene sequence), near-subliminal stills, real movie clips (the film Michael watches in the empty cinema is Red Dust, with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow), stock shots, what have you. If nothing else, it bombards the viewer with a myriad of dazzling visual techniques. The film has many influences (Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, a sudden mock-up shot of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks) but Bakshi's direction is unique and his fearless experimentation with cinematic style is both admirable and rewarding. He not only plays with animation, he plays with styles within animation, like the incredible bullet-in-the-head moment, or the whole Mother Pile / Wanda The Last sequence. If the film has a weakness, it's that it's a bit episodic - crazy New York nights - but it's so overloaded with wild ideas and freaky moments that it doesn't spoil the flow, but just contributes to the freewheeling anarchy. The voice cast are cool, notably Atkinson, and there's a fabulous score by Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin, featuring a memorable soul-fuelled cover of the traditional ballad Scarborough Fair. An acquired taste, for sure, but a must for real fans of animation, and check out any of Bakshi's other films (particularly Wizards and Cool World).

Rated R for Graphic Violence,Nudity,Language and Brief Drug Use Heavy Traffic is another adult animated film from Ralph Bakshi.I have seen plenty of Bakshi films.I first got interested in Bakshi when I saw Fritz The Cat.I really enjoyed that movie and it is still Bakshi's best in my opinion.Coonskin was good but nowhere near as good as Fritz.Hey Good Lookin is another great Bakshi film as well.I plan on viewing American Pop next(if I can find it) and then Bakshi's fantasy films like Wizards,Lord Of The Rings and Fire and Ice.Heavy Traffic has a decent enough story and some funny scenes. and if you like Bakshi's other films, you should check this one out.The film is about Michael, a pinball playing virgin with an Italian father and a Jewish mother.His mother and father are always fighting and trying to kill each other.Michael is friends with a black bartender named Carol who gives him drinks in return for his sketches.After Carol gets fired, she stays at Michael's place where his father dislikes carol.So Michael and Carol leave and Carol becomes a prostitute.They end up robbing and killing a man for cash and then Michael gets shot.The film mixes live action and animation.The ending is fairly weird and does not make much sense but Heavy Traffic is a fun animated film that you should check out if you can find it.

If you typically like Bakshi's movies, this may not be a good one to start off on, nor likely one to watch at all. It is missing the artistic beauty of American Pop and the comedy of Hey Good Lookin'. It is jammed pack with a confusing story about sleazy city dwellers.The movie combines live action and animation, though the majority of the film is animation. It opens with a scene at an arcade, and Mike, the main character (both in the live action and animated segments) is playing a pinball game. As situations arise in the film, we are constantly referred back to this pinball game in progress, thus being forced to find the connection between the two. There are a lot of different characters here that all impact one another, eventually becoming one story. Mike is a cartoonist. His father is involved with the mafia. His mother is a drunk who wants to kill his father. His friend is a transvestite. And, he eventually picks up a former hooker/bartender as a girlfriend, and together, they're going to figure out how to get enough cash to get the hell out of the city and move out to the West Coast. The story is confusing however, not only in the amount of characters you have to keep track of and their place in all of these interconnected events, but often, you are confronted with scenes without dialogue or some that don't seem to connect to the rest of the movie. Plus, there's a whole lot of people just looking to get laid, so there are a lot of naked cartoons running around, which is a bit frustrating when you're looking for more, not less, to help you figure out what the heck was going on half the time. Not to mention, once the cartoon story ends (consequently along with the pinball game), the live action story continues. Even though the fate of those live action characters were decided in the cartoon universe, it gets contradicted in what seemed like an unnecessary ending that also occurs in the live action universe. Bakshi cartoons are known for excellent animation, especially as you see it in American Pop, but Heavy Traffic, while fitting for it's day, doesn't have that same beautiful artistry as American Pop (even though there is about a twenty-five year difference between the release dates of the two films). I suppose, being one of Bakshi's earliest, it was more experimental than the later films. And it was one that I found difficult to appreciate.

Can anyone give me one single reason why anyone should watch "Heavy Traffic"? I think it may be the worst film I've ever seen, and I'm saying that without a shred of hyperbole. First, the animation: I know a lot of people find it charming, but it stinks. Yes, there are a few good sequences and some clever parts, but 95% is just crude and terrible. It's something that would have been much better if put into live action. Why animate something when it would be easy to show it live?Second, the story. Where the hell is it? An "underground animator" (how cliche) hates his life and then goes out to become a pimp? Are you kidding me? There is no semblance of plot or logic. I know it's a "fantasy world" and all but that doesn't forgive Bakshi of not having any kind of plot whatsoever. A pathetic excuse for a script.Thirdly, the stereotypes. Gays, blacks, Jews, Italians, the handicapped, everyone is fair game. And while I wasn't offended by these creations per se, I just found them lazy and uninteresting. Is there anything that separates Bakshi's Jewish mother from any other stereotype of a Jewish mother that you've ever seen?I found this film a complete waste of time.