Adult animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi's third film is an intensely gritty mixture of cartoon and live action modeled after Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH, a 1946 film long shelved by Disney because of its racist stereotypes. In this over-the-top update, the racist stereotypes are part of the point as convict Pappy (Scatman Crothers) relates the adventures of drug-dealing Brother Rabbit (Philip Michael Thomas) to his cellmate as they plot and execute a prison break. Along with his pals Brother Fox (Charles Gordone) and Brother Bear (soul singer Barry White), the badass rabbit tangles with rival gangs, crooked cops, revolutionaries, and phony preachers in an effort to rule the streets. Brother Rabbit uses lots of forefather Br'er Rabbit's tricks, such as the infamous tar baby, and of course indulges in plenty of patented Bakshi violence. As a foul-mouthed, raunchy send-up of black stereotypes and a brutally honest depiction of impoverished urban existence, this bleak but funny film is still daring and thought provoking today, splashing merrily in currents too dangerous and deep for most contemporary films about race relations to tread. Jazz great Chico Hamilton provides the score.

release year: 1975

star(s): Barry White