Writer, Director

Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American adult animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York cartoonist named Michael Corleone, using pinball imagery as a metaphor for inner-city life.

 

Heavy Traffic was Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz's follow-up to the successful and coolly controversial film Fritz the Cat, the first animated feature to receive an X rating. Though producer Krantz made varied attempts to produce an R-rated film, Heavy Traffic was given an X rating by the MPAA. The film received positive reviews and is widely considered to be Bakshi's biggest critical success.

 

Director: Ralph Bakshi
Producer: Samuel Z. Arkoff, Steve Krantz
Writer: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Joseph Kaufmann, Beverly Hope Atkinson, Frank Dekova, Terri Haven, Mary Dean Lauria
Music: Ed Bogas, Ray Shanklin
Cinematography: Ted C. Bemiller, Gregg Heschong
Editor: Donald W. Ernst