American Pop (1981)- Recording Scene - Directed by Ralph Bakshi

What amazes me about Ralph Baskshi movies is that in every scene I can see both incredibly artistry and animation, as well as clear signs of every single financial corner being cut. He really was working with shoestring budgets, but its weird how clear it rings out in every single scene. Like - part of this scene is clearly just the negative that they made the rotoscope with, with some color changes and flashing lights over it.

That studio scene is the one thing I remember from this movie and have thought about it randomly for years. Thanks for posting it so I could see it once more. Cheers! I remembered the song was pretty killer but didnt recognize it at the time. Only later did Night Moves become a song familiar to me. I must have been 15 or so, and only knew the movie due to getting the poster for it for free from a movie rental chain sale. It wasnt until later that I would get far more into music and start to enjoy the classics like this.

One of Bakshi’s best movies imo 

I loved the film. I bought a copy when they re-released it in the 90s. Def one of Bakshi's best.

Kansas is corny.

Huge Bakshi fan here. American Pop was okay, but far from his best film. If you want to experience true Bakshi, start with Fritz the Cat. Then move on to a little former midnight movie called Wizards (“I’m glad you changed your last name, you son of a b****.”). Then move on to his Lord of the Ring movie. And yes, his movies all had extensive rotoscoping. These were all 70’s movies. His movies in the 80’s were pretty good too. Check out “Cool World” with a very young Brad Pitt.

I absolutely love this movie. Super happy seeing people post/talk about it somewhere.

I AM A DISHWASHER, AND MY HANDS ARE PERMANENTLY PUCKERED.

This animation is so captivating

So rad!! Where is this streaming!

I like Night Moves fine, but it never struck me as a “get the boss on the phone right now, this kid’s gonna be a star” level of song. Like, Bob Seger did not become famous off the strength of this song, he wrote it after he’d already had a ton of hits. But it was the one they could get, I guess.

I presume this is Rotoscoping...

I have lots of things to say about this movie, but all of them pale under the insistence that the defining musical touchstone of the 1980s was Night Moves.

The audio here is fascinating to me. You would never here that room echo nowadays. Curious if this was just a room with all the actors reading together to one mic.

One of the weirdest films I’ve ever loved. I watched it as a young kid (because cartoons) and it had a major impact on my musical taste. Introducing me to ‘Take 5’ alone was pretty huge. Watching this clip as an adult… have the dealer play a Lou Reed song, or something lol. Bob Seger is never going to be what comes out of that guy’s mouth.

I love this movie, it's so cool.

Jesus, what shit acting. This would never pass if it was live action

Anyone notice the statue/face in the frame on the left hand side is Alice Cooper?

Hell is for children. ✊🏽

This reminds me of Heavy Metal. Any connections between them?

Bakshi really nails the chaos of recording here, the lip sync, the sweat, the cramped room, all of it feels lived in. It’s messy in a way that actually works, which is basically the whole movie imo.

I remember seeing the cover at blockbuster but never picked it up. Might give this a chance now. Was that rotoscope animation?