cult film freak: RALPH BAKSHI ANIMATED MEAN STREETS 'HEY GOOD LOOKIN'

Richard Romanus in HEY GOOD LOOKIN' Year: 1983 Rating: ***

Often compared to GREASE, being that the main character... a suave/strutting New York City hood... resembles John Travolt, it seems animation icon Ralph Bashki's HEY GOOD LOOKIN' is more Martin Scorsese's MEAN STREETS as an adult-oriented cartoon, and for two good reasons...

The first is that the script and some of the artwork were created in the mid-70's, right after STREETS came out and where Bashki was to originally combine animated and live-action characters... leaving only a few genuine locations, from a dingy poolhall to Coney Island...

Richard Romanus in HEY GOOD LOOKIN'

But the main similarity to the Scorsese proto-mob classic is that Richard Romanus and David Proval, who played Michael and Tony, voice the main characters Vinnie... a suave, bragging lady's man... and his psychotic sidekick Crazy, resembling a circus clown on acid...

While the visual animation is terrifically bright yet urban gritty... combining the director's COONSKIN and HEAVY TRAFFIC... it simply doesn't feel like a throwback to the 1950's, where the flashbacked story takes place...

Richard Romanus and David Proval in HEY GOOD LOOKIN'

Instead centering more on the two buddies basically just hanging around, mostly with two girls, while the violent gang aspect is less than peripheral (attempting traits from THE WARRIORS to THE WANDERERS)... and a musical singing-group side-story feels out of place...

So overall, Ralph Bashki's HEY GOOD LOOKIN' would have probably worked better as an animated short since... while there's plenty of noisy action... not much literal ground's really covered.