HEAVY TRAFFIC BD (MR)

From Shout! Factory! Heavy Traffic, the second feature from writer/director Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, Wizards), combines a quick-edit pace, a frenetic storyline and an array of eye-popping animation and live-action styles. Michael, a young artist who lives with his neurotic mother and two-timing father, escapes the absurd and often ugly side of life on New York's tough streets by satirizing its rich yet wacky characters in wildly entertaining cartoons. From the gruff homeless and wisecracking prostitutes to gun-toting gangsters and corrupt cops, Michael's world becomes an outlandish kaleidoscope of shocking images and horrifying events that are either a testament of his wild imagination or a reminder of the strangeness of reality.