Not long ago, I watched Frank Mouris' "Coney" (1975), a five minute short bit of film composed of dynamic shots of mid-70's Coney Island, captured from smart angles, and skillfully edited together into an afternoon project where one can feel how ecstatically Mouris approached his subject. Bakshi approaches the same subject thru his animation at least as enthusiastically and fondly and wonderfully roughly. And just like "Coney", this brief snippet of nostalgia is a haze, it is a mood of a time and place, it is a hunter Thompson-esque memoir. It's Fear and Loathing come to Coney Island, and it's a helluva fun trip. It took Bakshi a whole lifetime to get there, but he got there - his finest work.
Review of Last Days of Coney Island
