Heavy Traffic
Heavy Traffic
An underground cartoonist contends with life in the inner city, where various unsavory characters serve as inspiration for his art.
RichyE reviewedOctober 12, 2025
This one’s raw, loud and unapologetically personal.
Ralph Bakshi turns New York’s grime into animated chaos, following Michael, a young cartoonist drifting through a city of freaks, hustlers and heartbreak.
It’s part autobiography, part fever dream and all attitude.
The animation is crude but expressive, like graffiti that moves.
Live-action blends with sketchy visuals, creating a surreal rhythm that feels like a pinball machine stuck between fantasy and despair.
It’s offensive, sure, but also strangely tender.
Bakshi doesn’t sanitize anything, he celebrates the mess.
If you first saw this on VHS, it probably felt like forbidden art.
It’s not polished, but it’s honest.
A love letter to the city’s underbelly, scrawled in ink and sweat.