Hey Good Lookin’ (1982/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Film: C+
PLEASE NOTE: Hey Good Lookin’ is only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
It is the
summer of the later 50s, Vinnie is the leader of the Brooklyn Stompers and he
is always cool and good looking. Along
with his buddy Crazy, he has plans to hook up with Roz, the hottest chick
around (with the biggest rack), but after a late night drunken party Vinnie
finds himself in hot water with a rumble with another gang. Can he and Crazy
get the Stompers to rumble or will they have to fight the gang themselves. That is the set up of Ralph Bakshi’s
underseen Hey Good Lookin’ (1982),
now on DVD from Warner Archive.
Obsessed
with the idea of coolness and what it is to be cool, this raw look at the time
period is like seeing a much more graphic, honest, surreal, extended version of
the animated credits from the 1978 hit film Grease. As long as you look and stay cool, the world
is your oyster, sex is in the streets, love is loose and free, and nobody has
to care about responsibility. That’s the
way Vinnie likes it, along with wannabe Stomper slave, er... friend Crazy, they
want to paint the town red long before a counterculture arrived in matured form.
While Vinnie believes he can get
anything free as long as he has his charm, Crazy has a psychotic side of him
that turns him into an unstoppable psycho killer. In the end, Vinnie uses Crazy to fight in the
rumble and Crazy ends up dieing for Vinnie's honor, but not before Crazy scores
with Roz.
This
cartoon was certainly representative of the late 1950s, all the 'cool things'
that the youths did. It showed how
youths lived fast, die young and leave a good looking corps. It showed how love and friendship was drug
trip, as long as a person had a good time, social morals and responsibility
didn't matter. Be warned: this
50s-styled cartoon wasn't afraid to show cartoon nudity and sex, it's been a
while since I last saw an X-rated cartoon.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image comes form an older print that shows its
age somewhat, though the Bakshi style is sometimes cheap on purpose and shows
corners cut, looking like something out of Heavy Metal. Color is not bad, but the print is untouched
for the most part. The lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is also a little weak, but the sound here was only going to be
so dynamic, so it is not too bad. A
trailer is the only extra.
To order Hey Good Lookin’, go to this link for
it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
- Ricky Chiang
