Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Diagonaldi Very well executed

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

arfdawg-1 "American Pop" is the animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American popular music from the pre-jazz age through rhythm and blues, 1950s rock 'n' roll, drug-laden psychedelia, and punk rock, finally ending with the onset of New Wave in the early 1980s. Meh. Bored silly.The animation looks like it was originally filmed with live people and animated over then (like Snow White).It's colorful and junk, but I was bored.Maybe it's dated in a way that Disney doesn't get dated.

hellraiser7 Music lives on because it made by dreams from all kinds of people throughout generations. This is one of my favorite animated films that is underrated and forgotten. Ralph Bashi is one of my favorite animated directors of all time, because each of his films are always something different. He really shows you can do more with animation, push it to places never ventured but most importantly shows you can tell other kinds of stories with it.The animation I personally think is amazing and some of it I feel still holds up today. I love the use of rotoscoping which is an art that has became lost and I personally miss. It really gives most of the segments of the film a surreal quality but makes them more lively and go well with the music playing and characters in it. It's at times almost like watching a music video and this film was way before MTV (when it was actually cool) in the 80's came out so that's cool. I really love the movements of the characters, because they look natural they look like actually movement, when in most animation some movements look flighty or at super speed which I always found strange.And of course the great thing about the film is the music soundtrack which is one of the best darn soundtracks I've ever heard. It's almost like a greatest hits album because this just has so many songs I love.However this film I also feel is a great story. It's a story that is a tragedy but turns into a triumph.It all revolves around a Russian American family that came into the country looking for an opportuinty, a chance to be more than what they are but the tragedy was they never had a proper chance. Either by fate taking a bad turn or just bad choices which I felt the second but most of all third made.It's some pretty sad stuff, to me the saddest story was probably the third generation with Tony. It's true his character is a bit unlikeable but he's not unworthy of sympathy because he had a bad stepfather and I don't feel he's ever really gotten over the death of his own father which makes him an unhappy person. And that's part of what lead to the guy's downfall, he just never had much love in his life he could never really bring himself to find happiness even when it was staring straight at him. Like his success with this Doors or Janis Joplin like music group and even when he travels to Kansas he finds just this girl whom he falls in love with and this girl is just beautiful and persona to boot. But of course he blows it all because those wonderful things love and music just couldn't fill that hole he's had since childhood.As the generations come and go it's the music that truly lives on. I really love how in a way the music is sort of a character because it reflects their undying dreams not so much success in the music biz but really to do something more with it, have their music out their so they can live on though the music because even though human generations die, music lives forever. That's something I feel all of us can emphasize with because we all want to make our mark in life in some fashion as a form of immortality, to show that we existed, we mattered, we were here for a reason.The fourth and last generation whom is Pete is my favorite generation. Just the fact that it takes place in the 80's which of course was the decade I was born. Even though this segment isn't too long, doesn't really need to be. I just really like the Pete character from his persona, how he talks, but most of all just like the rest of his family his ambition. And what happens at the end is just a sweet sense of relief for me, you really after so much crap throughout the decades this guy it the one that truly deserves it.This film is a true celebration of music throughout the decades and the people that have helped create it. Without one style or even certain people throughout the decades, music never would of gotten to where we are now. For the human story if it has some message I feel it's don't let your dreams die, pursue them, attempt to succeed and treasure it.American Pop is an American Dream.Rating: 4 stars

Stinger1-666 I saw this movie when it first hit theaters in 1981. In the 27 years that have passed since then I have seen over a thousand movies but this One Movie continues to be my very Favorite of All Time. I am a music geek & can play music trivia with the best of them & maybe it's true, that may have a lot to do with my passion for this movie, but I doubt it. I cried when Benny plays the Lula-bye but the Natzi shoots him anyway in WWII, I laughed my ass off when the chick jumps on Tony's car & said "For Sale". I laughed till I cried when Pete made it to the "Big Time" on Bob Segar's Night Moves, Like he said, "I ain't gonna be you're Candy Man, No More".....I LOVE this Movie. A Classic!Pete: Pizza Man! We deliver! Musician: You got the coke, daddy-o? Pete:What do I look like, man? A soda fountain?

DarthBill Another feature from the one & only Ralph Bakshi, champion of adult animation. The story of four men in one family trying to find their niche in the world of American music, their stories being contrasted against the evolution of American music. First is Zalmie, the immigrant who wants to be a big shot Vaudeville singer, only to be thwarted by a throat injury he gets while performing overseas in World War 1, leaving him with a raspy, guttural voice, and then gets caught up in the mafia. Next is Zalmie's son Benny, a gifted but unmotivated piano player who manages to fall in love with the daughter of a mafia boss he is forced to marry and has a child with, only to be killed while serving in World War II - but not before he fathers a son, Tony, and not before he manages to have a brief connection with the Nazi soldier who ultimately kills him through his music. Zalmie later goes to jail for his mafia connections but not before he rats out the mafia boss he worked for, as a kind of revenge for being pulled away from his true calling. The story then shifts to Benny's son Tony, who finds success with a Jefferson Airplane type band during the 1960s, only to be thwarted by a drug addiction. Tony has an illegitimate son, Pete, who, after working as a drug pusher in the 1980s, finds success by combining the singing, songwriting and piano playing abilities of his father, grandfather and great grandfather, and hits it big by recording Bob Seger's "Night Moves".Essentially a morality tale, this is an interesting but ultimately failed venture. A noble failure, but a failure nonetheless. Zalmie is probably the most sympathetic of the four men, but the film spends way too much time focusing on the cynical crack addict Tony, who is such a whiny, obnoxious little dweeb that you just don't care about him - you simply want to hit him in the mouth.Well, worth a look I suppose for the music and the atmospheric animation.