"Coonskin," written and directed by Ralph Bakshi (of "Fritz the Cat" and "Heavy Traffic"), is at its most eloquent when it does things quietly, which is to say that a work whose whole immensely talented premise is its exuberance slows down to its best when it is temperate….

"Coonskin" is a full-length feature film in which things move smoothly from animation to photography or—most interesting visually—to a mixture of the two. It is made in lewd honor of Manhattan and other melting pots, in which, Bakshi suggests, the ethnic and sexual mixing has actually long since passed the molten stage to become as cool as the sort of jazz this film so much likes….

"Coonskin" is a very sympathetic, tough-spirited imagining of the lower depths. We are in a world of skinny, magentalipped tarts in magenta bikinis; of very poor people salvaging terrific finds of wrong-sized...