Tales Of The Rat Fink (Custom Cars/Special Interest/Documentary)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: B-     Main Program: B-

 

 

If you ever watched a film like American Graffiti and wished you knew more about the hot rod culture (also know as “Kustom Kulture”) that it captures, then you will find the documentary Tales of the Rat Fink about Ed “Big Daddy” Roth particularly edifying.  Ed Roth is most famous for the “monster” T-shirts he created, the custom cars he built and the comic characters he drew - the most iconic being “Rat Fink” the sloppy, grotesque rodent, who to this day remains a wonderfully subversive anti-Mickey Mouse.

 

Tales Of The Rat Fink (from Shout! Factory) is done by Genie award-winning documentarian Robert Mann (Comic Book Confidential and Grass), with the animation and art direction provided by Mike Roberts.  John Goodman narrates the film as the voice of Ed Roth.  It also features voice work by such notable talents as: Ann-Margret, Jay Leno, Brian Wilson, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Tom Wolfe, Matt Groening and The Smothers Brothers.

 

The documentary lays out the events of Ed Roth’s life in chronological order, and shines a light on many interesting facts about American culture along the way.  For example, the hot rod culture had it’s origins with GI’s (many of whom had motor pool experience) coming home after the World War II and finding that, with America’s new wealth and the desire of most people to drive Detroit’s latest models, the cars of the Twenties and the Thirties had been discarded and could be purchased cheaply.  The GI’s proceeded to buy the parts they needed to build custom hot rods that they showed off and raced (particularly in the California desert).

 

It was in this environment that Roth came up through high school. (The film notes that the only classes he passed his senior year were art and auto-shop.)  After school Roth married and started a family, but also started making his own hot rod and designing shirts for his buddies.  It is during this time that Disneyland opened and Roth designed his anti-Mickey “Rat Fink”.

 

Roth went on to design award-winning hot rods (he was a pioneer in building custom cars out of fiberglass).  Then, the Revell Model Company made a deal with Roth to produce models of his hot rods and these quickly became successful.  Also, in the early Sixties Roth’s monster T-shirts became a nationwide fad.  Roth’s art eventually made its way into comic books, novelty albums and many other pop-culture niches.  The kids who loved his cars and wore his T-shirts dubbed Roth “Big Daddy”, and in turn Big Daddy developed a special appeal to kids who felt like outsiders and weirdoes in the conformist-centric late Fifties and early Sixties.

 

Director Mann is careful to outline the parallels between Roth’s nonconformist art and the changes they foreshadow in American culture as a whole. The fact that many of the kids who were drawn to Roth’s cars and T-shirts in middle school, are the same ones who would fuel the counter-culture once they reached college age, is not lost on Mann.  Mann, whose work is usually concerned with pop-culture, demonstrates how Roth was out front of the American zeitgeist on everything from Rock and Roll to TV shows like Batman and the Munsters.

 

This film clearly was completed on a modest budget, and while Mann makes the most of what he has to work with, these limitations may lead to some of the problems with the film, such as its pacing.  As interesting as much of the information is, the film eventually feels a bit long.  Part of this is due to the fact that instead of this being a talking heads documentary – it is, in fact, a talking cars documentary.  Mann uses the voice talent listed above to tell the story, while the viewer sees vintage and custom cars of the era blink their headlights on and off as if speaking.  It’s a nice idea, and if you are a huge car person it may never get old, but it started to wear on me after awhile.  These “talking cars” are mixed with stock footage, original animation and a few new scenes from a Rat Fink reunion (shot by Mann before Roth’s death) to piece together the story.

 

The picture quality is low, which is not unusual for a documentary of this type, but it is well shot.  More disappointing for me was the fact that the DVD was not letterboxed and some information was clearly lost from the way the director would have presented the film in the theater (e.g. the first letters of some of the text were cut off).  I did not find the animation particularly engaging, but that could be a matter of taste -- I wouldn’t wear a Rat Fink T-shirt either.  The sound quality of the film was good, but this is not a film you would use to show off an excellent stereo.  The extras on this DVD are good for a documentary.  They include: an interview with Roth (I dare you to drink a shot of tequila every time Roth says “groovy”), footage of Roth and his friend Von Dutch detailing cars at the Rat Fink Reunion, a virtual art gallery, an interview with the director, deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer, and the Sadies’ music video from the sound track.

 

Overall I found this film interesting and insightful, but I’m afraid the average filmgoer may find it a bit slow.  However, for many viewers with a specialized interest this film will be highly enjoyable.  For example, if you are a car show person, have an interest in the history of American graphic design, or if you owned a monster T-shirt as a child and are feeling nostalgic, then I highly recommend this film for you.

 

 

-   Michael DiTullio