American Pop

American Pop (1981) is Ralph Bakshi's animated music drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Tracing four generations of a Jewish family that fled the Russian Empire, the film tells a century of American popular music through their bloodline.

It moves from the vaudeville stage of the early 1900s to jazz clubs, rock and roll, and finally punk. Every son inherits the musical gift, and every one of them pays for it differently: some find the stage, some find the street, the bottle, or an early grave. The melody is passed down like a family trait, and so is the restlessness that comes with it. Ron Thompson voices two of the men across separate eras, tying the long saga together.

Bakshi built the picture with rotoscoping, tracing live actors so the motion turns fluid and almost hallucinatory. The soundtrack stretches from Gershwin to Janis Joplin and Bob Seger. This is grown-up, melancholy animation, not a kids' matinee — made for people who love music and unconventional artwork. Stream American Pop (1981) online on iFILM.