It is no doubt that I have been a huge fan of Ed Roth, he is probably one of my biggest influences culturally. After watching Tales of the Rat Fink I became an even bigger fan. Narrated by John Goodman (who played Roth’s role) and real animated hot rods from different eras, it put a good twist on a documentary.
I was aware of his impact on Lowbrow art, but learned some new things about him that I have never put together before. Did you know that he:
– Was the first to use fiberglass for a car body.
– Invented the novelty t-shirt
– Popularized pin striping and flame jobs on cars and skateboards after learning from the master of pinstriping Von Dutch
– Made the first car to hover on air
– Created the Anti-Mickey Mouse, Rat Fink in retaliation to Walt Disney (this of course is my favorite, I have never liked Disney, the McDonald’s hamburgers of cartooning) Roth got the name from The Steve Allen show, Allen would call people Rat Fink on a regular basis.
– The first I-MAC colors were inspired by Roth’s painting line
The one thing that disappointed me the most about the DOC was it didn’t talk about Roth’s dark years when he was running with the Hell’s Angels. I felt if anybody watched the DOC and this was their first introduction to Roth they would be missing out on that period of his life. I’m not a fan of sugarcoating one’s life.
If you are a car nut or lowbrow art fan, this is a fun DOC to watch, and is actually pretty PG, and you can easily watch it with your kids.