Tales of the Rat Fink

“American popular culture has always been characterized by acceptance and dissidence, innovation and co-optation. These tensions have sparked creativity while simultaneously undervaluing or undercutting it. Innovators are frequently forgotten or neglected, while those who merely packaged or whitewashed more vital and potentially subversive forms have made enormous amounts of money.

“Canadian filmmaker Ron Mann has devoted much of his career to recording an alternative account of pop culture, one that gives the true pioneers their due and exposes the political motivations behind the construction of history. From Imagine the Sound (a portrait of the free jazz movement) to Comic Book Confidential (a study of comic book artists) to Twist (which examined dance crazes), Mann has revised and invigorated the way we look at pop culture. His latest, Tales of the Rat Fink, examines the career of what may be his ultimate subject: designer and graphic artist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

“In Mann's eyes, Roth is one of the first and most subversive DIY artists - a proto-culture jammer. Roth's career, which began in the fifties, was driven by an instinctive urge to remake and remodel the products of mass culture to reflect his own sensibility - one vigorously opposed to the egregiously complacent, dominant ethos of the era. Starting by customizing cars - the ultimate symbol of mass production - Roth soon turned to creating his own space-age vehicles, T-shirts boasting obnoxious characters (his most famous, the Rat Fink, was apparently sparked by his hatred of Mickey Mouse) and model kits based on his hot rod designs.

“Mann's film captures the capricious pop-art energy and disruptive, rebellious brio of Roth's work, relying on vibrant, candy-coloured animation and lurid, turbo-charged imagery. Boasting a stellar cast of narrators (John Goodman as Roth, as well as Ann-Margret and Jay Leno), many of whose voices are used to bring Roth's crazy contraptions themselves to life, Tales of the Rat Fink is a fitting tribute to a pop-culture pioneer, one of the first to show us that we could reconfigure mass-produced culture for our own purposes.”
Toronto Film Festival catalogue


“The film, a multimedia laughfest, not only gives the viewer a look into the very fertile mind and imagination of Ed Roth, but is also a window into the '50's and '60's that brings back memories of those times much like American Graffiti did. If it comes to your area, don't miss it.” (Hotrod Hotline)

"TALES OF THE RAT FINK is an ebullient survey of Roth's life that revs along with the zest a souped-up hot rod." (Austin Chronicle)