 According to a 1986 interview with Ralph Bakshi (qv), he met  producer Steve Krantz (qv), and told Krantz of his plans to start  a studio for producing animated films for adults. Bakshi had planned  to produce _Heavy Traffic (1973)_ (qv) as his first feature film,  but was told by Krantz that he was more likely to get funding if the  production was an adaptation of anothers property, which led them  to Robert Crumb (I) (qv)s "Fritz the Cat." Bakshi states that he  did not originally intend to direct the film because he had already  spent years working on animated series starring animal characters  and had wanted to make a feature film starring human characters.