The Ribald Tales Of Canterbury 1985 Classic Full -
The framing device is led by a lascivious innkeeper and a Miller who literally cannot keep his clothes on. The pilgrims include a lecherous knight, a "Wife of Bath" who is more 1980s glamour model than medieval matron, a Pardoner selling sexual favors instead of indulgences, and a Nun who has broken more vows than she can count. To understand The Ribald Tales of Canterbury , one must understand the context of 1985. This was the golden era of the "adult cartoon" boom—spearheaded by Ralph Bakshi ( Fritz the Cat , Heavy Traffic ) and quickly capitalized upon by lower-budget studios. While Bakshi pushed for mature, dramatic stories, studios like Alternative Films and The Camera One Workshop (the distributors of this print) focused on the "sexploitation" angle.
If you approach it expecting the eroticism of Fritz the Cat or the philosophical weight of Wizards , you will be disappointed. But if you want to experience a bizarre artifact of the Reagan era, where medieval literature was filtered through the lens of pornographic puns, cheap animation cels, and synthesizers, then the search for is a journey worth taking. the ribald tales of canterbury 1985 classic full
Character designs are exaggerated to the point of caricature: men have jutting chins and hooked noses; women have impossibly narrow waists, ballooning chests, and eyelashes that seem to have a life of their own. The backgrounds, however, are surprisingly beautiful. The scenes of the Canterbury countryside—rolling green hills, ancient stone roads, misty abbeys—are rendered in a soft, pastel watercolor style that clashes gloriously with the crass, ink-pen characters moving across them. Upon its release in 1985, The Ribald Tales of Canterbury was not a hit. It played in a handful of drive-in theaters and "adult only" cinemas before disappearing into the VHS netherworld. Critics despised it. The Los Angeles Times called it "a depraved slog through the worst impulses of low-budget animation," while Variety famously wrote: "Chaucer is rolling in his grave. So might you, from laughter or nausea—it’s a coin toss." The framing device is led by a lascivious
In the vast, shadowy archives of adult animation, few films capture the bizarre intersection of medieval literature, psychedelic visuals, and unabashed raunchiness quite like the 1985 cult classic, The Ribald Tales of Canterbury . For collectors, animation historians, and fans of "midnight movie" oddities, searching for the "the ribald tales of canterbury 1985 classic full" is a rite of passage. But what exactly is this film, why has it endured for nearly four decades, and where does it fit into the pantheon of adult animation? This was the golden era of the "adult
However, in this version, the "tales" are essentially soft-core vignettes animated in the style of a Saturday morning cartoon—only featuring characters engaging in acts that would make a network censor faint.
This article unpacks the history, the artistic merit, the controversy, and the legacy of this X-rated animated feature. Loosely—very loosely—based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1392), the 1985 film jettisons the religious allegory and social satire of the original in favor of bawdy slapstick, nudity, and sexual farce. The plot skeleton remains recognizable: A group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury Cathedral to see the shrine of Thomas Becket decide to pass the time by telling stories.
However, like many bad movies, it found a second life in the 1990s as a "cult classic." The rise of the internet and file-sharing forums turned the search for the into a Holy Grail quest for fans of "so bad it's good" cinema.
