(WARNING: contains mature content not suitable for younglings)
Coonskin is a 1975 American live-action/animated satirical crime film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi.
Paramount Pictures originally attached to distribute the film, but was taken over by Bryanston Distributing Company. An original Paramount cut of the film was released straight to VHS in Italy in 1992 by Gruppo Logica 2000, with an Italian dub recorded in Milan. For unknown reasons, the distributor received and used the original cut of the film shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1974: this version primarily featured several changes in the order of scenes; and while some sequences, including the animated prologue, were missing, several others were longer or entirely unavailable in the standard version. This alternative cut is around 99 minutes long (accounting for PAL speedup), compared to 83 minutes for the Bryanston version. This situation went nearly unnoticed (and the film was never re-released in Italy) until in early 2023 the Italian YouTuber 151eg, in an attempt to rediscover the lost Italian dubbing of the film, contacted a private collector and purchased the VHS tape, only to discover the longer and different cut of the film. The Paramount cut with its Italian dub was subsequently published on the 151eg channel and on archive.org. In 2023 Italian publisher Sinister Film released Coonskin on DVD including both the standard and the extended version.