by the time production finished, cinemation had released melvin van peebles' "sweet sweetback's baadasssss song" to considerable success, and the distributor hoped that "fritz the cat" would be even more profitable. "fritz" received an x rating from the motion picture association of america, the first animated film to receive such rating. producer krantz stated that the film lost playdates due to the rating, and 30 american newspapers rejected display advertisements for it or refused to give it editorial publicity. the film's limited screenings led cinemation to exploit the film's content in its promotion of the film, advertising it as containing "90 minutes of violence, excitement, and sex  ... he's x-rated and animated!" according to ralph bakshi, "we almost didn't deliver the picture, because of the exploitation of it."