Critical reaction was mixed, but generally positive. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" wrote that the film is "constantly funny  ... something to offend just about everyone." "New York" magazine film critic Judith Crist reviewed the film as "a gloriously funny, brilliantly pointed, and superbly executed entertainment ... [whose target is ... the muddle-headed radical chicks and slicks of the sixties", and that it "should change the face of the animated cartoon forever". Paul Sargent Clark in "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "powerful and audacious", and "Newsweek" called it "a harmless, mindless, pro-youth saga calculated to shake up only the box office". "The Wall Street Journal" and "Cue" both gave the film mixed reviews. Thomas Albright of "Rolling Stone" wrote an enthusiastic preview in the December 9, 1971 issue based on seeing thirty minutes of the film, declaring that it was "sure to mark the most important breakthrough in animation since "Yellow Submarine"". But in a review published after its release, Albright recanted his earlier statement and wrote that the visuals were not enough to save the finished product from being a "qualified disaster" due to a "leaden plot" and a "juvenile" script that relied too heavily on tired gags and tasteless ethnic humor.