 The film starts out in live action , introducing the protagonist Michael Corleone , a 22 @-@ year @-@ old virgin ( inaccurately referred to as 24 in the movie 's trailer ) playing pinball in New York City . The scene then transitions into animation . New York has a diseased , rotten , tough , and violent atmosphere . Michael 's Italian father , Angelo " Angie " Corleone , is a struggling mafioso who frequently cheats on Michael 's Jewish mother , Ida . The couple constantly bicker and try to kill each other . Michael <unk> through a catalog of freaks , greasers , and dopers . Unemployed , he dabbles with cartoons , artistically feeding off the <unk> of his environment . He regularly hangs out at a local bar where he gets free drinks from the female black bartender , Carole , in exchange for sketches of the somewhat annoying Shorty , Carole 's violent , legless bouncer devotee . One of the regular customers at the bar named Snowflake , a nymphomaniac transvestite , gets beaten up by a tough drunk who has only just realized that Snowflake is a man in drag and not a beautiful woman . Shorty throws the drunk out and the bar 's white manager abusively confronts Carole over this . Fed up with her manager , Carole quits . 
