Ralph
Bakshi spoke at the WonderCon 2012 recently, which reminded me to watch his
pioneering movie Wizards again. Watching Wizards as a teenager, a few months
before I saw Star Wars, I was blown away by the animation.
In a post-apocalyptic
earth, mankind is destroyed by a nuclear war. The only creatures to survive are
fairies, pixies, dwarves and mutants. Two twin brothers are born to a fairy
queen. One is good, the other is evil.
The evil
son Blackwolf rediscovers ancient World War II technologies and some Nazi
propaganda films that he uses to revenge and conquer the fairies and elves. Avatar,
the good son, is a grumpy psychedelic wizard with the NSFW dressed fairy
girlfriend Elinore. (But of course! It was made in the mid 1970s.) Blackwolf tries
to assassinate his brother and assembles mutant forces against him, leading to
the ultimate confrontation between the brothers and the fate of the world.
Wizards was
sort of Ralph Bakshi's test-run for his cartoon version of Lord of the Rings.
Watching the movie you get a smorgasbord of different animation techniques. There is conventional animation, Rotoscoping
and overexposed film, sometimes being used in the same scene.
Wizards was
20th Century Fox's first animated film. It was intended to be a trilogy, but
the budget was only 1 MUSD and Bakshi had to use Rotoscoping and stills with a narrator, to afford to finish the movie. In
the 35th anniversary DVD rerelease of the movie, Ralph Bakshi says that when he
asked Fox for a budget increase, they refused. At the same meeting, director
George Lucas asked for a budget increase for Star Wars and was also refused.
As usual
for most Bakshi movies, the plot is simple but anarchistic, the characters are engaging and the humor
sporadic. The animation
is rough, but it has innovative ideas. It's more like the dynamic motion
depicted in comic book art.
Today, the
movie feels a bit rough and uneven. For example Bakshi fills the end of the movie
with pointless walking, driving, going, riding, etc. However, that gives the
movie a charm that a slicker production wouldn't have.
The film is
definitely worth viewing, for no other reason than the excellent artwork by IanMiller and Michael Ploog.
Wizards is a
cult classic. It has inspired many modern movies, like Avatar.
It was
nominated to the 1978 Hugo award.
Grade: A
collector's movie.
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