Wizards (1977)

The Worst Film Ever

Beautiful, moving film.

Absolutely Fantastic

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

While I haven't seen everything by the man, I have nothing but the up most respect for animation auteur, Ralph Bakshi. Had it not been for this man and his influential work, independent, adult and even television animation would not have prospered up to the point of The Simpsons, the works of Don Hertzfeldt, anything good on adult swim, and a lot of creator driven cartoons on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, or even Disney. So let's go back to the late 70s, when Bakshi decided to take a break from adult animation to give us his first "family" film, Wizards. The result is a flawed albeit thought provoking and intriguing fantasy film that still remains in tact after 40 years.The story is about two wizard brothers named Avatar (the peaceful wizard who rules with wisdom and magic) and Blackwolf (The evil ruler of the dark land Scortch with technology under his belt to wage war). What we get is a great social commentary of an evil sorcerer trying to let science and technology rule over peace and prosperity for his own selfish needs, kinda like old dictators who used whatever they could to take over. The characters themselves, while not the most developed, definitely shine with their roles. Avatar is the good hearted wizard who struggles whether to use his powers for good or bad reasons, the robot Peace also struggles with siding between killing those who are good or preserving them, Weehawk is definitely a bad ass you don't want to mess with, and while Eleanor and Blackwolf are the least memorable characters, the savagery that Blackwolf inflicts on his creatures is just gut wrenching and Eleanor is pretty decent eye candy if nothing else.The animation shows that it was made cheap, yet it still retains itself with it's own style, whether it be the cartoonish designs, the mystic colorful backgrounds, the comic book style storyboards, and especially usage of the rotoscoping that really gives the film an old school feel to it. This is one of the grimmest and vibrantly colorful films I've seen in quite some time, and it looks so unique that it's worthy viewing to gain a sense of 70s animation.The movie isn't without it's flaws though. The editing can come off as a little uneven and choppy at times, some of the voice-acting is kinda wooden, , and let's just say the final confrontation isn't as epic as the rotoscoped battle scenes. Otherwise, if you're looking for a time capsule to the 70s that takes a great approach to the fight between peace and technology, then find Wizards any way you can. It's certainly worth a watch if you're into post apocalyptic films as much as the next guy.

In a crazy age for animation Wizards delivers a crazy story where radio-decayed mutants fueled by footage of Nazi propaganda and other artifacts of the earths aggressive past attempt to take over the future. The only thing that can stop domination is a party of forest creatures, a derelict assassin, the old wizard himself, and one psychedelic trip of a movie.The film can get preachy, and sometimes maybe too blunt. But hey, something rare and cool to come out of '77, stop messing around and watch Wizards.

The first time I saw Wizards (1977) I hated it. Then I was somehow compelled into watching it again and while I still didn't like it, I admitted to myself that it was interesting. Upon the third viewing, I was in love. This is a movie that gets better and better the more you watch it.God knows why, as it's quite flawed. Whoever they hired to do the voice over narration sounds like she's just taken a sleeping pill. Sometimes the plot is choppy and the editing can be strange. The ending is a bit abrupt.But still, this movie has charm to spare. The characters are twists on archetypes and feel human despite their cartoonish nature. Even the villains are compelling and sometimes likable. The backgrounds are gorgeous, ranging from soothing, storybook-like watercolor illustrations to sketchy, over-detailed concoctions with violent colors. The music is pure, awesome 70s cheese. And the climax is just fantastic; totally unexpected.Folks are divided on Bakshi's love affair with rotoscoping. Unlike The Lord of the Rings (1978) or American Pop (1981), the rotoscoping is great in Wizards, because the rotoscoping is used only for the demons in the villain's army. Some would say they clash with the other, Saturday morning style characters, but the contrast actually works here and feels like less of a mess. And because the rotoscoping is saved for the villains, it makes them all the creepier.Out of all Bakshi's films, this one is my favorite. I have the Blu-ray and have probably seen it over twenty times by now.

I've been giving myself a crash course in the older works of animator Ralph Bakshi lately. "Wizards" was my next pick following his full length feature debut, "Fritz the Cat," which I found rather dated and disappointing. "Wizards" was an improvement over "Fritz," but I still found myself thinking that it probably would've made more of an impact on me if I'd seen it in a theatre in the late '70s after smoking a couple of joints.The story takes place a few million years in the future, after a nuclear holocaust has more or less destroyed humanity; the few humans that are left are now monstrous, radioactive mutants who dwell in a region called "Skortch." On the flip side, the "Good Lands" (i.e. the area unpolluted by fallout) is populated by fairies and elves, whom we're told are the true ancestors of humanity. The narration at the beginning of the film tells us that one special night long ago, twin wizards were born, one good (named "Avatar," wonder if Cameron had to pay Bakshi to use that name? Haha) and one evil (known as "Blackwulf"). The evil wizard has become leader of the mutants and has been carrying out regular attacks on the "Good Lands" over the years without much success. But now Blackwulf has introduced ancient technology (in the form of recovered tanks, guns, airplanes and Nazi propaganda films, which he uses to fire up his troops) to prepare for one final assault on the Good Lands, and his brother Avatar must come out of peaceful semi-retirement to battle him once and for all (with the aid of an elf warrior, a captured assassin robot, and a big-boobed, ditzy fairy who wears very little).The animation in "Wizards" is nice enough (though a little dated looking nowadays), the good guys are all Disney cute while Blackwulf and his mutant legions of froglike creatures are Frank Frazetta scary/ugly, which makes for an odd combination of styles. Battle scenes were apparently made by using actual WWII footage that was retouched and recolored to match the feel of the film, which makes those scenes even odder. Bakshi seems to be going for an "epic" scale here which at the time he wasn't quite able to do; not due to lack of talent, but lack of budget. Its slim run time of just about 80 minutes keeps things moving quickly enough that the viewer won't get bored.Too violent for a kid's movie and a little too weird and allegorical for the average grown up viewer, "Wizards" has some interesting ideas and visuals but isn't a must-see except for hardcore animation buffs.Extra trivia note, see if you can spot a pre-"Star Wars" Mark Hamill in a small voice part.