Wizards (DVD, 2004)

But really good, I personally will take it over any of the other Bakshi films, even Heavy Metal.

After the final nuclear battle earth takes several million years to repair itself. When it does, it brings back the Faeries, elves, sprites, and other spirits of the forest from our past myths and legends.
Twin Brothers are born to the Queen of montagar, one attracting and one repelling, three thousand years after the queens death the brothers meet in battle.

The multimedia animation is incredible and the use of WWWII film footage is inspired. If you have never seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to see it. The observance of sundown scene is full of satire and mirth, but not the best scene, you view and pick your fav, mine is well never mind, it is yours that is what matters.

So many times during Reagan's Presidency I wanted to send a copy of the film to him. Now we have GW in charge and I would like to send him a copy but I would would end up on a no fly list in a New York Minute.

Check it out as a rental or just buy it, it is that good of a Sci-Fi animation.

cheers!

I saw Wizards at a late movie show back when it came out in 1977 - Star Wars also came out that year and completely overshadowed Wizards, basically never to be seen again (except for the die-hard cult followers, that is. Once you've seen it, you will never forget it!).
By itself, it is a fairly straight-forward good-vs-evil story, in the same vein as Star Wars, ironically, but Bakshi (here before he created the Lord of the Rings animations)tells it with imagination and flair, allbeit very primitively. On the director's commentary he even boasts about how simplistic the animation is - and if you don't spend too much staring into each frame but instead absorb the ambience of it, the film becomes engrossing and kinda fun! Bakshi's characters run the gamut from archetypal goblins, over-the-top sexified elves, wise-acre wizards and a major plotline involving Hitler's propaganda archives wrapped into a wild and fun-loving epic (the good-vs-evil thingy). Bakshi describes this as a "kids movie" but when I saw it I understood the power and seriousness of its message and political points. NOT for your niece nor nephew - let them sample the Disney lexicon.
It has lasting appeal because of the passion behind it and the timelessness of the message - and if you enjoy seeing animation in its raw form, watch the flick first, then listen to Bakshi's commentary - it is a piece of animation history that any self-respecting anime fan MUST see.
Truley a hand-drawn work of love.

Ralph Bakski was the counter-traditional animator of the 1970s. Some of his pre-Wizards work included Fritz the Cat and Coonskin. Wizards, produced in 1976, is a story of good-versus-evil commentary on war. There are direct parallels between the evil Black Wolf and Nazis aggression of World War II. I like the character Avatar and the Borgesque Hugh character Necron 99.

The rotoscoped war scenes are annoying after the umpteenth time in the film and I always hated the voice over of Bakski's films. The characters often are yelling or (worse yet) their voices are duplicated and repeated.

I bought the film because of the nostalgic value of the work. Wizards was developed for an adult audience, it is not for children. Another film of this era that I like is Bruno Bozzetto's Allegro Non Troppo. An Italian animation put together like Fantasia, but with a sarcastic adult edge. The short set to Ravel's Bolero is still a classic for me.

Bought this movie after someone compared my art-style to the one in this title, and I was not disappointed! Yes, the animation is old, and the audio-track is a bit sub-par due to the oldness of the thing, but if you can go beyond that, Wizards is outstanding! Brilliant story of WWII technology against magical elves and fairies, which will please everyone with a taste for dark fantasy.

Much like his Lord of the Rings as far as the animation goes, lots of real-life film converted to two dimensions coupled with regular cartoon format. I bought this mistakenly thinking it was something else I had seen years ago, but wasn't disappointed. Nice fantasy/sci-fi mix with some strong WW2 overtones thrown in the mix. Not for kids, though I was one the first time I saw it. I would rate this one below Heavy Metal and Fire & Ice but above Fritz the Cat. Fun, and well worth watching. Very 1970's.