Wizards

Whilst Ralph Bakshi will never be regarded as an animation pioneer in the same league as Walt Disney or John Lasseter, he will always be considered as a man of vision who knew what he wanted to do and made memorable films such as Hey Good Lookin', The Lord of the Rings and Fritz the Cat. In the mid-1970s he embarked on a new project, his first family movie which was then titled War Wizards. An up-and-coming filmmaker called George Lucas was also making a movie at 20th Century Fox at the same time and, as the two films would be released within weeks of each other, Lucas didn't want them both to have the word 'war' in the title so asked Bakshi if he would rename his film. Bakshi agreed and decided just to go with Wizards as the title.

This wasn't the only problem that Bakshi encountered as he quickly ran out of money and the head of Fox wouldn't give him the $50,000 he needed to animate the war sequences and finish his movie so Bakshi had to put his hand in his pocket and make up the shortfall from his director's fee. As most of the film was cell animated, with some rotoscoping and other live action footage, Bakshi decided that the way around this financial problem was to do all of the combat scenes by live action, rotoscoping them and taking the footage from newsreel footage or feature films including Zulu and Alexander Nevsky.

This was all a little bit weird, although that's what you should really expect from a Ralph Bakshi film, as it had to fit into a family movie set millions of years in the future in a post-nuclear holocaust world. As virtually all of the world's nuclear warheads have been detonated and nearly all the population wiped out, the survivors agree to ban technology, weaponry and war. This world is split into two camps: the friendly, peace-loving elves, fairies and Wizards in Montagar and the mutants and goblins who live in Scortch. Many years earlier, twin babies (both wizards) had been born and it was immediately clear that one was evil and one was good. The good baby, Avatar, grew up to be the benign leader of Montagar whereas his brother, Blackwolf, became the dictatorial ruler of Scortch.

Blackwolf had always wanted to destroy Montagar but had never been able to overcome their simple defences so broke the long-standing agreement on technology and began building weaponry. This was not enough but his problems were solved when he dug up Nazi propaganda footage which he projected into the sky and, showing that the footage hadn't diminished with age, whipped his armies into a state of bloodlust. As a prequel to the invasion, Blackwolf dispatched an assassin to take out Avatar but this failed and the assassin was taken prisoner and hypnotised, and renamed Peace, by the ageing wizard into leading them to Scortch.

In order to head off the attack Avatar, along with a short tempered elf called Weehawk and Elinore, a fairy who Avatar has a crush on, must follow Peace to Scortch to save the world from Blackwolf and his crazed Nazi followers.


I'm no expert on Ralph Bakshi as, prior to watching this, had only seen two of his movies: Fritz the Cat and The Lord of the Rings (which I always felt was harshly dealt by was a much more enjoyable and accomplished work than people generally gave it credit). Whereas Fritz the Cat was a sex and drugs fuelled romp, Wizards is a much more sedate film which is aimed more at children than adults although it has quite obvious subtext that shows that Bakshi isn't treating younger viewers as idiots and is including material for the more mature viewer.

Although this only runs at just over 80 minutes, including credits, there are several occasions when it drags and becomes slightly tedious. The characters are great, with Avatar as a wonderfully kind and eccentric individual, Elinore as a fine heroine and a great array of weird and wonderful mutants, goblins and other bad guys in Scortch. Wizards is certainly a visually arresting film and it isn't every day but you'll find a family movie in which a group of goblins get their rocks off by watching Triumph of the Will and other pieces of newsreel from the Third Reich! This is regarded by some as a cult classic and I can understand why as there is a brief appearance (albeit in voice form) by Mark Hamill as a fairy called Sean and it is terrifically designed with some sly humour. However, the pacing lets the film down as there are too many occasions where it sags and you just want a bit more action.

The Disc

Extra Features
Wizards was previously released on Region 1 DVD in 2004 and this is practically the same with all the same extra features. First off, you have a commentary by Ralph Bakshi who is a great storyteller and a rather avuncular figure so does a commendable solo effort in which he talks about the animators he worked with, members of the voice cast, the hardships he had to overcome and various other things. Bakshi tend to drift off topic now and again, but only briefly, and quickly returned to where he was in a commentary that is worth listening to.

Ralph Bakshi: The Wizard of Animation runs at half an hour and is a revealing chat with the renowned animator. Quite a bit of the information is in the commentary as well as this featurette so if commentaries aren't your thing, you won't lose much by forgoing the commentary track and just watching this. As if the commentary wasn't proof enough that Bakshi was a great speaker, this is definitive evidence as he talks fondly about the animators and his history from a cell cleaner to being in a position where he could make his own movies.

You also get two theatrical trailers, a TV spot and a fairly lengthy stills gallery which shows a lot of the early designs -- it would have been fascinating if Bakshi had stuck with the initial designs for Elinore and how fans would have reacted to a certain character in Star Wars.


The Picture
This is apparently a new high definition transfer and the colours are certainly vibrant enough, looking very good against the great contrast levels with inky blacks. Wizards is a film where the animators brought their own styles to the table so you get a mix of quite complex line drawings, kid friendly characters and rotoscoping of classic movies, not to mention the Nazi propaganda footage that appears throughout. There is a constant amount of fine grain which is sometimes heavier in some scenes than in others and there is also a degree of noise which, added to the smoke and fog, makes some of the film look worse than it really should.

Overall though, it looks very good and is certainly one of the most interesting and innovative animated films I've ever seen.


The Sound
Unlike the R1 DVD, there is no Mono option (which seemed completely unnecessary anyway as the film was recorded in stereo) so what you have is a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track which presents the dialogue very well and very clearly whilst also doing a magnificent job with the score, ambient sounds and combat scenes.

There is also the option to watch the film with a music only track (also DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo) so you can appreciate the score and sound effects even more than when watching the film.


Final Thoughts
Wizards is certainly not the greatest animated movie you'll ever come across but I can understand why so many people have fond memories of watching it as youngsters. Although the pacing is problematic, leading to too many occasions where the film sags, it is a fairly enjoyable adventure story, firmly rooted in the fantasy genre. All the characters are very well rounded and designed so they are engaging, making you follow their journey right until the end of the film.

This is a very good package and if you haven't already bought the American DVD, this is a time for Ralph Bakshi fans to celebrate. If you're unfamiliar with Bakshi's work, the film is well worth a look.