Wizards
August 28, 2004 | 
7 Comments
Summary: A review of Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards.
Wizards is one of the strangest movies I can remember seeing when I was a kid. It came out when I was, oh about 8 or so, around the same time as Star Wars, and I can remember loving it but always thinking it was “weird.”
I’d not seen it since, that is until recently, after it came out on DVD. Ironically, it was lucky I saw it at all, as due to the success of Star Wars, Wizards was quickly pulled to make room for Lucas’ hit.
After all these years I still love it. Man, what a crazy flick. Having recently watched the Ralph Bakshi version of the Lord of The Rings and been a fan of Heavy Traffic I knew kind of what to expect, but I wasn’t prepared for the depth of story and the absolute uncanny timeliness of the film.
Wizards, which was made back in the late 70s, covers all sorts of issues that are more relevant today, and it does it in a way that is brutally honest and very real, especially for a family oriented film.
I’m pretty damn sure that if this movie were made today it probably wouldn’t go over very well. Not because of the special effects, or old school animation techniques. No, it’d be because it talks about things like terrorism, the effects of too much technology, sexuality, propaganda and more mature themes…all in a way kids can actually understand.
Artistically Wizards is full of conflicting styles, strange animation techniques and off-the-wall character design. The majority of the animation is very 70’s, very Bakshi and very dated by today’s standards, but that lends it a certain charm.
Some of the backgrounds and stills are very cool though and give the film an interesting feel, but technically, Wizards is much like any other Bakshi film.
It’s also the first film where he uses rotoscoping—a technique he became well known for.
Bakshi explains this, and much more, in a truly great interview on the DVD. He talks about how he became an animator, what it was like back in the old days of animation, Disney, the politics and messages of Wizards and his other films. This alone was worth the price of the DVD.
I’m not about to say Wizards is a true classic or anything like that, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of those films you either love or hate, even if you are a fan of Ralph Bakshi’s work. However, if you like animation, of any kind, you may want to check it out, and who knows you may enjoy it’s strangely unique charm.
Recommeded if you like: Ralph Bakshi’s other films, Heavy Metal, The Wall
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Filed under: Review
Comments
1. Geoffrey said:
Wow. I haven’t thought about that movie in a while. I remember seeing that with my dad when I was just a kid too. It left a very strange impression. I’ll have to add that to my Netflix que for another viewing. Thanks.
Posted on August 28, 2004 11:01 AM | #
2. mashby said:
Ditto. I TOTALLY forgot about that film until I saw your post. I too remember it being a good movie, but also “weird”. I’ll definitley have to Netflix it too, but I better hurry since I’m sure they don’t have a lot of copies on hand. ;-)
Posted on August 29, 2004 12:37 PM | #
3. Bill Peschel said:
Synchronisity. My wife and I had just seen “Cool World” a week ago (very bizarre and terrible) and I’ve been looking at Bakshi’s work on the Web in the last week. I even saw a copy of “Wizards” for sale at Wal-Mart. Must be something in the air.
Posted on August 29, 2004 04:38 PM | #
4. Dave Mo said:
I’m sorry to say I’ve never been a big Bakshi fan, and all I can say is, that Wizards WAS one of his better films at the time, but he totally ripped the idea from undreground artist Vaughn Bode’s Strontium 90 underground comix.
He ripped off Robert Crumb’s Fritz the Cat, taking advantage of an early form of Creative Commons copyright that Crumb had stipulated in his comix. Crumb didn’t get squat from that deal, but it sure bankrolled Bakshi’s later cinematic hackjobs.
I felt totally cheated when I saw his Lord of the Rings film in that it ended abruptly with no warning that this was just the crappy adaptation of the first two books, and I was pissed off by his obnoxious use of endlessly rotoscoped battle scenes swiped from old movies somewhere.
The last thing I saw come from him that was marginally entertaining was some of the Mighty Mouse cartoons his studio did a decade or so ago, but those were actually done by John Kricfalusi and company of Ren and Stimpy fame, so I can’t give Ralph the credit there either.
Cool World was another derivitive waste of celluloid, trying to be an “adult” Roger Rabbit.
Maybe to viewers that don’t understand the history of the man’s “accomplishments” these films have some value as entertainment, but to me, obviously, they’re just examples of crass plagiarism and banality.
Sorry for the flame. But I’m better now.
Now what was that about the DMB?
Posted on August 30, 2004 02:26 PM | #
5. dave said:
we had this on vhs when i was a kid… this was the late 70s early 80s. i used to watch it all the time. loved it. i can still quote lines from it! i’ll have to pick it up on dvd now. thanks for the review.
Posted on August 31, 2004 08:45 AM | #
6. Kyle said:
This movie creeped me out, but it’s interesting I’ll give it that!
Posted on November 10, 2004 08:27 AM | #
7. Lord said:
It’s really unusual and even sometimes frustrating but really catching at the same time. I saw it long ago but I still remember my impression…
Posted on December 9, 2004 10:08 AM | #
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