WIZARDS

My rating is more of a 4.5.Thank you for reading in advance!Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film directed, produced and written by Ralph Bakshi and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film follows a battle between two wizards of opposing powers, one representing the forces of magic and the other representing the forces of industrial technology.The hardest part about writing with submitting reviews for these kind of films is deciding how to organize the information. There's just so much to write about! with that said, when I start by saying I enjoyed this film a lot more than I expected to .Firstly, the animation and soundtrack are very aggressively 70s. This alone is not a bad thing, as the story is told in a manner that appeals to both young adults and a more mature audience. not only this, but the animation and color scheme varies depending on what characters are being presented, which makes the association's we are meant to have with them easily understood. The wizards and fairies representing the forces of magic are brightly colored and are animated as very excitable beings. The wizard and his cohorts representing the force of industrial technology are mostly colored using muted palettes and have a much more organized fashion in regards to their animations. This contrast on its own is enough to illustrate the conflict between these two entities - but, hold that thought as I will be coming back to it later.Before starting this film I made a considerable amount of judgements about it; the wording on the theatrical poster for this movie struck me as reflecting some amount of bias the director has in regards to technology and magic. Through a Google search you will see that this film is described as ‘An epic fantasy of Peace and Magic ‘; it certainly isn't crystal clear by virtue of this wording alone, but this seems to imply that peace and magic are two completely separate entities. I don't suppose this counts as a spoiler, but perhaps it would be helpful for the audience to know that peace in this context is a character. More than that, this character becomes a symbol - a tangible one at that- of reconciliation between these two opposing forces (magic/technology), And his behavior varies in regards to whether or not we can label them as either bad or good. His mere existence alone poses a very important question to the audience: when I am deciding that something is either good or evil, what exactly am I looking for and is it possible that the process I've adapted could potentially be lacking in dimension?I went into this with the impression that this film would go to great lengths to highlight the benefits of the differing sources of power that are pitted against one another over the course of the plot. Strangely (and surprisingly pleasant) enough this story does the exact opposite; scenes are craftily inserted into the film to lightly touch on the /weakness/ associated with them instead. Magic - Despite being associated with beauty - can often act as a deterrent(distraction) to a specific goal and in some ways has a way of making people unbelievably naive. Technology, on the other hand, values efficiency over proficiency and can often make characters act on their impulses without taking into consideration the consequences their actions might have on their surrounding community.All right, you can stop holding that thought from earlier. as a means of providing context, this movie is very blunt about the association of the “evil” Character in the story and a figure from history that most sensible people do have a polarized opinion about: Adolf Hitler. Not only does this character embrace Nazi like values related to control and power, but it is explained in concise detail how his adapted techniques work (“Technology is used to control the masses”). This is contrary - and, again, I’m trying to avoid spoilers but it is so hard to do here - One of the “good” characters uses a tool that is unexpected and has up to this point never even been alluded to. I was shocked as I never saw this coming, and I think most people would share that sentiment. This leads to another question: is this an implication that some people may need to lose a part of themselves to overcome adversity, or is the overall message that two very different schools of thought or discipline can have much more in common than people would like to admit.I could go on and on in praising this film and the quality of it- but like any good film some complaints about it really need to be discussed; The totality of the “evil” character’s influence is addressed rather well, but this seems to drop off the face of the Earth soon after their defeat. Some may disagree, but I would say this makes the overall message a little less ambiguous and makes understanding the narrative this story encompasses less clearer. Given my critiques above it would more than fair to say this isn't exactly……..appropriate? When the conclusion is reached the characters seem to be living “happily ever after”, and I don't think this does much to honor the rest of the overall plot and possible character development up to this point. Not only does this seem ike a missed opportunity on the director's part, but this also seems rather ironic given the fact that most Nazi related symbols are associated with events happening more than 30 years prior to the creation and eventual production of this film. I digress, however, because this is simply one defective cog amongst a series of immaculate ones. Smart, entertaining (I actually laughed out loud at parts and I hardly ever do watching movies), and naturally engaging. I simply can’t recommend this film enough!

It had been years since I even heard of this movie and when it was suggested I immediately bought it. Adult themed when it came to war. I enjoyed non the less

I love this movie. I went back and saw it in the theater three times. Bakshi is the best! Order came on time and was in perfect condition.

Prior to Wizards, Ralph Bakshi had made very politically oriented adult animated films like Fritz the Cat, Coonskin, and Heavy Traffic. To prove that he could make a family film and something that didn’t necessarily rely on controversy to attract attention, he decided to make a fantasy film. It’s a Bakshi version of a family film, anyway. If you were to compare it to a Disney film of the time, or any of the Disney fantasy films, you’d notice some differences. Wizards is not as clean or polished as a film by Disney. Though a lot of this has to do with the considerable budget difference, it was just not his style to appear polished. For instance, throughout the film you can notice certain things such as recycled cels and a heavy use of stills. One of the more interesting aspects of this film that was a direct result of the low budget are the war scenes. These scenes are definitely the most visually striking in the film, as they display a mixture of cel and rotoscope animation of stock footage from World War II. Sort of. Honestly, I'm not really sure if what he does can actually be called using rotoscope. It's a strange juxtaposition of images that involves the animators coloring over live action footage as opposed to tracing it.Aside from the strange combination of animation styles, they're also brightly colored adding a distinct psychedelic feel to the war scenes. These scenes are still very interesting now because no one every used animation techniques like this before. It makes the battle scenes very chaotic and more reinforces the idea of war and violence than actually present a clear battle. Overall, Wizards is not a very pretty looking film and the animation has become dated, but There are some aspects of the art that still hold up well. For instance, the background art (especially for the land where Blackwolf rules) is incredibly detailed and bizarre looking, reminiscent of art in the underground comics of the 60s and 70s.The story is still fairly interesting as well whereas unlike a traditional fantasy which is set in an undefined past, this story takes place far in the future where the world has been utterly devastated by nuclear war. Much of the earth is covered with radiation and this spawns mutants and monsters. It also revives magical creatures like fairies, elves, dwarfs, and wizards. The film opens with nicely drawn stills and narration (by Susan Tyrrell) explaining the origins of the earth and the birth of two wizards: Avatar and Blackwolf. Avatar (Bob Holt) is good and Blackwolf (Steve Bravers) is evil. There's no explanation as to why they are the way they are, they were just born that way. They fight and Avatar wins. This causes Blackwolf to retreat to the irradiated badlands and enslave the mutants. He forces them to dig up old technology and put it together. They find guns and tanks but still can’t win against the forces of good. The mutants are too stupid and cowardly to effectively maintain fighting battles. Some 3000 years later, Blackwolf unearths a film projector and old Nazi propaganda footage. This becomes the ultimate weapon of the film.There are some really crazy scenes that show how effective the footage is during a battle. Blackwolf fills the sky with the footage which motivates his own forces (who are excited by the violence) and simultaneously terrifies the elves fighting them. These scenes are done with the footage being used instead of background animation and the cel animated characters in the foreground. It becomes a very clear battle between technology and magic. What's central to the film’s themes is that technology is something evil. It resulted in the destruction of the earth and it becomes even more obvious when it's directly and visually linked to Hitler. The villains use swastikas on their uniforms and flags and watch footage of Nazis with relish. There's something truly cynical about one of the only things to survive a planet-wide holocaust and thousands of years of radiation and ruin to be Hitler.The central plot becomes Avatar forming a party to journey to Blackwolf’s castle and destroy the propaganda machine and him. There are some interesting characters in the main cast. Avatar is an old wizard that has seen better days; much of his magic doesn’t work as well as it should and he acts like an aged hippie. Elinore (Jesse Welles) is his pupil, though they have a very flirtatious relationship. Weehawk (Richard Romanus) is a warrior elf chief. He’s actually a very tough and driven character, despite his appearance. The last member of the party is Necron 99, who becomes Peace (David Proval). He’s a robot assassin that agrees to escort them to Blackwolf’s lair. They run into all kinds of problems on their journey and there are some genuine surprises. The characters, Avatar and Weehawk in particular, are likeable and they have interesting designs. As with Fritz the Cat, the audio isn’t as strong as it should be. There are some instances of weak voice acting and the general sound quality isn’t terrific, though this again brings to mind the budget. Wizards may be Bakshi’s idea of a family film, but it's clearly geared towards an audience older than children. Death is very real and bloody in this film, and there's a very clear sense of danger around every corner. It does contain some elements of humor, but they tend to be very hit or miss.While Wizards is a (slightly messy) mix of different animation styles, it's still an engaging mix of sci-fi and fantasy, even today.

La película llegó a tiempo y buen estado. La película es un clásico, muy buena película, para resaltar que viene doblada en español.

Odd, but enjoyable in an easy going kind of way

para los que les gustan estos dibujos míticos de 80s, esto es una joya, muy contento con esta compra y encima edición 35 aniversario

One I had to have in my movie collection, a good movie.

I'd been trying to find this film for years! Looks fantastic on bluray and still a great animation from Ralph Bakshi