Fire and Ice

It took me a while to get it on DVD, I purchased this movie a long time ago on VHS format and I have always tried to get the DVD, I love the story and how it was made to a film, now I am happy to add this title to my collection.

From a technical standpoint I don't know to much about video transfer or audio, but from my perspective it seems to be pretty good. The last time I saw this movie, before this DVD was on an old VHS tape that I was happy to buy many, many years back. I liked having the story and all the great animation captured in a way I could re-watch it as often as I wanted. I would have purchased the DVD eventually, but when I saw the two-disk limited edition I was sold as my before mentioned VHS had died a while back (guess that happens when you like to let it run in the background most weekend).The story is a bit of the basic save the princess from the invading army sort of tale. But being an old, old D&D players I see it like an adventure played with two people, the DM and a single player. I did these sort of things with my friends a lot back in the day. The main character is a young barbarian who is a sole survivor of his village and does a good job with the poor hand he is dealt. In his adventure he runs across the captured but escaping princess, a feature I didn't notice much when I was younger. He didn't have to save her originally, she had gotten away on her own. I might have to remember that next time someone goes on a rant of the damsel always having to be rescued, then again her costume gave my mom palpitations when she saw what my brother and I were watching.The young barbarian looses the girl at one point, random monster encounter and when he is able to get his wits about himself he finds that rescuing her lines up with his original goal of revenge. In his hunt for her he is attacked again but this time he is rescued by the powerful Jaguar God (I don't remember his name being specified, but it looks like him) and they team up for a bit. The stronger of the two wanting the main baddie while the younger barbarian will be doing good to get back his princess and taking the biggest bite out of the enemy as he can in the process.There are other fun and interesting characters and encounters along the way.I have watched this many times since it came out and I still enjoy it, if you are looking for a good fantasy type of cartoon then I would expect you to enjoy it as well.

I bought this as a gift for my 22 year old son he has left the roost & deserves a copy of his own. We used to watch this together & have fun trying to cast it with actors over the year's wishing someone would remake this into a live action film. Now there is a multi million dollar piece of advise to some director! Over the years our imaginary live action movie cast has changed, but this animated sword & sorcery classic never gets old! Just look at the number of 5 star reviews on this old gem!!! Frank Frazetta enjoyed the status of a living legend long before he passed away. Frazetta's art work was in such demand that publishing houses would ask him " You can just give us anything we will find a book to put it on!?!?! His artwork re introduced thousands to the brilliant work of Robert E Howard's in the 70's as well as breathing new life into Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels! The bonus disc is worth the cost of this masterpiece collaboration between Frazetta & Bakshi!!! The bonus disc is all about Frank Frazetta a nice biography on an incredible artist! The feature film is top notch Sword & Sorcery action at its best. It could have been penned by Robert E Howard(creator of Conan) himself. I am an artist myself & like Frank Frazetta I draw from my minds eye meaning I use no swipes, models or photo's & I believe that any artist that works this way has a natural ability for story telling because the images you paint are scenes from an imaginary adventure story from your minds eye. Frank also collaborated with James Silke on 4 Death Dealer novels. If you've listened to Molly Hatchet that's the dark brooding medieval giant on all their album covers. I could go on forever spouting Frank Frazetta praises, so to some it up If you Love Conan or The Lord of the Rings you will probably love this movie also!

-- it doesn't get any better.The story is straightforward sword and sorcery, kingdom of Fire vs. the evil kingdom of Ice. As in Bakshi's other best movies, it's rotoscoped cel animation over painted backgrounds, a combination I like a lot. That gives completely natural movement to the animated figures, and great atmosphere from the backgrounds.There were a few negatives in this DVD. First was transfer quality. There's a visible amount of "snow" in many places, enough to notice, but not enough to get in the way of the movie. Then there's the inherently loose relationship between the cel animation and the backgrounds - a few scenes seemed to have the characters skating across the surroundings. Excessive reality can also be a drawback. Teegra, the female lead, spent a lot of time running from the bad guys. Unfortunately, she tended to "run like a girl" (and I don't mean Jackie Joyner Kersee) - she rarely conveyed the athletic or panicked sense I would have expected of a woman running for her life.The positives far outweigh the problems, though. Frazetta's characters are richly drawn: lush womanly figures, mighty males, grunting hench-beings, and the Death Dealer. The story holds together, and the rotoscoped actors did great jobs. And the DVD extras - wow. I normally ignore them. These aren't just a few stills and a trailer, there are interviews with Bakshi, diary notes from one of the actors, and a whole second disc dedicated to Frazetta and his work ("Painting with Fire"). I haven't gone through all of the extras yet, but they earned that fifth star for this set.It's not as "adult" as Fritz the Cat and other of Bakshi's work, but it's certainly not for the kiddies, either. But then, not all animation has to be. Highly recommended.//wiredweird

This is a classic sword and sorcery movie, like a Frazetta painting come to life.

Good quality, fast shipment.