Wizards

 Wizards

Wizards is a 1977 animated film from master of animation Ralph Bakshi.  Bakshi previously had been known for his urban adult oriented animated films, with Fritz The Cat, Coonskin, and Heavy Traffic, and he wanted to show that he could do a fantasy film that could be enjoyed by the whole family.  Though his idea of a "family" film might differ from most people's it seems.   This film would open the door for his beloved classic Lord Of The Rings in 1978, and he would revisit the world of high fantasy in his 1983 classic Fire and Ice.   Wizards would be his first PG rated animated film, whereas Fritz The Cat and Heavy Traffic had received X ratings, and Coonskin had received an R rating.

Wizards is a fantasy film set in the far distant future after humans had destroyed the world in a nuclear war, and it concerns two brothers who are wizards, one the peaceful Avatar, and the other the dark and evil Blackwolf.   Blackwolf in his quest for world domination had rediscovered technology, and through Nazi war imagery and propaganda strengthens his forces of darkness and weakens with fear the forces of good.   The film is a story of the battle between good and evil, as well as a warning of the dangers of reliance of technology rather than embracing the beauty and magic of nature (rooted quite heavily in the hippy peace and love and anti-war movement of the 1960s).    In the film our hero Avatar an old wizard, sets off with the beautiful fairy Elinoire, the fierce elf berserker Weehawk, and PEACE who was originally programed by Blackwolf to kill Avatar.  

Wizards features the voice talents of Bob Holt as Avatar, Jesse Welles as Elinoire, Richard Romanus as Weehawk, David Proval as Necron 99/PEACE, Steve Gravers as Blackwolf, James Connell as President (Elinoire's father), Mark Hamill as Sean (son of the king of the mountain fairies), Susan Tyrrell as Narrator, Ralph Bakshi as Frits/ Lardbottom/  Stormtrooper, and Angelo Gristanti as Larry The Lizard.   This film would be Mark Hamill's first feature film, he did his voice parts while filming Star Wars, which would be released two weeks later.  The film has a great voice cast, and through Susan Tyrrell was asked by her representatives to not be credited because the film was so far below her normal pay rates, she later told Bakshi that this film helped her to get most of her roles in her career.   

Wizards and Star Wars would cross paths several times during the course of the making and release of Wizards.  Originally Wizards was called War Wizards, but because Star Wars would be debuting two weeks later, George Lucas asked Ralph Bakshi to drop the "War" from his title so that there wouldn't be two feature films with "War" in their title in the theaters at the same time.   Bakshi decided that Wizards had a better ring to it and agreed to drop the "War" from the title.  Also both directors in the same meeting had asked Fox for an increase to their budget, and both directors were denied.   Bakshi asked Lucas what he planned to do, and he said that he was just going to put up his own money to complete Star Wars, which helped him to maintain more of the rights to the film, Bakshi would also put up his own money to finish his film, as well as find a more cost effective work around.   The point that he ran out of money was when he needed to film the final battle sequence, and to animate it traditionally would cost too much money, so he got creative by using stock footage and using rotoscoping technology, and because of the lack of money, he ended up creating a more powerful and beautiful work of art, than if he had used traditional animation.   Then when it came to release, Wizards was a huge success for an animated feature, on a budget of $2 million, it grossed $9 million in the box office, and it would have been much more if it hadn't been for Star Wars.   After the success of the initial release of Star Wars, many theaters pulled Wizards so that they could show Star Wars.

Though Wizards was a very successful film, and has gone on to have a strong cult following, the film was viewed negatively by the critics, and even now, only holds an average rating on film rating sites like Rotten Tomatoes.   Though I will say honestly that in my opinion that Wizards is the greatest animated film of all time.  I don't say that lightly, because there are some amazing animated films, but I honestly hold Wizards above all of them.   First of all the simple and timeless story of the battle between good and evil, this is not an original story, but it is a good one.  Then to add to that the caution of the dangers of technology is something that I feel very strongly about.  I also love the strong anti-war and anti-fascism messages throughout the film, and the idea that love and peace and nature are more important than lust for power, greed, and technological strength.   Then maybe most importantly, because many animated films touch on those themes, this film is absolutely beautiful to behold.   There are beautiful visual mixes of animation, and Bakshi is always breaking grounds of what can be done in an animated film.   By combining styles and techniques including rotoscoping, cell shading, and traditional animation, Bakshi creates a breathtaking work of art.   I have never before or since seen an animated film as beautiful or as powerful as Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, and I believe that it is the single greatest feat of animation ever put on screen.   This film is the antithesis of Disney, it is not pretty and polished, it is dark and gritty, it never lies to you or talks down to you, the film strips away all of the complete rubbish that I hate about Disney films, and creates a true work of art, that takes chances, creates something actually artistic.   Even if the story itself isn't wholly original, the look of the film is, this is a family film that isn't trying to be cutesy and perfect, it isn't selling you the idea of a fairytale perfection, because even in a world of magic and enchantment, things aren't perfect, there aren't singing princesses dancing with talking animals in the forest as she does housework, in this film the princess picks up a sword and goes off to fight to save her kingdom, in the film the "good guys" fuck up, and they lose hope at times, because of how big and oppressive evil really is.  In this film the evil is rooted in the reality of our past, it isn't some fairy tale lie that can be overcome by some charming prince on his white horse.   There are no overly excited high pitch voice actors talking to children like they are incapable of understanding actual human conversation and emotion (I absolutely hate it when animated films do that, that and that horrible singing crap that floats through Disney films like turds that just won't go down when flushed).   This film is everything I want to see in animation, I want to see art, dark gritty, imperfect art, and art done well.   

If I had to choose one animated film to save as the only animated film I could ever watch again in the future, it would be Wizards.   If you have not seen this film, don't hesitate and hunt down a copy of it.   I love this film so much that someday I plan to get a tattoo of the princess Elinoir.