Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Scott LeBrun Ralph Bakshi wrote, produced and directed this animated combination of the post-apocalypse and fantasy genres, in which two brothers, Avatar (voice of Bob Holt) and Blackwolf (voice of Steve Gravers) both grow up with magical powers. The thing is, Avatar is a good guy and Blackwolf is just plain evil. Avatar goes on a quest to face and vanquish his putrid sibling, accompanied by an elf named Weehawk (voice of Richard Romanus) and a fairy princess named Elinore (voice of Jesse Welles). Largely aimed at a younger audience than previous Bakshi films, "Wizards" still does offer some pretty intense battle sequences, some cartoon gore, and a little suggestiveness (such as how Elinore is dressed throughout). What makes it interesting is that Avatar rules his kingdom of Montagar benevolently and kindly, while Blackwolf relies on weapons and technology, and also uses Adolf Hitler as a role model. Blackwolf reaches into Earths' past and appropriates Nazi propaganda to brainwash his minions, leading to some inspired use of live action sequences within the frame.Nowadays viewers are much more conditioned to computer generated images, but for the time this was made, this remains a fine example of traditional hand-drawn animation. Some of the images are quite striking, and character and creature design are enjoyable, as elves and mutants ultimately engage in war.The vocal performances are wonderful, especially from Holt; also lending their voices are David Proval (Romanus' co-star in "Mean Streets") and Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill.A short-and-sweet running time (81 minutes) and a rousing score composed by Andrew Belling further assist in making this an enjoyable feature, if not as satisfying overall as Bakshis' later "Fire and Ice".Seven out of 10.

Fargo Guerra (user-230-106275) In a crazy age for animation Wizards delivers a crazy story where radio-decayed mutants fueled by footage of Nazi propaganda and other artifacts of the earths aggressive past attempt to take over the future. The only thing that can stop domination is a party of forest creatures, a derelict assassin, the old wizard himself, and one psychedelic trip of a movie.The film can get preachy, and sometimes maybe too blunt. But hey, something rare and cool to come out of '77, stop messing around and watch Wizards.

Donald F Ralph Bakshi is one of those animators I never grew to like. His films are adult, but not necessarily mature. Some find social commentary in his work - I just find him raunchy for the sake of edge.Wizards is one of his tamer works (It was released as a PG film). Is it a parody of high fantasy tales? Is it a violent, sexy take of the genre? Kinda both, kinda neither. Wizards is surprisingly uninteresting, plain and average. If it weren't for some adult themes, it would be forgettable, only remembered as a childhood classic by the middle aged. The characters are stock, and the plot offers little innovation. Bakshi states its about technology, and the plight of the Jewish people. Those were the last things on my mind during this movie.Yeah, people get shot. There are fairies in skimpy clothing. But outside a scene here and there, the plot itself is borderline family friendly. Its actually not adult enough, not so outrageous to have a guilty fun time. And fantasy fans won't have much to take away from it, besides the odd point of Nazi propaganda used to as mind control. Its a dumb plot device - those tapes mean nothing without the context of the culture and time.It does get credit for doing what few films do. There aren't many adult animated films in the west, especially in fantasy. The animation's quality is alright, considering the budget and the time. The use of rotoscope is pretty bad in a few scenes.Some thought the ending was clever. Let's just say I didn't. >:I If you adore fantasy and animation, you could watch this. If not, I wouldn't recommend it.

zetes I have a soft spot for Ralph Bakshi's rock 'n roll family saga American Pop, but, really, he's not all that talented of an animator or filmmaker otherwise. I have still moderately enjoyed everything else I've seen by him. Until now, that is. Wizards is a disaster. It feels like about a quarter of an idea that was quickly drawn up and thrown into theaters. The quarter of an idea isn't a bad one, but it makes for an incredibly slapdash movie. Two wizards from the distant future, a good and evil twin brother, are at war. The evil wizard has discovered ancient films of Nazi Germany, and he inspires his mutant minions to go to war with the elves and fairies who live in the non-irradiated lands. The good wizard, along with a heroic elf, a reprogrammed evil robot and a big-tittied fairy set out to destroy the evil wizard's film projector. The character designs aren't half bad (especially the big-tittied fairy), but the animation is just dreadful. I'd recommend skipping this one.