Wizards (1977)

Director:

Ralph Bakshi

Writer:

Ralph Bakshi

Release Date:

9 February 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The ultimate futuristic fantastic epic

Plot:

On a post-apocalyptic Earth, a wizard and his faire folk comrades fight an evil wizard who's using technology in his bid for conquest.

Plot Keywords:

Wizard | Mutant | Fairy | Technology | Elf

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Bob Holt	...	Avatar (voice)
Jesse Welles	...	Elinore (voice)
Richard Romanus	...	Weehawk (voice)
David Proval	...	Peace (voice)
Jim Connell	...	President (voice) (as James Connell)
Steve Gravers	...	Blackwolf (voice)
Barbara Sloane	...	Fairy (voice)
Angelo Grisanti	...	Frog (voice)
Hyman Wien	...	Priest (voice)
Christopher Tayback	...	Peewhittle (voice)
Mark Hamill	...	Sean (voice) (as Mark Hamil)
Peter Hobbs	...	General (voice)
Tina Romanus	...	Prostitute (voice) (as Tina Bowman)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ralph Bakshi	...	Fritz / Storm Trooper (voice) (uncredited)
Victoria Bakshi	...	Fairy Girl (voice) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Susan Tyrrell	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Ralph Bakshi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ralph Bakshi

Produced by
Ralph Bakshi	....	producer

Original Music by
Andrew Belling

Film Editing by
Donald W. Ernst

Production Management
Bill Orcutt	....	animation production manager (as William Orcutt)

Art Department
Michael G. Ploog	....	illustrator: histories (as Mike Ploog)

Sound Department
Eileen Horta	....	supervising sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Ted C. Bemiller	....	animation camera

Animation Department
Mary J. Adams	....	final checker
Enrique Alpizar	....	cel reproductions
Brenda Banks	....	animator
Sandy Benenati	....	ink and paint artist
Alice Cowing	....	final checker
Louise Cuarto	....	ink and paint artist
Janet Cummings	....	color modeler
Diane Dunning	....	ink and paint artist
Tasia Erickson	....	animation effects (as Tasia Williams)
Dotti Foell	....	animation checker
Edgar Gutierrez	....	cel reproductions
Stod Herbert	....	assistant animator
Charlotte Huffine	....	assistant animator
David Jonas	....	background artist
Alison Leopold	....	ink and paint artist (as Alison A. Victory)
Ian Miller	....	background artist
Ian Miller	....	background designer
Nelda Ridley	....	final checker
Ben Shenkman	....	assistant animator
John Sparey	....	layout artist
Irven Spence	....	animator
Irven Spence	....	sequence animator
Martin Strudler	....	background artist
Martin Strudler	....	background supervisor
Martin Taras	....	animator (as Martin B. Taras)
Robert Taylor	....	animator
Ira Turek	....	background artist
Katherine Victor	....	final checker (as Kathrin Leichliter)
John Vita	....	background artist (as Johnnie Vita)
Art Vitello	....	animator (as Arthur Vitello)
Manon Washburn	....	ink and paint artist
Micki Zurcher	....	ink and paint artist (as Michele Zurcher)
Cosmo Anzilotti	....	animator (uncredited)
Toby Bluth	....	visual development artist (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Jack Hooper	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Andrew Belling	....	musical director

Other crew
Leah Bernstein	....	assistant to producer
Scott Citron	....	production coordinator
John Kaufman	....	production coordinator
Jose Kfuri	....	production coordinator
Howard Miller	....	titles
Christine Wirt	....	production coordinator

Production Companies

• Bakshi Productions
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• Playhouse Home Video (1987) (USA) (VHS) (For CBS/Fox)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• C.G. Films S.A. (1982) (Spain) (theatrical)
• CBS/Fox Home Video (????) (New Zealand) (VHS) (original video release)
• Koch Media (2010) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Horta-Mahana Corp.  sound effects and music editing

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Argentina:82 min | USA:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | New Zealand:M | Netherlands:16 (original version) | UK:A (original rating) | Peru:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:12 | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (1986) (video rating) | USA:PG

Company:

Bakshi Productions

Trivia:

The song played on the German propaganda film is the Nazi Party anthem, "Die Fahne Hoch" ("Raise the Banner"). It was written by an early party member, Horst Wessel. The song is popularly known as "The Horst Wessel Song".

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Avatar says, "I searched for my brother in vain," but then says that Blackwolf settled in the land of Scortch. If Avatar knew that, then his search was not in vain at all.

Quotes:

Avatar:[to Weehawk] You know, the world owes you much, kid. Even if we don't take another step.

Movie Connections:

Edited from Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Soundtrack:

Only Time Will Tell

Not the "lost gem" i was hoping for

One thing i'll say for Ralph Bakshi's cult classic "Wizards": Its got brains. The whole political allegory coupled with a cautionary tale about fascism, propaganda and the amorality of technology really worked here. Rarely do you get this sort of thing in animated movies back in the 70s. The fact that it is coupled with an overall "fairy tale-ish" look that seems more at home among those cheap "ages 3 to 8" cartoons makes the viewing experience a very unique one.

It really is too bad that so much time and effort went into developing the whole underlying political themes that nothing much else went into the aspects of the film that would matter to most people, aka the dialog and the animation itself.

Though the story is simple enough to follow, the characters come across as just plain boring thanks to, IMO, horribly written lines and sub-par acting. Aside from Blackwolf the evil wizard and his good brother wizard Avatar, the rest of the characters sound like they are reading off a bedtime storybook and not engaging in dialog. Emoting comes in two extremes; either the actors ham up their parts to the point of annoyance, or there is hardly a hint of emotion behind the voices. Dialogue style also seems to inconsistently switch between an archaic "Shakespeare play" style (common in most fairy tale animated movies) and a typical "everyman" speaking style (how me and my neighbor would talk), sometimes within the same scene and by the same character.

I found it really difficult to get emotionally involved in the show. All of them have a stylized and even marginally grotesque look to them. Even the "good guys" like the elves have yellow eyes and sharp teeth; and the sub-standard animation did not help either. The animation is about as bad a cheap Flintstones holiday special with numerous animation short cuts like looping motion, re-used stock footage and out of sync sound effects. A good deal of rotoscoping was thrown in and I usually have no problems with that, Except in this case, the rotoscoped images were not "drawn over". There was no attempt to make the rotoscoped images blend with the style of the animation which led to a very disjointed feel during the battle scenes. The only time this jarring clash of animation styles actually worked was during the final climatic battle where the surreal images and the hauntingly dark rotoscoped footage effectively conveyed the hectic confusion of a real battlefield.(though i question the choice of retro jazzy background music)

To be honest, I found myself rooting most for Blackwolf's green gas-masked soldiers. ("THEY KILLED FRITZ!!"). Their little moments in the film really managed to get a chuckle out of me; they had a certain loony toons-like charm about them.

With a larger budget and a more experienced production team, Wizards could have been an avant garde work of art that entertains as well as conveys a message. What I discovered was an averagely animated film that does convey a message but falls short in the "entertainment" aspect. A couple of witty one liners here and there and some lush painted backgrounds is not enough to save this film from its numerous flaws.

By today's standards, Wizards will hardly be able to garner a mainstream following, nor would it impress the younger viewers anytime soon. It pains me to say this, but Wizards may forever remain as merely a cult classic curiosity of the 70s.