The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Mike Jittlov

Writer:

Mike Jittlov (writer)

Release Date:

September 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Musical | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

His Life Is a Special Effect...

Plot:

A Hollywood filmmaker (Mike Jittlov) makes a short for an evil film studio. Unbeknownest to him, the...

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Satire | Autobiographical | Pixelation | Part Animated

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Mike Jittlov	...	Mike 'The Wizard' Jittlov
Richard Kaye	...	Harvey Bookman
Paige Moore	...	Cindy Lite
Deven Chierighino	...	Brian Lucas (as David Conrad)
Steve Brodie	...	Lucky Straeker
John Massari	...	Steve Shostakovich
Gary Schwartz	...	Canadian Thug
Frank LaLoggia	...	American Thug
Philip Michael Thomas	...	Policeman Mickey Polanko
Lynda Aldon	...	Policewoman Minnie Smith
Arnetia Walker	...	Tina Dreem / Running Girl
Ben Kronen	...	C.C. de Schwartz
Angelique Pettyjohn	...	Dora Belair
Will Ryan	...	All the Unions / Mr. President (voice) (as William Z. Ryan)
Michele Roth	...	Mary Lou

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

902 Maltman Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Medusa Produzione

Trivia:

The seal of one of the film unions is a vulture holding a twisted strip of film in its talons.

Goofs:

Continuity: An early establishing shot shows the Hollywood landmark Grauman's Chinese Theater with Star Wars (1977) splashed across the marquee. However, a later scene shows the film The Right Stuff (1983) is actually showing. This goof is not visible in the widescreen version.

Quotes:

[Mike tries to join the Directors' Union:]
Mike: Hello, hi.
Directors' Union Clerk: Can I help you?
Mike: Yes, how do I join the Directors' Union?
Directors' Union Clerk: You need to bring in a copy of the deal memo by your studio producer before you can pay your initiation fee and be cleared by Union Council, thank you...
Mike: Uh, excuse me, what is the initiation fee?
Directors' Union Clerk: Seven thousand dollars, with a hundred dollar application fee, two hundred dollars every quarter, and ten percent of your salary.
Mike: Uhhh, seven thousand dollars, what is that for?
Directors' Union Clerk: That's the amount you pay to get into our union.
Mike: What is it, like Social Security? I get it back when I retire?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Major Effects (1979) (TV)

The 'Wizard' of Oohs and Ahs

Some years ago, the USA cable network carried a late-night program called "Night Flight" which featured an assortment of entertainment, including rock videos and short films. Although I wasn't a regular viewer, I stumbled across "Night Flight" when it aired a live-action animated short called "The Wizard of Speed and Time." I was blown away by the film's ingenious use of stop-motion photography and other camera trickery as it told the story of a green-robed wizard who possesses the ability to run around the world in just a matter of minutes.

"The Wizard of Speed and Time," it turned out, began as a short subject made in 1979 by filmmaker Mike Jittlov. Some years after making the original film, Jittlov took his idea and expanded it into a low-budget feature, also called "The Wizard of Speed and Time," which tells the story of a young filmmaker named Mike Jittlov and his struggle to make a special-effects-laden short film for a TV special despite having few resources (i.e., money) while battling the Hollywood bureaucracy.

The five minutes or so of "Wizard" material in the feature are a triumph of shoestring ingenuity. We see a one-minute "work in progress" featuring marching tripods, dancing light stands and flying film cans as well as an infectiously catchy title tune (this was part of Jittlov's original short, with new music added). The film's climax is the finished product mentioned above (a remake and elaboration of the first part of the 1979 short - I think the remake is what I saw on USA). I marvel at Jittlov's ability to visualize in advance the dazzling images he's reaching for and his skill in achieving those images through frame-by-frame animation and undercranking. And notice how the camera refuses to stand still for the animations - other stop-motion films may seem rooted to the floor one set-up at a time, but Jittlov refuses to let his camera be tied down.

I just wish I could praise the rest of the movie as highly. It's friendly, it's likable, but when the Wizard isn't conjuring up his magic, the feature turns into what is, at best, only a mildly funny takeoff on Hollywood. I was hoping the ingenuity that Jittlov displayed in the Wizard sequences would also transform the surrounding story, which supposedly is based on his real-life experiences, but what we get is pretty thin stuff.

Jittlov's love of movie-making is much in evidence; there's at least one visual homage to the Walt Disney Company, and one of Disney's original "nine old men," animator Ward Kimball, makes a brief appearance as an examiner for the "Infernal Revenue Service." That's right, "infernal," and I'm afraid that's an indicator of the general level of verbal wit in "Wizard." We also get a studio head with a supposedly comic Jewish accent.

Still, Jittlov comes across as such an engagingly eccentric fellow - an animated character in his own right - that I wanted to believe in him and his house chock full of film-related gadgets and toys. Former Miss Virginia Paige Moore makes for a charming leading lady, both in the movie and the movie-within-the-movie. Philip Michael Thomas, the biggest name in the cast, plays a cop far removed from Miami. Fans of "Get Smart" may remember Angelique Pettyjohn, who was undercover agent Charlie Watkins in the 60s TV spy spoof; fans of the original "Star Trek" series will remember her from "The Gamesters of Triskelion."