Fire and Ice (1983)

Director:

Ralph Bakshi

Writers:

Ralph Bakshi (characters created by) and
Frank Frazetta (characters created by) ...
(more)

Release Date:

26 August 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Fantasy | Adventure

Tagline:

Heroic, Fantasy Adventure! [Video Australia]

Plot:

In this animated tale, a tiny village is destroyed by a surging glacier, which serves as the deadly domain for the evil Ice Lord...

Plot Keywords:

Ice | Fire | Warrior | Glacier | D Box Motion Code

Cast

Randy Norton	...	Larn
Cynthia Leake	...	Teegra
Steve Sandor	...	Darkwolf
Sean Hannon	...	Nekron
Leo Gordon	...	Jarol
William Ostrander	...	Taro / Larn (voice)
Eileen O'Neill	...	Juliana
Elizabeth Lloyd Shaw	...	Roleil
Micky Morton	...	Otwa
Tamarah Park	...	Tutor
Big Yank	...	Monga
Greg Wayne Elam	...	Pako (as Greg Elam)
Jimmy Bridges	...	Subhuman (as James Bridges)
Shane Callan	...	Subhuman
Archie Hamilton	...	Subhuman
Michael Kelloff	...	Subhuman (as Michael Kellogg)
Douglas Payton	...	Subhuman
Dale Park	...	Subhuman
Susan Tyrrell	...	Juliana (voice)
Maggie Roswell	...	Teegra (voice)
Stephen Mendel	...	Nekron (voice)
Alan Koss	...	Envoy (voice)
Clare Nono	...	Tutor (voice)
Hans Howes	...	Defender Captain (voice)
Ray Oliver	...	Subhuman (voice)
Nathan Purdee	...	Subhuman (voice)
Le Tari	...	Subhuman (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Holly Frazetta	...	Subhuman Priestess (uncredited)

Directed by
Ralph Bakshi

Writing credits
Ralph Bakshi		(characters created by) and
Frank Frazetta		(characters created by)
Roy Thomas		(screenplay) and
Gerry Conway		(screenplay)

Produced by
Ralph Bakshi	....	producer
Lynne Betner	....	associate producer
Frank Frazetta	....	producer
John W. Hyde	....	executive producer
Richard R. St. Johns	....	executive producer

Original Music by
William Kraft

Cinematography by
Francis Grumman		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
A. David Marshall

Casting by
Dennis Gallegos

Costume Design by
Frank Frazetta

Makeup Department
Barbara Guedel	....	makeup artist
Norman Lee	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Jeffrey Chernov	....	production supervisor: live action
Scott Thaler	....	production supervisor (as Scott Ira Thaler)

Sound Department
David R. Elliott	....	sound editor (as David Elliott)
Donald W. Ernst	....	supervising sound editor (as Donald Ernst)
Moe Harris	....	sound mixer
Peter Harrison	....	sound editor
Michael Hilkene	....	sound editor
Gregg Landaker	....	sound re-recording mixer
Steve Maslow	....	sound re-recording mixer
Bill Varney	....	sound re-recording mixer
Christopher T. Welch	....	sound editor
Bill Wistrom	....	sound editor

Stunts
Phil Adams	....	stunts
Denny Arnold	....	stunts
Eddie Braun	....	stunts
Tony Brubaker	....	stunts
Jeffrey Carlson	....	stunts (as Jeff Carlson)
Al Cutillo	....	stunts
BJ Davis	....	stunts (as B.J. Davis)
Kenny Endoso	....	stunts
Diamond Farnsworth	....	stunts (as Hill Farnsworth)
Billy Hank Hooker	....	stunts (as Hank Hooker)
Vic Hunsberger	....	stunts (as Vic Hunsburger)
Jeff Imada	....	stunts
Loren Janes	....	stunt coordinator
Mike Johnson	....	stunts
Melvin Jones	....	stunts
Ray Lykins	....	stunts
Beth Nufer	....	stunt woman
Walter Robles	....	stunts
Bill M. Ryusaki	....	stunts (as Bill Ryusaki)
John Sherrod	....	stunts
Jerry Wills	....	stunts
Brandon Pender	....	utility stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Barrere	....	key grip
Clyde E. Bryan	....	first assistant camera (as Clyde Bryan)
Sam Dodge	....	best boy
Jiggs Garcia	....	camera operator
Michael Goldstein	....	first assistant camera
Casey Hotchkiss	....	first assistant camera (as Case Hotchkiss)
Riggs Murdock	....	second assistant camera (as Joseph Riggs Murdock)
Bruce Pearn	....	gaffer
Raymond Stella	....	camera operator (as Ray Stella)
Tony Upshaw	....	electrical best boy
Dan St. Pierre	....	additional photographer (uncredited)

Animation Department
Mark Bakshi	....	production staff: animation
Brenda Banks	....	animator
Carl Bell	....	animator (as Carl A. Bell)
Bryan Berry	....	animator
Ken Bornstein	....	production staff: animation (as Kenneth Bornstein)
Harold Caldwell	....	production staff: animation
Tim Callahan	....	background layout artist
Kathi Castillo	....	assistant animator (as Kathleen Castillo)
Jennifer Couzzi	....	final checker
Janet Cummings	....	color modeler
Gina Evans	....	painter
Lillian Evans	....	animator
Derek Eversfield	....	assistant animator
Dotti Foell	....	animation checker
Steven E. Gordon	....	animator (as Steve Gordon)
Warren Greenwood	....	assistant animator
Donn Greer	....	layout artist
James Gurney	....	background painter
Edgar Gutierrez	....	cel reproductions
Deborah Hayes	....	animator (as Debbie Hayes)
Todd Hoff	....	assistant animator
David Hoover	....	animator
Charles M. Howell IV	....	animator (as Charles Howell)
Michael Kaweski	....	assistant animator
Brian Kerr	....	animator
Thomas Kinkade	....	background painter (as Thomas Kincade)
Bill Knoll	....	assistant animator (as William Knoll)
Adam Kuhlman	....	animator
Frances Kumashiro	....	final checker
Leticia Lichtwardt	....	assistant animator (as Leticia Ruiz)
Hope London	....	assistant animator
Mauro Maressa	....	animator
Julie Maryon	....	xerox checker
Russ Mooney	....	animator (as Russell Mooney)
Sharon Murray	....	assistant animator
Jack Ozark	....	animator
Chris Peterson	....	assistant animator
Robin Police	....	color mark-up
Letha Prince	....	animation checker
Brian Ray	....	assistant animator
William Recinos	....	animator
Bob Revell	....	animation checker (as Robert Revell)
Sally Reymond	....	final checker
Mitch Rochon	....	animator
Ann Sorensen	....	painter (as Anne Sorensen)
John Sparey	....	layout artist
Sheryl Staley	....	xerox checker
Christina Stocks	....	painter
Janice Stocks	....	assistant animator
Susan Sugita	....	assistant animator
Mike Svayko	....	animation production supervisor (as Michael Svayko)
Mike Svayko	....	layout artist (as Michael Svayko)
Tom Tataranowicz	....	animator
Marilyn Taylor	....	assistant animator
Michael Wolf	....	assistant animator
Bruce Woodside	....	animator
Peter Chung	....	animator (uncredited)
Peter Chung	....	layout artist (uncredited)
Steven E. Gordon	....	character designer (uncredited)
Lenord Robinson	....	animator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Le Dawson	....	costume supervisor
Barbara Whittaker	....	costumer (as Barbara Whitaker)

Editorial Department
Alan Balsam	....	associate editor
Randy Forner	....	assistant editor
Jack Hooper	....	negative cutter
Tom Hooper	....	negative cutter
James C. Johnson	....	assistant editor (as James Johnson)
John S. Williams	....	assistant editor

Music Department
William Kraft	....	conductor
Angela Morley	....	orchestrator
Roy Prendergast	....	music editor
Curtis Roush	....	music editor
Dan Wallin	....	music scoring mixer

Other crew
Ami Agmon	....	production coordinator
M.G. Artz	....	production staff: live action
Cassandra Barrere	....	script supervisor (as Cynthia Barrere)
Paula Berteit	....	production accountant
Patricia Capozzi	....	studio production supervisor
Connie Greenwood	....	production controller
Laurie Lapsenson	....	production staff: live action
Michael Molnar	....	production staff: live action
Kate Morris	....	production administrator
Joe Tradii	....	production staff: live action

Production Companies

• Polyc International BV
• Producers Sales Organization (PSO)

Distributors

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1983) (USA) (theatrical)
• Thorn EMI (1984) (UK) (theatrical)
• Alive Vertrieb und Marketing (2009) (Germany) (DVD) (Blu-ray) (3-disc limited collector's edition)
• Blue Underground (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Blue Underground (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Capelight Pictures (2007) (Germany) (DVD) (Special Edition)
• Future Film (2003) (Finland) (DVD)
• GoodTimes Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Manga Films (2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• Oy Europa Vision AB (199?) (Finland) (VHS)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1986) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Roadshow Home Video (1980s) (Australia) (VHS)
• Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment (1986) (UK) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Aspen Productions (I)  production services
• R & B EFX & Animation  animation camera
• Echo Film Services  sound editing
• The Music Design Group  music editing
• Optical House, The  titles and opticals
• Tepper-Gallegos Casting  casting

Also Known As:

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

West Germany:12 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (DVD rating) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (DVD rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-12 | Peru:PT | Portugal:M/6 | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Aspen, Colorado, USA

Company:

Polyc International BV

Trivia:

One of the two background painters for the movie was Thomas Kinkade (misspelled as "Kincade"), the controversial and hyper-commercialized painter of glowing cottages and forest glades. He is also interviewed in the "Making of..." feature on the DVD and mentioned by Bakshi in his interview.

Quotes:

Larn:Well if you want it, take it.
Teegra:I am not... a thief

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: Episode #33.13" (2005)

A bit underdeveloped, but mildly entertaining.

I remember Siskel and Ebert trashing this film as being overly long and uninvolving; meaning that it's overly long for what films of this genre and type are expected to deliver (in terms of action), but ultimately fail with their implied promise. I remember them showing a snippet of the film (one of the few action sequences) before going on to cite the films negative points. Ah memories...

Their primary critique was a lack of action. Myself, I did agree with their point about the film being rather tedious, but it still had a certain kind of artistic flair in terms of the painted backgrounds. So, in this respect, it's kind of a double edged sword. I mean, you pay good money to see both action and art, but can one makeup for the lack of the other? "Fire and Ice" tries, and, in my opinion, is moderately successful at this. But I do have to agree with the dynamic duo that this film, for all its animated gloss, could've used more "stuff" (for lack of a better term). And by stuff I don't necessarily mean action, but just hard raw story material. I mean, we know this is supposed to take place around the stone age (or a time thereafter), but if the characters speak near perfect North American English, then certainly they can utter more dialogue early on. We never really get a chance to know them nor their thoughts until nearly midway through the second act, and by then the film's already taken it's own course.

Even so, you can't take films like this too seriously, and for all of Ebert's and Siskel's education and cinematic observance and aplomb, I think they were a bit overly harsh. The film wasn't meant to be anything more than a fantasy comic book. Even so their point about a lack of development of the characters and plot is well taken. For all their ferocity the audience is never really clued in as to what the whole story is all about. By that I mean what beef the main characters have with one another.

The animation, for what it is, is mostly good, but not always. The final climatic scenes, particularly some of the lava shots, are very stilted. There's a distinct lack of inbetweens used as animated lava splashes from one point to the next in a backhanded nostalgic homage to "Clutch Cargo". You'd think they would've caught that early on. The animators and production team en large must have been under a deadline when they came to that sequence, because it's one of the worst in the piece.

"Fire and Ice" has the novel of being an animated fantasy film meant for more mature audiences. It's garnished a kind of cult following, but not to the same degree as other similar films (of which there're very few). Again it's largely due to a lack of development. People, even those who don't have PhDs in cinema, know on an instinctive level when a film is missing its salient parts. Hence why so-called "good" or high-art films often get panned by mainstream audiences, and why B-movie extravaganzas often garnish a cult following; like "Fire and Ice".

For all its basic flaws and fundamental film making foibles, "Fire and Ice" is what it is, and, in a no-brainer kind of way, be enjoyed by folks who like simple sword and sorcery fluff with a touch of bloodshed. But it's one of those films where you have to be in tune with the pre-classic era mythos; a fantastical time and place before writing, the Greeks and Hammurabi, but after a good portion of mankind had come to know language and other artifacts of civilization. That sort of post stone-age but pre-copper-age time frame. Where men carried prototype swords or over-sized battle-axes, and all women were busty and curvaceous.

It's been ages since I really had a good viewing of this film, and now that I got my special edition DVD I'm not sorry I spent the money on it. For even if Siskel and Ebert were right about this film (and they are) I still happen to like it. Then again I'm a sucker for these kinds of flicks.