Wizards (1977)

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.

Director:

Ralph Bakshi

Writer:

Ralph Bakshi

Stars:

Bob Holt, Jesse Welles, Richard Romanus

2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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)

Storyline

In a post apocalyptic future that appears as a blend of World War II Europe and J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, a pint-size wizard named Avatar must save the world from a band of fascist mutants controlled by his evil twin brother, Blackwolf, who likes to confuse enemy armies by projecting films of Adolf Hitler speeches during attacks. Painted live-action footage of advancing Nazi armies contrasts with Saturday-morning-cartoon-style animation of fairies and elves as Avatar travels through various magical and radioactive realms on his quest. Aiding him are the beautiful Fairy princess Elinore, hot-blooded warrior elf Weehawk, and Peace, a misunderstood robot rebelling against his Blackwolf-controlled programming. A bizarre and psychedelic meditation on magic vs. technology, this ultimate futuristic fantastic epic cult film still finds an audience on college campuses and will prove quite rewarding to viewers in the right frame of mind.

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Plot Keywords:

massive breasts | wizard | villain turns good | future earth | dark future | 

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Taglines:

A fantasy vision of the future.

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie was heavily influenced by the work of underground comix legend Vaughn Bode; most notably, Necron 99 is a dead ringer for Vaughn's post-apocalyptic character Cobalt 60.

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Goofs

The narrator says that after the initial nuclear apocalypse, "It took two million years for the clouds to disperse." This would be more than enough time for the nuclear material to decay to harmless levels, assuming that "dirtier" bombs had not been created prior to the apocalypse.

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Quotes

Avatar: Oh yeah... one more thing: I'm glad you changed your last name, you son of a bitch!

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Alternate Versions

On April 30th, 2005, as part of the Ralph Bakshi retrospective at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Bakshi's personal print of the film was shown, which was missing two pieces of narration:

• Susan Tyrrell does not read the opening shot's storybook title in her narration voice-over. In this print, the film's narration starts with "The world blew up in a thousand atomic fireballs...," in the next shot.
• The character of Nekron 99's (AKA Peace's) narrated introduction was also missing from the print.

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Connections

Featured in Wizards: Ralph Bakshi - The Wizard of Animation (2004)

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Soundtracks

Only Time Will Tell
Performed by Susan Anton

User Reviews

Has a lot of flaws but I think it is underrated

I have come across who like this movie and some that don't so much, sometimes downright hate it even. As for me, I don't love or dislike Wizards. It is certainly an interesting movie, and is certainly better than Cool World, but as far as Bakshi's movies go I do much prefer Heavy Traffic and American Pop. Wizards' flaws have been covered a number of times in previous reviews, but I do share my agreement with some that have been brought up. The dialogue I don't think has been a general strength in Bakshi's movies but I did find it very corny here. The soundtrack also felt a little cheesy and perhaps too 70s, and the pacing is awkward, often feeling sluggish. I had mixed feelings on the story, it was a great idea and while simple was generally interesting and engaged me once I got over its strangeness. But I did have issues with the narration; not since Don Bluth's Rock a Doodle have I seen an animated movie with such an (I feel) unnecessary overuse of narration. However, the film does look wonderful, the characters do look too cartoony but I liked their rough-around-the-edges charm and the backgrounds and colours are stylish and beautiful. The characters while on the stereotypical side are at least likable and engaging, I did find myself rooting for Avatar. The voice acting is solid on the whole. Overall, decent film and underrated but too flawed for me to consider it a masterpiece. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 February 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

War Wizards

Box Office

Budget:

$1,200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bakshi Productions, Dong Seo Animation, Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo (RCA Sound Recording) (5.0) (L-R)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1