Review of Fire and Ice (1983) by Madness M — 12 Mar 2006

The pioneer of mature animation Ralph Bakshi collaborates with legendary illustrator Frank Frazetta to create a lavish animation of sword-and-sorcery. While these two may seem to be in different areas of work, they both love fantasy. Fire and Ice is the result of their love for the genre as it has Bakshi and Frazetta all the way through.

[i]Fire and Ice[/i] takes place in a land that is ruled by two kingdoms with one composed of fire and the other of ice. It is a unique and bizzare world populated with thick forests containing giant man-eating lizzards, blood-thirsty wolves and other nasty creepy-crawlies. The ice kingdom is ruled by Nekron, a powerful sorcerer. When the fire king's daughter Teegra is kidnapped by subhuman soldiers from Nekron, she is rescued by Lorn, a survivor from a previous battle. Along the way they encounter bizzare creatures and more subhumans as they slowly fall in love. When they are split up, Lorn meets Darkwolf (a character based off a Frazetta painting called "Death Dealer"). Darkwolf aids Lorn in rescuing Teegra while at the same time trying to destroy Nekron.

The film is very action oriented with not a lot of dialogue and plenty of fight scenes. Just about every scene is followed by Lorn or Teegra getting into some danger. Each action sequence, though, still manages to be entertaining. The dialogue, however, is a bit weak. Maybe because there isn't much of it or the fact that most of it is just used to lead from one action scene to another. Although, when you've already got a film with good story and beautiful scenery, dialogue is a minor gripe. As a matter of fact, I believe the film could have worked with no dialogue at all and just relied on the body language of the characters. But I guess you need something to seperate the humans from the subhumans.

While Bakshi's previous animated films that used rotoscoping were very experimental such as [i]Lord of the Rings[/i] and [i]Wizards[/i], [i]Fire and Ice[/i] is proof that Bakshi can make rotoscoping work. The animation is fluid as most rotoscoped animation is, but the detail on the characters are beautiful. No sillouttes here. The whole human figure is present with every character. Where the rotoscoping shines the most is in the action sequences in which many soldiers are either shot, stabbed or eaten. In fact, just about every scene of the animation is terrific to look at. Frank Frazetta designed the costumes for the characters and it is all pretty clad. Lorn runs around in nothing but loincloth and Teegra wears a skimpy bikini. Although I guess it is fitting since they are mostly involved in action sequences. You gotta have agility when dealing with those crafty subhumans.

[i]Fire and Ice[/i] has every element that makes a fantasy great. A strong hero, a beautiful damsel in distress, a gruff warrior of the land and an evil sorcerer villian. All of these characters portrayed in an astonishing, whimsical world make for an entertaining fantasy advenutre of stunning animation.