Review of Wizards (1977) by Stuart K — 28 Apr 2014

Written, produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi, who had gained critical and commercial acclaim for Fritz The Cat (1972) and Heavy Traffic (1973), but had garnered controversy for Coonskin (1975), after Hey Good Lookin' was shelved by Warner Bros.

in 1975, Bakshi wanted to do something different, a fantasy film, and he had worked on this one over the years, and he decided to get it made, and it's quite astonishing. Set 2 million years in the future, after a nuclear holocaust wiped out much of the earth, only a handful of humans survived, while everyone else turned into dangerous mutants, and elves, fairies and dwarves have returned to the earths surface after the atomic clouds had gone.

This focuses on the power struggle between two twin wizards, Avatar (Bob Holt) is a good wizard who believes in beauty, but Blackwolf (Steve Gravers) is evil and after discovering a film of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and gathers an army to find ancient technology and salvage it.

To take down Blackwolf, Avatar along with student Elinore (Jesse Welles) and elf spy Weehawk (Richard Romanus) head to Blackwolf's castle to take down the new Führer and his massive armies of evil.

It's got all of Bakshi's usual visual flourishes, but this proved that there was more to Bakshi than just adult animation, and there's some stunning visuals on display, and this got Bakshi the job of making The Lord of the Rings (1978), but he underestimated how big an undertaking that would be compared to Wizards.