Review of Wizards (1977) by Tomas T — 26 Oct 2011

After such controversial animated features as "Fritz the Cat", "Coonskin", and "Heavy Traffic" landed director Ralph Bakshi in the limelight, he announced that his latest project would accomplish what Disney was setting out to do but failing at: creating a family-oriented, animated tale that did not talk down to the kids or the adults.

While certainly an ambitious feature, "Wizards" failed in just about every category. It's an admittedly intriguing premise accompanied by some creative settings and montage illustrations, but packed with a shameless amount of blood, cursing, scantily-clad fairies, elvish prostitutes, Saturday morning cartoon sound effects and production values, and a host of other things that cause the film to juggle between child and adult entertainment as opposed to becoming a balance between the two.

The one thing that especially bothers me is that the film is described in the trailer as a "Tolkien-like epic", and that is nothing short of insulting. The script itself makes the film feel like a project done by a high-schooler who has lots of great ideas but no clear notion as to how to make use of them.

Note to artists around the world, packing a story full of fantasy creatures and pitting them against evildoers does NOT make it anything even remotely close to a Tolkien novel. Crafting original fantasy creatures and placing them in a story full of artistic and LITERARY value, and a clear vision for your INTENDED audience does.

It is really hard to believe that this is the film that was supposed to be appropriate for the entire family, let alone a film to put Disney to shame. Sorry Bakshi, you are an obviously talented artist, but you need to go back and take a good look at what you produced.