Wizards
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.99 You Save: $4.99 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $5.23 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Wizards
Movie Review: A Timeless Anime Tale Concerning Mankind's Ever-Rejuvenating Blight of Fascism
Summary: 5 Stars
"An illiumanating history bearing on the everlasting struggle for world supremacy fought between the powers of technology and magic."
This intiguing premise lured me in, and by the end, I realized that I was witness to one of the all-time great anti-war anime's, which succeeded in being quite entertaining as well. Films like this seem to be relics of the past, as our culture continues to strive towards ever-increasing levels of sterility and mediocrity concerning all art produced for the masses, especially mass-marketed films and music.
I have had no known previous exposure to Ralph Bakshi, so I cannot comment on how this film stacks up against his other works like "Fritz the Cat", "Heavy Traffic", "Coonskin", "Lord of the Rings", "American Pop", "Hey Good Lookin'" or "Fire and Ice". But I did find his style to be a one-of-a-kind visual feast, with a brilliantly conceived plot, and plenty of tripped-out atmospherics (check out that hippy-dippy score!) sure to delight the aurae stimulated herb smokers among us.
The story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by nuclear holocaust, where radiation in the "badlands" has turned man into hideously deformed mutants. In the goodlands there lives Delia, "Queen of the Fairies" who one night, under grave premonitions, gives birth to a set of twins who are the epitomy of polar opposites. Avatar, an elvish looking wizard, is kind and good, who spends his time growing up entertaining his benevolent mother. Blackwolf, a treacherous mutant, spends his youth torturing small animals.
The film moves ahead 3000 years where Blackwolf has taken control of the mutants in a wasteland called "Scortch", and sends the monsters he controls out to obliterate the believers of magic.
My favorite lines of the movie come from an old elf who is teaching the village children the wisdom of the ages.
"My children, the only true form of technology is nature. All other forms of man-made technology are perversions. The ancient dictators used technology to enslave the masses." He is immediately slain with a sophisticated lazer-gun by one of Blackwolf's assassin's, a red-suited robot named Necron 99.
During some of the frequent scenes utilizing the rotoscoping technique, (tracing a live-action film, and then animating the drawings) we are shown sequences of how Blackwolf's previous attempts at world domination are thwarted until he uncovers the secrets of ancient warfare and channels the spirit of Hitler.
Now, The world once again faces imminent destruction and domination from the tyrannical forces of fascism.
Blackwolf's diametrical brother Avatar lives peacefully in a phallus-shaped castle in the goodlands with an excitable, mask-faced wacko, "The President", and his daughter, the buxom fairie princess, Elinore.
After a sneak-attack in which Necron 99 succeeds in assassinating the President, Avatar uses his magic to subdue the killer, and seemingly re-programs him as the aptly named "Peace". "...for this is what he hopefully will bring to pass."
The remainder of the movie is a hypnotizing, psychedelic journey following the exploits of Avatar, Elinore, Peace, and the leader of the elves, "Weehawk", as they set off to destroy Blackwolf, and save the good creatures from the sure doom his rule represents.
Although in no ways representative of my spiritual views, I found myself quite empathetic to the message espoused in the under-riding, parabolic themes of this film.
I would pay no heed to the obviously narrow-minded hacks who have given this one or two stars for a variety of unenlightened reasons, and check this fine work out for yourself. Esp. if you are a fan of anime which seeks to do more than the shallow aims of modern Disney and Pixar.
One of the corporate reviews goes on and on about how this film is filled to the gills with ill-advised attempts at humor and how uninspired it is. Well, I guess that's all in how your mind works. Some will no doubt take it that way, but I found the "jokesy" parts to be a skillful form of overt satire, skewering the evil desires found in the dark, desperate hearts of treacherous beasts.
I would also recommend Rene Laloux's 1973 epic, "Fantastic Planet", and the short film "Cat Soup", as brilliant pieces of psychedelic, entertaining and intelligent anime with subtle anti-war undertones.
As for me, I will now try to get my filthy rookers on the rest of Bakshi's catalogue.
P.S. Anyone know when Laloux's "Time Masters" will be back in print?
Movie Review: Positively aweful
Summary: 1 Stars
Originally, I bought this on VHS back in the mid eighties.
My first impression of this was that it was going to be a really good animation film with a great plot. I thought this because somewhere in the distant recesses of my mind I sorta kinda remembered that Ralf Bakshi was associated with Spider-man cartoon and Lord of the Rings... it was after viewing this movie that I remembered why I hate Ralf Bakshi animation.
He just doesn't care.
He fell back on reusing animation over and over and over again and also used rotoscoping. Which, unfortunately, I remembered the last part of the Spider-man series ending so horribly. The same went for Lord of the Rings, it was quite obvious that he used rotoscoping in that as well.
This brings me back to Wizards. Not only was this just plain awful, with no plot, dialogue, or any kind of redeeming graces. It was just plain stupid. Initially, when I first bought the film, I thought it was just because I was too young to understand it fully and that there was some kind of deeper meaning to the film that I just did not get.
Well, I can safely tell you as a worldly adult that it truly sucked. It was so bad it made my head hurt. Truly, I don't even think that MST3k could save this one.
The best use of this DVD is as a coffee coaster. Do yourself a favor and get a good piece of animation and avoid this garbage like a cow in piranha infested water.
Movie Review: Cute But Corny
Summary: 3 Stars
I first saw Wizards in the theater the year it came out,1977. Mark and Jeff C, Berford G, and myself, mouths stuffed with popcorn in the balcony of the old East theater on Broad St, in Columbus, OH. At the time we thought it was great. Half dressed, big breasted fairies, guns, tanks the stuff of kids dreams. We weren't driving yet, somebody's mom dropped us off. A few months ago I saw a special on cable about Frank Frazetta, the illustrator famous for his fantasy drawings, Ralph Bakshi was interviewd as well. It got me thinking about Wizards so I bought a copy. Does the movie hold up today? No. It's priminative compared to modern animation. Even the story is hokey. But for me it will always remind me of my friends and the movies. For no other reason but that it's great!Movie Review: Watch this so you have something to compare other bad movies to.
Summary: 1 Stars
I think the most interesting thing about this film, is that someone actually enjoyed it. Okay, it's not as bad as Smokey and the Bandit III, but it's in that same $1 bin at Wal-Mart. Seriously, there are better movies out there. I made it through about 30 minutes of this one. Don't let my sacrifice go for naught! Avoid this film!!!!Movie Review: Make a South American rich
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm not sure how high you would have to be to think that this was a good movie, but I'm pretty sure that, in order to buy enough drugs, you'd have to make a significant contribution to the personal fortunes of some Columbian paramilitary kingpin. It's not worth it, man.