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Ralph Bakshi's Wizards
Sep. 6th, 2022 05:00 pmMy flatmate Evelyn wanted to return the serve of Malignant, so we just watched Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, and yes, it had the wtf quotient, the inexplicable choices, the high production values in service of a weird vision... I'm glad to have seen Wizards, but hope nothing like it ever comes to exist again.
On the one hand this was genuinely entertaining and provided a nearly continuous experience of being wrongfooted by whatever the hell was happening next, starting from the first moment when a little cartoon globe of the earth appeared spinning on the screen before exploding in a wall of actual fire. Thousands of years after a nuclear war, half of humanity are mutants - generally evil or at least hapless, living in toxic waste areas - and the other half are elves and fairies (who I guess are just as much mutants, but think they're what humans used to be like). To each is born a destined wizard child, one good, one evil. (This is not due to their upbringing, they are, from the get-go, the evilest and the goodest baby that ever lay sneering/giggling in a mother's arms). War must surely ensue. Well, four thousand years later, at any rate, after the evil wizard has regathered himself from their initial clash, fostering his strength and building up his fortress over the centuries, while the good wizard (named Avatar) has... really been enjoying his days on this beautiful flower-filled earth.
The visual style is various and weird. Backgrounds are often footage of shifting cloud or explosions, or incredibly beautiful and detailed drawings of towers and cityscapes, or silhouetted WWII footage.
Much of the film is genuinely and intentionally hilarious, like... the scene where two priests spend five hours ineffectually praying using religious icons from many poorly-remembered faiths before getting all their people killed? Some wild tonal shifts going on here.
( Spoilers and nazi elves )
On the one hand this was genuinely entertaining and provided a nearly continuous experience of being wrongfooted by whatever the hell was happening next, starting from the first moment when a little cartoon globe of the earth appeared spinning on the screen before exploding in a wall of actual fire. Thousands of years after a nuclear war, half of humanity are mutants - generally evil or at least hapless, living in toxic waste areas - and the other half are elves and fairies (who I guess are just as much mutants, but think they're what humans used to be like). To each is born a destined wizard child, one good, one evil. (This is not due to their upbringing, they are, from the get-go, the evilest and the goodest baby that ever lay sneering/giggling in a mother's arms). War must surely ensue. Well, four thousand years later, at any rate, after the evil wizard has regathered himself from their initial clash, fostering his strength and building up his fortress over the centuries, while the good wizard (named Avatar) has... really been enjoying his days on this beautiful flower-filled earth.
The visual style is various and weird. Backgrounds are often footage of shifting cloud or explosions, or incredibly beautiful and detailed drawings of towers and cityscapes, or silhouetted WWII footage.
Much of the film is genuinely and intentionally hilarious, like... the scene where two priests spend five hours ineffectually praying using religious icons from many poorly-remembered faiths before getting all their people killed? Some wild tonal shifts going on here.
( Spoilers and nazi elves )
