Bakshi - Wizards

[lupercal]

Just thought I'd throw this in. Of all the things Athena or I agreed or disagreed on, one of the most extreme seems to be Ralph Bakshi's 'Wizards'. It blew my mind in 1978 and I've adored it for 28 years; she saw it for the first time relatively recently, and detested it - and at the moment nobody else has written a review other than us, so it has a 4 star and a 1 star. Anyone want to introduce a third POV?

Loop

[Toonboy]

Maybe I can find it for cheap. It's not exactly the type of movie that a good majority of people leap for. ^^;;

[lupercal]

I suspect you wouldn't like it, as it has some pretty violent scenes (unless you get a perverse pleasure from seeing Mark Hammill get machined gunned, playing a fairy. Frankly, he was such an irritating fairy that I don't know hpw anybody could really object), and it has lots of Nazi war footage (which, BTW, people havebeen telling me for over 25 years is rotoscoped, and as far as I understand the concept of rotoscoping it obviously ISN'T, or if it is, it's so different from rotoscoping ala Snow White or Fire and Ice that it hardly deserves to be called the same process)

Funnily enough though, it's the warm, humourous and 'epic' moments from the film that I remember, rather than the confronting stuff.

Anyway if it's any helps, as a guide, my personal feelings about Bakshi movies (excluding his TV work) are:

Fritz the Cat - very good
Heavy Traffic - Excellant
Wizards - Excellant
Coonskin (Streetfight) - (haven't seen)
Hey Good Lookin' - reasonable
American Pop - (haven't seen)
Lord of the Rings - awful
Fire and Ice - awful
Cool World - close enough to awful that after 12 years I still have no desire to see it again

Loop

One interesting series to add to the database would be the riginal Spider-Man, which Bakshi directed most of in the 60's. He directed some Terry Toons shorts, too, didn't he?

Loop

[P.C. Unfunny]

Cool World - close enough to awful that after 12 years I still have no desire to see it again

I recently got this at the bargain bin at Wal-mart. The movie's only purpose is to be burned for heat .

[Gonta]

I rented this movie over a year ago. After about ten minutes I was distracted by something and never bothered to press play when I got back. Maybe something was unconsciously reminding me of the Bakshi Lord of the Rings film.

[P.C. Unfunny]

Sorry Lupe,this is film tremendously dull and barely coherent.

[lupercal]

Beats me. I cared about the characters a lot - putting Columbo's voice in Cheech Wizard's body was inspired - and thought the plot was as coherent as any road/quest movie. Weehawk and Ealanor were pretty two-dimensional, granted, but that just made Avatar larger than life to me. Some of the funny scenes were really funny. But that's just me. I know there are some other people out there somewhere who loved it, because I've met a couple of them, but they must all have moved to Lappland.

Loop

[P.C. Unfunny]

Beats me. I cared about the characters a lot - putting Columbo's voice in Cheech Wizard's body was inspired - and thought the plot was as coherent as any road/quest movie.

I actually like the plot itself, but most of the situations that happened durring the film just did not make sense to me.

[Thalia-is-Crazy]

hate to agree with the masses here... But I'm not really such a fan myself.
The cover art sold me on the idea of watching it,
but the animation
ADMIT IT
isn't that great

which for me is the be all and end all... i don't care how good an animated film is if it's poorly animated.
Well, for the most part anyways.

It's gotta be damn well animated or it's already bad to begin with,
and then it has to be a good movie on top of that,
and now we're out 2 for 2,
because as cool as it would be to exist among those who can claim to have enjoyed the experience,
watching this movie really wasn't all that fun..

I mean, it ... wrought emotion for sure,
but just... not anything I enjoy having wrought for me ;)

[lupercal]

I still love it. To me great animation isn't the be-all-and-end-all or my fave film would be Finding Nemo or something. And you did just say you couldn't bring yourself to like Triplets of Bellville just because it was technically good .

Loop