Good concept, poorly executed.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Ralph Bakshi, the man you might know best as the director of that animated The Lord of the Rings film, has in fact had a long and illustrious career as an animator of the weird and bizarre. His films are rarely all that politically correct, kid-friendly or even sane. So, what if he decided to direct a family-oriented fantasy epic?Well... it would morph into an allegory about the founding of the nation of Israel, the use of propaganda in the Nazi war machine and the struggle between the forces of natural world and the industrial revolution. Nazi flags and swastikas would feature prominently, the main protagonist would be a drug abusing garden gnome lookalike, with a love interest so skimpily dressed that it would not even fly in most strip clubs, and would feature enough gore, horror imagery and acid trip sequences to satisfy even the legendary Caligula.You know, for kids!So yeah, the film certainly didn't hit its once intended mark, but when you put that aside, the film itself is actually quite a lot of fun. Sure, it goes bat guano insane with remarkable frequency, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, is pretty inconsistent when it comes to the quality of animation, contains numerous plot holes and errors, and is all around just a blatant mess. But what a glorious mess it is! This is pure let your jaw hang loose and just take it in kind of experience. The film makers were clearly taking something while animating and you can get the last remaining whiffs of that from this film. Is it for everyone? Absolutely not! It's offensive, insane and unhinged. But, if that sounds like fun to you, you're in for a ride. My advice: bring booze.

Ralph Bashi is one of my favorite animation directors because of his creativity and just his willingness to do more with the animated field. This is another one of my favorite animated films of all time and it's my second favorite from Ralph Bashi.The animation I think is great, well OK it's not going to blow people away now but cmon this was in the 70's what do you expect. Still I really love the character animation which does look a bit odd but you get use to it and it fits the strange but cool nature of the film. I like the amount of diversity, how we see each of the creatures are different species, one of my favorites is the robot Peace which I think is actually kinda a cool looking robot because he's a different design.However it's really the background animation and even the rotoscoping that I found most impressive. Really capture the look and feel of a world in ruin but also somewhat luscious in fantasy landscape. There is even a certain amount of blood that we actually see in some of the well shot and executed action sequences which was cool just seeing bullets actually go though animated characters as well as spears and swords penetrating. This was something revolutionary for it's time, you never really seen an animated film and show ever go this far with the action; which is why I want to see the animation genre take this step more often, by today's standards we're all more than ready.The story is great and is what really powers the film for me, I love that this is a combination of both the post apocalyptic subgenere and fantasy which is something I really don't see much in both sci-fi and fantasy and would like to see more. It was an awesome idea and also really dark as we hear in this world even though magic and the creatures with it have returned to our world, humankind has literally became extinct; this little detail shows how we can easily doom ourselves to extinction as other species of nature have survived without us.I really like the character Avatar whom is literally the last human (or one of) on Earth, he kinda sounds and from the persona reminds me a bit of the late comedian George Carlin. His character has some of the best lines and I like how he has sort of a passive aggressive attitude toward the mission they have to take.I even like how allegorical the film really is. The plot of the film is both allegorical and a little chilling as we see the antagonist Blackwolf his intention is to use Nazi propaganda and technological superiority. This we see actually does work for a while as we see some of the stupid mutant solders Blackwolf commands buy into the bull despite not knowing what their buying, which pumps them up to carry out terrible actions and the tools to do it with. But the most disturbing scene is seeing the Elf armies exposed to the Nazi Properganda reel which terrifies them because they have no idea what images their seeing.It's darkly ironic because that was exactly what the Nazis were trying to do, using propaganda nonsense to intimidate their enemies but also to sell a bunch of bull crap just to make themselves feel and grow more superior. And the conflict between Blackwolf's army and the Magical Creatures is also an irony because the Nazi's were trying to destroy even possesses everything that sacred and mechanize the entire world by smashing everything that was different or outside their normal convention or thinking.The film I feel has an antifascist message, it's terrible destructive nature and why fascism and the things with it should remain lost and can and should never be restored.Wizards has plenty of magic and power.Rating: 4 stars

I first watched this film at the tender age of 9 and even then found it awfully sloppy and crude by animation or narrative standards. Bakshi claims that this movie is aimed at kids, and while I have to admit it's a lot more kid-friendly than something like COONSKIN or HEAVY TRAFFIC, there ain't a lot here for kids to like.Truly, this film doesn't hold up too well with a lot of unsuccessful blending of animation with rotoscoped footage, which, to be honest is more often just processed film than it is truly "rotoscoped", which would imply actual work went into it. The final battle scene is actually pretty hard to tell what in the Hades is going on with so many reused cells and ugly roto'd stock footage. I'm happy to see that his techniques in this area blended together much more beautifully in his next 3-4 films, the high point of which would be FIRE AND ICE.Too much of the script feels awfully first drafty. For instance the villains of the piece don't really seem to have much motivation for their desire to destroy the world beyond just the usual "oh, they're evil" mentality. Similarly, none of the heroes are likable or even the slightest bit interesting aside from the criminally underused Peace, the red uniform wearing android from the cover.However, I have to hand it to Bakshi for making up for his lack of resources with a lot of heart and a lot of love in rampant abundance. The most successful portions of this film are the side-vignettes showcasing the ridiculous villains. The scenes in "Skortch" are wonderfully gloomy and campy, complemented quite well by Andrew Belling's excellent (though at times quite dated) score. A lot of the vignettes are quite funny, though the success and amount of humor follows with the rest of the film's elements as being quite inconsistent.WIZARDS is a film with a lot of little things in it to appreciate even though the film as a whole is disjointed, cruddy, and rather tedious. I can say though that I'm glad I own it and watch it once every few years just because at the very least it's a great mood piece and has a much more personal & creative feel to it than most more recent animated features.

In a post-apocalyptic Earth there are two warring wizards--Avatar who is good and Blackwolf who is evil. Over the years Blackwolf amasses a huge army of mutants and ancient war weapons like guns and tanks and attacks Avatar and his peace-loving friends. Avatar seems totally unable to defeat him and Blackwolf may rule the world.To say this is weird is an understatement. After a needlessly plot heavy prologue it throws us right into a story with bad dialogue, unfunny comedy and unlikable characters. This is also WAY too violent for a PG rated film--the war scenes are incredibly bloody and graphic. And one fairy (Elinore) is way too underdressed for a "family" film. However the visuals are never dull. There's some incredible mixing of live action and animation and there's always something to look at it. Also the animation itself is just great. I can't say this was a good movie (the plot and characters are a little TOO strange) but I was never bored. This is perfect for older teenagers and adults looking for something different. NOT for kids despite the rating.