What a strange, strange movie...Ralph Bakshi is a legendary independent animator from the 1970's, making films with edgy humor that redfined what cartoons were. He didn't shy away from violence, sex or foul language, and common themes across his works highlight the disgusting nature of the human race from the Bronx and beyond. As a teenager, I recognzied that many geeks I respected held him in high regard, stating 1977's "Wizards" as his fantasy masterpiece. So I took a chance and watched it.I will say that "Wizards" is one of the first movies I saw of Bakshi, and it isn't at all indicative of his body of work. I've seen some of his other films, which range from good artistic statements to very good movies in their own right. "Wizards" is not so successful. Even after rewatching it, I'm convinced this is his worst film, and a disappointing film as a whole.This is due to a terribly convoluted fantasy story. Due to budget constraints, much of the prologue is drawn with stills rather than animation, at least those stills look good, especialyl compared to the cheap low-level animation the rest of the film uses. The story shows two magical brothers born from the queen of the fairies, Avatar and Blackwolf, each opposites in the realm of good and evil. Avatar maintains peace against his evil brother into old age, while Blackwolf sulks off and plans his revenge with an army of mutated creatures. Eventually, Blackwolf finds the solution to strike fear into the hearts of the fairies and to promote order in his legions of dimwitted cartoons: old relics from ages past that led to the greatest wars of history. That's right: Nazi propoganda. Had the movie not reference Nazis (complete with black and white projector footage of swastikas, Adolf Hitler and marching soldiers), I might have understood and appreciated the effort to make a pure fantasy epic. But this immediately takes me out of the movie: while the Nazi regime of the 20th century might be one of the ugliest parts of the last millenia of human history, there is no way its materials could survive to two-million years later where the film takes place (yes, two-million), and there is no way it would really have such an effect of the living creatures of that new era. It turns the film into an allegory to represent how evil Nazi's were. I can find you hundreds of other films more effective at communicating this.
The characters on the good side aren't all much better to root for. Avatar himself is an old, lazy, perverted geazer, ultimately ending the war by shooting Blackwolf with a pistol (despite having powerful magic, he decided to whip out a gun for the first time at the end?), and riding off in the sunset with the scantily clad fairy princess, to become his bride at less than half his age. Weehawk, the brave elvish warrior who fights on foot alongside them, looks like a buck-toothed child with an out-of-place grin, true to Bakshi's style but not a good idea here. There's a fascinating plot thread with a enemy soldier they bring to the good side by force, but I'm stretching my praise. These enemy soldiers look like rejected Dr. Seuss characters. If fact, the entire cartoon style simply doesn't work with the themes or story at all, original or not. Bakshi insisted this was "his first family film," and while there is less nuidty then usual, there is still enough suggestive content and violence for me not to want to let young kids see it.If you insist on looking up the work of Ralph Bakshi, I highly recommend going elsewhere. Try "Heavy Traffic" or "American Pop." If you watch "Wizards," at least watch the fascinating documentary that comes with the American Bluray release, it'll help you appreciate it more. Art and creativity were rampant in the 1970's, but this is an example of the result when going unchecked and unedited.