Wizards

Wizards
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	Ralph Bakshi
Produced by	Ralph Bakshi
Written by	Ralph Bakshi
Starring	Bob Holt Jesse Welles Richard Romanus David Proval Steve Gravers
Music by	Andrew Belling
Cinematography	Ted C. Bemiller
Editing by	Donald W. Ernst
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	February 9, 1977[1]
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,200,000

Wizards is an animated post-apocalyptic science fiction/fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, one representing the forces of magic and one representing the forces of technology. It was written, produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi. This is 20th Century Fox's first animated film.

Wizards is notable for being the first fantasy film made by Bakshi, who was previously known only for urban films such as Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic and Coonskin. It grossed $9 million theatrically, and has since become a cult classic. It was released on DVD on May 25, 2004 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The film was rated PG by the MPAA.

Synopsis

Earth has been badly damaged by a nuclear war instigated by five terrorists, and it has taken two million years for the radioactive clouds to once again allow sunlight to reach the surface. Only a handful of humans have survived, while the rest have changed into mutants who roam the radioactive wastelands. In the idyllic land of Montagar, the true ancestors of man -- fairies, elves and dwarves -- have returned and live happily in peace. During a celebration of 3,000 years of peace Delia, queen of the fairies, falls into a trance and leaves the party. Puzzled, the fairies follow her to her home and discover that she has given birth to twin wizards. Avatar, a kind and good wizard, spends much of his boyhood entertaining his mother with beautiful visions, while Blackwolf, a mutant, never visits his mother, but spends his time torturing small animals.

After many years, Delia dies. Blackwolf is excited; he believes he will take over her leadership and rule the land. Avatar opposes his evil brother and forces him to fight for the kingship. Avatar's magic is empowered by his grief, allowing him to defeat Blackwolf. Blackwolf leaves Montagar with a vow to return and 'make this a planet where mutants rule'.

Years later, Blackwolf has risen to lead the dark land of Scortch, where he salvages and restores ancient technology. He tries to attack Montagar twice, but is foiled both times when his mutant warriors become bored or sidetracked in the midst of battle. Blackwolf then discovers an old projector and reels of Nazi propaganda footage. He enhances the projector with magical power and uses it in battle to inspire his own soldiers. The mutants decimate the elves.

Necron 99, Avatar, Weehawk, and Elinore.

Meanwhile, in Montagar, Avatar has become a tutor tasked with training the president's daughter Elinore to become a full-fledged fairy. Suddenly, the president is assassinated by Necron 99, a robot sent by Blackwolf to kill believers in magic. Avatar confronts the robot and battles it using brain reading. Necron 99 loses the desire for war and changes his name to Peace. Avatar learns from the robot that the "dream machine" -- the projector -- is Blackwolf's secret weapon, inspiring his armies with images of ancient warfare. Avatar, Elinore, Peace, and an elf spy called Weehawk set out to destroy the projector and save the world from another Holocaust.

In a forest inhabited by fairies, Peace has an intuition that something is amiss shortly before the group is accosted by the leader of the fairies, Sean (voiced by Mark Hamill). Weehawk realizes that Peace is missing, when an unseen assassin kills Sean and kidnaps Elinore. Avatar and Weehawk begin to search for Elinore in the forbidden Fairy Sanctuary, but Weehawk falls into a chasm and insists that Avatar leave him and find the girl. He locates her, captured by fairies and small human-like creatures, just as she is about to be killed. Avatar attempts to explains that they did not kill Sean, but the fairies don't believe him, and shoot him with an arrow. Wounded in the shoulder, Avatar refuses to fight back, which impresses the fairy king. Instead of executing them, he merely teleports Avatar and Elinore to a snowy mountaintop. Avatar and Elinore resume their journey despite the poor conditions, but they soon realize they are wandering in circles. Weehawk and Peace finally find them and together they find their way out of the mountains. Soon Avatar and the others encounter the encamped army of an elf General who is preparing to attack Scortch the following day, but Blackwolf launches a sneak attack that night. Elinore is outside with Peace when one of Blackwolf's mutants sneaks into camp and attacks her, but Avatar is able to stop it before it hurts her. Things turn for the worse, though, as a battle tank arrives to destroy the camp. Peace manages to disable the crew, but as he inspects the vehicle, Elinore kills him with a sword and climbs into the tank. It drives away as Avatar and Weehawk watch in confusion.

The next day, Avatar and Weehawk enter Scortch by ship and make for Blackwolf's castle while the General leads his elf warriors in a bloody battle to distract Blackwolf's forces. The pair splits up, Weehawk tracking Elinore while Avatar goes after his brother Blackwolf. Weehawk nearly kills Elinore, but she explains that Blackwolf had been controlling her mind ever since she first touched Peace. Blackwolf declares his magic superior to Avatar's and demands his surrender. Avatar admits that he hasn't practiced magic in some time, and offers to show Blackwolf one last trick that their mother showed him when Blackwolf wasn't around. Avatar then pulls a gun and fatally shoots Blackwolf. With the loss of their leader, the mutants give up fighting. With Montagar's safety secured, Weehawk returns home, but Avatar and Elinore decide to go start their own kingdom instead.

Cast

• Bob Holt (actor) ... Avatar (voice)
• Jesse Welles ... Elinore (voice)
• Richard Romanus ... Weehawk (voice)
• David Proval ... Necron 99/Peace (voice)
• James Connell ... President (voice)
• Steve Gravers ... Blackwolf (voice)
• Mark Hamill ... Sean (voice) (as Mark Hamil)
• Susan Tyrrell ... Narrator (uncredited)

Production

Ralph Bakshi in January 2009.

Ralph Bakshi had long had an interest in fantasy, and had been drawing fantasy artwork as far back as 1955, while he was still in high school.^[2] Wizards originated in the concept for Tee-Witt, an unproduced television series Bakshi developed and pitched to CBS in 1967.^[2] In 1976, Bakshi pitched War Wizards to 20th Century Fox. Returning to the fantasy drawings he had created in high school for inspiration, Bakshi intended to prove that he could produce a "family picture" that had the same impact as his adult-oriented films.^[3]

The film is an allegorical comment on the moral neutrality of technology and the potentially destructive powers of propaganda.^[4] Blackwolf's secret weapon is propaganda, used to incite and motivate his legions and terrorize the good fairy folk of Montagar; Blackwolf also utilizes technology for evil ends. However, in the end, it is Avatar's willingness to use a technological tool (a handgun pulled from "up his sleeve") which saves them all. Bakshi also states that Wizards "was about the creation of the state of Israel and the Holocaust, about the Jews looking for a homeland, and about the fact that fascism was on the rise again".^[5]

British illustrator Ian Miller and comic book artist Mike Ploog were hired to contribute backgrounds and designs. The crew included Vita, Turek, Sparey, Vitello and Spence, who had become comfortable to Bakshi's limited storyboarding and lack of pencil tests.^[3] Artist Alex Niño signed a contract with Bakshi to work on the film, and was granted a work visa, but was unable to gain permission from the Philippine government in order to leave for the United States until two months afterward, and later found that by the time he had arrived in the U.S., not only had the film's animation had been completed, but Niño's visa did not allow him to submit freelance work on any other projects.^[6]

The film's main cast includes Bob Holt, Jesse Welles, Richard Romanus, David Proval and Steve Gravers. Bakshi cast Holt based on his ability to imitate the voice of actor Peter Falk, of whom Bakshi is a fan.^[4] Welles, Romanus and Proval had previously worked with Bakshi on Hey Good Lookin', where Romanus and Proval provided the voices of Vinnie and Crazy Shapiro, respectively. Actress Tina Bowman, who plays a small role in Wizards, has a larger role in Hey Good Lookin'. Actor Mark Hamill auditioned for and received a voice role in the film. Bakshi states that "He needed a job, and he came to me, and I thought he was great, and Lucas thought he should do it, and he got not only [Wizards], he got [Star Wars]."^[7] Bakshi had wanted a female narrator for his film, and he loved Susan Tyrrell's acting. Tyrrell performed the narration for the film, but Bakshi was told that he couldn't credit her for her narration. Years later, Tyrrell told Bakshi that she got most of her work from her narration on the film, and that she wished she had allowed him to put her name on it.^[4][7]

John Grant writes in his book Masters of Animation that "[the] overall affect of the animation is akin to that of the great anime creators - one has to keep reminding oneself that Wizards predates Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), not the other way round. [...] The backgrounds [...] are especially lovely, even the simplest of them; and in general the movie has a strong visual brio despite occasional technical hurriedness."^[8] Notable artists involved in the production of Wizards include Ian Miller, who produced the gloomy backgrounds of Scortch, and Mike Ploog, who contributed likewise for the more arcadian lanscapes of Montagar.^[4]

Bakshi was unable to complete the battle sequences with the budget Fox had given him. When he asked them for a budget increase, they refused (during the same meeting, director George Lucas had asked for a budget increase for Star Wars and was also refused).^[7] As a result, Bakshi finished his film by paying out of his own pocket and using rotoscoping for the unfinished battle sequences.^[4][7] According to Bakshi, "I thought that if we dropped all the detail, it would look very artistic, and very beautiful, and I felt, why bother animating all of this? I'm looking for a way to get realism into my film and get real emotion."^[4] In his audio commentary for the film's DVD release, Bakshi states that "There's no question that it was an easier way to get these gigantic scenes that I wanted. It also was the way that showed me how to do Lord of the Rings, so it worked two ways."^[7] In addition to stock footage, the film used battle sequences from films such as Zulu, El Cid, Battle of the Bulge and Alexander Nevsky for rotoscoping. Live-action sequences from Patton were also featured.^[9]

Vaughn Bode's work has been credited as an influence on Wizards.^[5][10] Quentin Tarantino describes Avatar as "a cross between Tolkien's Hobbit, Mel Brooks' 2000 Year Old Man, and Marvel Comics' Howard the Duck" and Blackwolf as being physically similar to Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible.^[11] Jerry Beck writes that "The central figure, Avatar [...] sounds a great deal like Peter Falk, and clearly owes much to cartoonist Vaughn Bodé's Cheech Wizard character."^[10]

As War Wizards neared completion, Lucas requested that Bakshi change the title of his film to Wizards in order to avoid conflict with Star Wars, and Bakshi agreed because Lucas had allowed Mark Hamill to take time off from Star Wars in order to record a voice for Wizards.^[3]

Response and legacy

Although Wizards received a limited release, it was very successful in the theaters that showed it, and developed a worldwide audience.^[3] According to Bakshi, he was once interviewed by a German reporter who asked why Bakshi had used the Nazi Swastika to represent war. Bakshi responded, "Are you kidding?"^[4] Critics were generally positive in their response to the film,^[12] with a few exceptions. Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 53%.^[13]

Terry Brooks' Shannara series is also based in a post-Apocalyptic world of fairies, elves and dwarves.^[14]

In 1989, thrash metal band Toxik sampled the line "It is done, it is done! The world is free!" at the end of the song "Spontaneous" on the album Think This.^[15] In 2005, math rock band 65daysofstatic sampled the lines "Brother, there is no need for me to destroy you. Surrender! Surrender your world!" and "You always did need an audience, you sap." at the beginning of the song "Massive Star at the End of Its Burning Cycle" on the unreleased album Unreleased/Unreleasable Vol. 2: How I Fucked Off All My Friends.^[16] Audio clips from the film have been sampled by Cypress Hill on the albums IV and Skull & Bones,^[17][18] and Vanilla Ice on Platinum Underground.^[19]

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment had long neglected to put the feature out on DVD until an online petition created by Animation on DVD.com and written by Keith Finch demanding the film's release on DVD was brought to their attention, influencing them to release the film in the format.^[4][7][20] The disc, released on May 25, 2004, featured an audio commentary track by Bakshi and the interview segment Ralph Bakshi: The Wizard of Animation. Bakshi has stated that Wizards was always intended as a trilogy. One of the sequels was pitched to Fox, who have yet to greenlight the project.^[12] But it has only been released as a Region 1 DVD and is not available in the other formats.

In late 2004, a Wizards II graphic novel went into production, produced by Bakshi. The stories will be from the Wizards "universe" and each story will be created by a different artist.^[21] In September 2008, it was announced that Main Street Pictures would collaborate with Bakshi on a sequel to Wizards.^[22][23]

References

External links

• Wizards at the Internet Movie Database
• Wizards at Allmovie
• Wizards at the TCM Movie Database
• Wizards at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wizards at the official Ralph Bakshi website.