Wizards (film)

Wizards
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ralph Bakshi
Produced by	Ralph Bakshi
Written by	Ralph Bakshi
Narrated by	Susan Tyrrell
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 dates	February 9, 1977[1]
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million[2]
Box office	$9,000,000

Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, one representing the forces of magic and one representing the forces of industrial technology. It was written, produced, and directed by Ralph Bakshi.^[3]

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 from a $1.2 million budget, and has since become a cult classic. The film was rated PG by the MPAA.

Plot

Earth has been devastated 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 infected wastelands. In the idyllic land of Montagar, the true ancestors of humans — fairies, elves and dwarves — have returned and live 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, who leaves Montagar with a vow to return and "make this a planet where mutants rule".

Years later, Blackwolf has risen to be Führer 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 both inspire his own soldiers and horrify enemy troops. The mutants destroy the elf army, who are too frightened by the visions to fight back.

Peace, 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. Elinore flies into a rage at the death of her father, and Avatar confronts the robot and battles it using telepathy. Necron 99 loses the desire for war and Avatar changes the robot's 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 the elf spy Weehawk set out to Blackwolf's base Scortch One 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. 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 leaves him and finds the girl. Weehawk is rescued from a giant poison gas-breathing mutant insect by Peace, who shoots it dead after dealing with his assassin comrades. As Weehawk rests, exhausted from the battle, Avatar locates Elinore, who has been captured by fairies and small human-like creatures, and is about to be killed.

Avatar attempts to explain 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 One 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 One 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 has 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; he then pulls a gun and fatally shoots Blackwolf. Following Blackwolf's death, his castle begins to crumble, destroying the projector in the process. With the projector destroyed, 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 – Avatar
• Jesse Welles – Elinore
• Richard Romanus – Weehawk
• David Proval – Necron 99/Peace
• Steve Gravers – Blackwolf
• James Connell – President
• Mark Hamill – Sean
• Susan Tyrrell – Narrator (uncredited)
• Ralph Bakshi – Fritz/Lardbottom/Stormtrooper (uncredited)
• Angelo Grisanti - Larry the Lizard (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.^[4] Wizards originated in the concept for Tee-Witt, an unproduced television series Bakshi developed and pitched to CBS in 1967.^[4] 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.^[5]

The film is an allegorical comment on the moral neutrality of technology and the potentially destructive powers of propaganda.^[6] Blackwolf's secret weapon is propaganda, used to incite and motivate his legions and terrorize the good fairy folk of Montagar. 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".^[7]

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.^[5] 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.^[8]

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.^[6] 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."^[9] 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.^[6][9]

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."^[10] 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 landscapes of Montagar.^[6]

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).^[9] As a result, Bakshi finished his film by paying out of his own pocket and using rotoscoping for the unfinished battle sequences.^[6][9] 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."^[6] 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."^[9] 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.^[11]

Vaughn Bode's work has been credited as an influence on Wizards.^[7][12] 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.^[13] In Jerry Beck's Animated Movie Guide, Andrew Leal 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."^[12]

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.^[5]

Response and legacy

Although Wizards received a limited release, it was very successful in the theaters that showed it, and developed a worldwide audience.^[5] According to Bakshi, he was once interviewed by a German reporter who was unsure as to why the Nazi Swastika was used to represent war.^[6] Bakshi said "I didn't get any criticism. People pretty much loved Wizards."^[14] Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 59%, considered "Rotten".^[15]

Audio clips from the film have been sampled by Toxik on the album Think This,^[16] Cypress Hill on the albums IV and Skull & Bones,^[17][18] and Vanilla Ice on Platinum Underground.^[19] and 65daysofstatic on the album Volume 1: Then We Take Japan.^[20]

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment responded to an online petition created by Animation on DVD.com and written by Keith Finch demanding the film's release on DVD.^[6][9][21] 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.^[14]

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.^[22] In September 2008, it was announced that Main Street Pictures would collaborate with Bakshi on a sequel to Wizards.^[23][24]

20th Century Fox released a Special Edition Blu-ray of the film on March 13, 2012, to commemorate the film's 35th anniversary.^[25] The disc only includes the special features from the DVD, but will also include a 24-page book including rare artwork from the film and an introduction from Bakshi.^[26]

References

External links

• Wizards at the Internet Movie Database
• Wizards at the TCM Movie Database
• Wizards at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Wizards at allmovie
• Wizards at Box Office Mojo
• Wizards at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wizards at the official Ralph Bakshi website.