The Fantasy Films Of Ralph Bakshi!

Ralph Bakshi is a notorious maverick in the animation industry, a garrulous New Yorker with a charming personality and a contentious turn who produced some fascinating cartoons during the 60's, 70's and 80's.

I first learned of Bakshi with his movie Wizards which I saw in the theater in that notorious summer just days before Star Wars transformed the science fiction and fantasy landscape forever. Wizards is a fun frolic of a movie that I enjoy a bit each time I see it. It's clever, witty, with just enough smarm to make it work but not become cloying. It's philosophy is thin, but it works well enough for practical purposes. Two brothers, wizards both, embody the battle between nature and technology with technology being associated with war and death and misery while nature is all about fairies and goodness. The animation features some great work by Mike Ploog, some details by Jim Starlin and lots of sturdy animation from the Bakshi studio. It's a lovely movie with charm and a hint of wit. I'll dig deeper on this one tomorrow. 

I first learned of Bakshi with his movie Wizards which I saw in the theater in that notorious summer just days before Star Wars transformed the science fiction and fantasy landscape forever. Wizards is a fun frolic of a movie that I enjoy a bit each time I see it. It's clever, witty, with just enough smarm to make it work but not become cloying. Its philosophy is thin, but it works well enough for practical purposes. Two brothers, wizards both, embody the battle between nature and technology with technology being associated with war and death and misery while nature is all about fairies and goodness. The animation features some great work by Mike Ploog, some details by Jim Starlin and lots of sturdy animation from the Bakshi studio. It's a lovely movie with charm and a hint of wit. 

I saw it in the theaters, I have it on VHS, but I've never seen the material as vivid or compelling as on the DVD. The Mike Ploog artwork which is used as sepia-toned stills to supply the history of the Wizard's world and some in-between material looks lush and beautiful. The backgrounds are bright and even florescent at times.

Maybe I'm in the right place for the satire right now, but I found the story really engaging for the first time ever. Usually, I just drink in the images, but here I found the themes themselves more compelling. Bakshi is a frank and entertaining commentator on his own work and gives praise to those involved (including himself) and you can really tell he dislikes Walt Disney. There's also some added features on this DVD, a half-hour (or so) interview with Bakshi that is really enjoyable. There are the usual trailers and some production stills. All in all, a good solid DVD package, with some really great comic book connections. My favorite insider detail is that at one point the "hero" Avatar pronounces a spell invoking the names of "Krenkel, Morrow, and Frazetta" (spelled "krinkle, morrow, and frizeta" in the subtitles). Bakshi reveals this was an intentional homage to three of his favorite comics artists. He gushes about comics and mentions most of the classic names we love here, especially Eisner.

This is a solid entertainment, a movie which had the misfortune to land in the theaters, mere weeks ahead of the juggernaut which was Star Wars. Good stuff and highly recommended.

It was followed up the following year in 1978 by Lord of the Rings the first and infamous adaptation of the Tolkien classic. Bakshi's LotR is a pretty good movie for about an hour and a half, right about the time they encounter the Balrog in Moria. Then slowly the move seems to lose its pedigree a bit as a successful blend of animation and live action. 

I don't find the techniques used in LotR to be offensive, they work quite well early on in the cartoon. But apparently money wasn't there to animate the last half as effectively and sadly it shows. The story ends abruptly and the whole thing was overall disappointing. Though before the Peter Jackson epics, the only attempt ever made to translate the work to feature film, however limited the success. (I do note that the Rankin-Bass outfit did adapt Return of the King which does sort of pick up the story where Bakshi's version left off. Lots more on this movie when I take a comprehensive look at the Tolkien movies when I've finished a current re-reading of the epic.)

Last up is 1883's Fire and Ice, Bakshi's turn at bringing a Frank Frazetta comic book to the screen. This uses the same techniques of rotoscoping experimented with effectively in Wizards and used to less effect in Lord of the Rings and offers up a complete translation. The poster above is interesting in that combines elements from at least two earlier unrelated Frazetta paintings. The poster at the top of this post is Frazetta original for the movie. 

This movie written by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway does what it advertises, bringing Frazetta images to life. It's a pretty straight-ahead story about a sorcerer who wants to conquer the world by pushing his ice kingdom across the landscape literally and he's opposed by folks who live atop a volcano. A valiant hero chases about after a kidnapped mostly-naked princess and is helped by a mysterious masked fellow who seems to know a lot about the backgrounds of everyone involved. There's not a lot of complexity to it, but it's good enough for adventure purposes. It's a decent enough story and offers some fun visuals. It's not as charming as Wizards but more complete than LotR.

Dynamite has recently adapted it to comic book form. The cover for the first issue by Bill Sienkiewicz is a real winner.  

Rip Off