Wizards (1977)

Was he trying to make this as awful as possible?

Simple-minded plot consisting of mismatched over-the-top cliches incoherently scotch-taped together; what seems to be a systematic effort to include enough sexist, racist, and religious stereotypes to offend everyone on Earth and most of their house pets; incredibly cheap, jerky, worse-than-the-worst-of-Saturday-morning animation; and enough graphic violence to give the children who are supposedly the target audience nightmares. This is worse than the Super-8 "movie" my friends and I made in 9th grade, and I didn't think it could get worse than that. Just to make it even worse, there is just enough actually striking rotoscope imagery to give the viewer a hint of the potential that was blown in this project. If I were Ralph Bakshi or anyone else associated with this, I would change my name and pretend I'd never heard of it. September 30, 2008

great aminated show

i saw this when it originally came out and was very happyto purchase the memory. thanks so much September 14, 2008

What a cool movie.

This is a great movie. I mean, really. I am not going to go as far as to explain all the intricate parts that make it great, nor am I going to say it's the best cartoon ever made.

What I will say is the Bakshi did the animated world a favor that most people will never know about. Cartoons don't have to always be these soft, lighthearted puffballs that many animators at the time were leaning towards.
Bakshi has a considerable amount of graphic violence and swearing in this cartoon that really improve on the quality. In a fairly recent interview(2004), Bakshi claimed that this was indeed a kids movie, and that in the end, the violence will not screw up the kid (Snow White really is more violent than this movie).

One cool thing about this movie is that I really hate fantasy flicks. I really do. I find them very, very bad. This movie was good enough to make me overcome that, and I believe that should be noted.

In the end, I think this is a pretty fantastic movie, and definately worth a watch. August 3, 2008

Ahead of its Time

If you are a fan of modern animation, Wizards is an underground gem that you should dig for. Quirky, clever, cutting and cool, Wizards is a FSF lover's film from the smart-alecky elves to the beauty of Montagar. This is grown-up animation made long before CGI, back when what the Japanese were doing looked like flip books with nothing animated but the mouths. No, nothing looks 'real'. It isn't meant to. Where's the fun in that? Maybe it's not for everyone, but this is a movie I love and want to share with those who will appreciate it. July 19, 2008

Bakshi Was Never Better

This flick used to play @ the Midnight Matinee's ,(if you remember those you are dating yourself!), in the 70's .
I don't know of anyone else who animates like this .
Its great on a big 'ol flat screen w/surround sound . July 13, 2008

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