Yes, this is as bad as it gets. Unless you grew up in a wood-paneled basement in 1970's suburbia, breathing air with a lingering aftertaste of cheap cigarettes and a used-up dime bag wedged between the sofa cushions, this movie will astound you with its mere existence.
Wizards has been described as "thought-provoking", and it is, just not in the way director Ralph Bakshi intended. It's clear Bakshi thought he had the skills to deliver what he believed was the all-important social message of the 60's and 70's, but apparently subtlety wasn't one of those skills. The commentary is so heavy-handed that the term doesn't do it justice. It's a shame, because Bakshi's film style is unique and has a strange kind of stilted power to it, although in general his artwork is weird, ugly, and unpleasant. Think of Miyazaki, but with no concept of beauty, and completely insane.
Even that could have been redeemed, had it been used in the service of something other than ridiculous post-hippie ideology that simply flails like an angry child at everything the free-love generation wished they could do away with -- technology, the military, religion, and so on. Also, Hitler was bad. Bakshi thinks it's important to tell you this.
I mean sure, we could all do without nukes, zealotry, and Hitler, but this goes way beyond that.
This film really is like the proverbial train wreck you just can't look away from, complete with bloody corpses. Just add a wizard that smokes cigars with his toes, a promiscuous fairy, a hideous elf named "Weehawk" and a robot that is apparently missing his pelvic region (not just his groin, but the whole area), and you've got Wizards.
At times the movie goes places that are seriously unimaginable. Things happen that don't make any sense at all, or that are barely tangential to anything else you see. One example of many should suffice (SPOILER WARNING):
Near the beginning, after all the introductory back story that gets us to the "present" of the film (actually 2 million years or so in earth's future, the strung-out female voice-over tells us), we are shown a small room inside a high tower. Inside a stubby wizard named Avatar, dressed in green and with a full red beard and moustache that covers all but his nose and eyes, is talking to a crazy, gangly mannequin that is supposed to be the president of fairyland. He looks nothing like a fairy.
Nearby sits the ugly elf and the president's vapid, winged daughter, who does look like a fairy except that she's taller than the others, and has huge lips and a skimpy sex-pot dress, complete with pokey nipples (for some reason present throughout the entire film).
Lounging in a huge chair, with a vacant expression and a voice like a prototype for Foxy Cleopatra from "Austin Powers: Goldmember", she explains that she's not really entirely fairy yet. She touches her wings. For some reason, she laughs. About everything.
Suddenly, the crotchless robot wearing a red one-piece jumps through the window and blasts the president with a laser. The wizard takes out the robot, at which point the fairy screams like a banshee and proceeds to jump of the robot's corpse and tear into it with . . . fairy claws, I guess. Chunks fly everywhere. She keeps screaming. Meanwhile the elf and the wizard calmly discuss what to do next, as if she's not there. The fairy screams fade into the background. End scene.
We are suddenly back in the same room. The bodies are gone. The three "heroes" are still discussing plans, but now the wizard is lying in a bed and the fairy is sitting on him, hinting with Bakshi-like subtlety that she really would like to have sex with him. The elf is sharpening his sword. Oh, and they've decided to reanimate the robot and name him Peace.
I don't really need to go on. (END SPOILER)
Perhaps one of the most amusing yet bizarre aspects of the experience is the interview with Mr. Bakshi on the DVD. Unlike Disney, he says, he doesn't lie to children. Yes, Wizards is intended to be a kid movie. An "honest" one. Good one, Bakshi.
Now maybe this sounds like something you would enjoy. I didn't, except in all the ways I wasn't supposed to. In fact, I recommend watching it once (not with children), just for the experience. It'll make you feel weird. After all, this is THE quintessential whacked-out children's propaganda cartoon made by a self-important lech with an art kit, a camera, and some watercolors (all other films in that category also belong to Bakshi). It made me believe it might really be possible to lace a DVD with hallucinogens, designed to release on every viewing. It's that good/bad/odd.
Perhaps some folks are nostalgic for 70's suburbia and that wood-paneled basement. Even I am sometimes, and that's fine. But the huge, boxy VCR in our minds should be playing "Watership Down" or "The Last Unicorn", and hopefully not this mess of a movie.
Wizards has been described as "thought-provoking", and it is, just not in the way director Ralph Bakshi intended. It's clear Bakshi thought he had the skills to deliver what he believed was the all-important social message of the 60's and 70's, but apparently subtlety wasn't one of those skills. The commentary is so heavy-handed that the term doesn't do it justice. It's a shame, because Bakshi's film style is unique and has a strange kind of stilted power to it, although in general his artwork is weird, ugly, and unpleasant. Think of Miyazaki, but with no concept of beauty, and completely insane.
Even that could have been redeemed, had it been used in the service of something other than ridiculous post-hippie ideology that simply flails like an angry child at everything the free-love generation wished they could do away with -- technology, the military, religion, and so on. Also, Hitler was bad. Bakshi thinks it's important to tell you this.
I mean sure, we could all do without nukes, zealotry, and Hitler, but this goes way beyond that.
This film really is like the proverbial train wreck you just can't look away from, complete with bloody corpses. Just add a wizard that smokes cigars with his toes, a promiscuous fairy, a hideous elf named "Weehawk" and a robot that is apparently missing his pelvic region (not just his groin, but the whole area), and you've got Wizards.
At times the movie goes places that are seriously unimaginable. Things happen that don't make any sense at all, or that are barely tangential to anything else you see. One example of many should suffice (SPOILER WARNING):
Near the beginning, after all the introductory back story that gets us to the "present" of the film (actually 2 million years or so in earth's future, the strung-out female voice-over tells us), we are shown a small room inside a high tower. Inside a stubby wizard named Avatar, dressed in green and with a full red beard and moustache that covers all but his nose and eyes, is talking to a crazy, gangly mannequin that is supposed to be the president of fairyland. He looks nothing like a fairy.
Nearby sits the ugly elf and the president's vapid, winged daughter, who does look like a fairy except that she's taller than the others, and has huge lips and a skimpy sex-pot dress, complete with pokey nipples (for some reason present throughout the entire film).
Lounging in a huge chair, with a vacant expression and a voice like a prototype for Foxy Cleopatra from "Austin Powers: Goldmember", she explains that she's not really entirely fairy yet. She touches her wings. For some reason, she laughs. About everything.
Suddenly, the crotchless robot wearing a red one-piece jumps through the window and blasts the president with a laser. The wizard takes out the robot, at which point the fairy screams like a banshee and proceeds to jump of the robot's corpse and tear into it with . . . fairy claws, I guess. Chunks fly everywhere. She keeps screaming. Meanwhile the elf and the wizard calmly discuss what to do next, as if she's not there. The fairy screams fade into the background. End scene.
We are suddenly back in the same room. The bodies are gone. The three "heroes" are still discussing plans, but now the wizard is lying in a bed and the fairy is sitting on him, hinting with Bakshi-like subtlety that she really would like to have sex with him. The elf is sharpening his sword. Oh, and they've decided to reanimate the robot and name him Peace.
I don't really need to go on. (END SPOILER)
Perhaps one of the most amusing yet bizarre aspects of the experience is the interview with Mr. Bakshi on the DVD. Unlike Disney, he says, he doesn't lie to children. Yes, Wizards is intended to be a kid movie. An "honest" one. Good one, Bakshi.
Now maybe this sounds like something you would enjoy. I didn't, except in all the ways I wasn't supposed to. In fact, I recommend watching it once (not with children), just for the experience. It'll make you feel weird. After all, this is THE quintessential whacked-out children's propaganda cartoon made by a self-important lech with an art kit, a camera, and some watercolors (all other films in that category also belong to Bakshi). It made me believe it might really be possible to lace a DVD with hallucinogens, designed to release on every viewing. It's that good/bad/odd.
Perhaps some folks are nostalgic for 70's suburbia and that wood-paneled basement. Even I am sometimes, and that's fine. But the huge, boxy VCR in our minds should be playing "Watership Down" or "The Last Unicorn", and hopefully not this mess of a movie.