Wizards

Don't watch this not stoned.

Classic tale of good versus evil through the eyes of Bakshi. This is among my favorites of his films and is likely less offensive than the uninitiated would find his other works. I imagine most of the people who didn't like this would be absolutely horrified by most of his other films. Folks seem to be down with Bakshi or they're not; I'm definitely one of the former.

All of Bakshi's films teeter dangerously towards a vilified range of film: too dumb for adults and too puerile for children. Still, there's an idiosyncratic charm here.

The animation is substandard and the characters absolutely stink, yet there's something oddly enjoyable and compelling about Wizards in spite of this. It exceeds its limitations just because it's so unusual and tonally wild, with Bakshi's incorporation of bloody battles and real Nazi footage into a childish fantasy backdrop yielding some weird, psychedelic results that do occasionally impress.

Bob Holt does a pretty funny Peter Falk and there's a rare Mark Hamill but I can't say I would recommend this to... anyone.

Some really awesome animation and story-telling. My mom let my brother and I watch this at a very young age, probably because it was a cartoon and she thought it was harmless. Maybe she should have previewed it, because I think it's part of the reason we're so messed up.

The animation is what you expect from the 70s. The voice acting was horrible as well as a crapload of plot holes.

A sloppy film, but it has its moments.

Bakshi's ideas are interesting, but Wizards is proof enough that he has no real idea how to tell a story in cinematic terms.

It was made some people who really cared about what they were doing and didn't have a lot of money to do it with. Good ideas and bad ideas thrown in together haphazardly. There's beauty, brilliance and heart here but also a lot of suck.

Wizards is pretty terrible in many ways, but it has an appealing side to it. I always somewhat enjoy the work of Ralph Bakshi, he got the formula right with Wizards. The story telling is sometimes sloppy, you despise most of the characters and the animation isn't incredible. Despite all this, it's very easy to enjoy the film for what it is: a ridiculous and gruesome adventure with great style and music. Wizards feels like an exploitation fantasy epic, it's always a treat to watch.

Okay, i see a lot of reviews of this movie kind of jabbing at it for being a bit too dumb for adults and then being too mature for kids. IMO, I watched this and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, its just straight up odd all the way through and you got to love odd. Ngl, it was a bit of a shock when Nazism came into the movie, but after that shock wore off it became much more enjoyable.

Visually inventive with a fun soundtrack but it can't seem to decide on a tone. Also a good deal of the voice acting is poor. But the imagery makes it worth watching, maybe more than once. (Reviewed on VHS)

Sleazy, stylish, adventurous, and often totally unexpected.

Postapoc+amazingart+polarwizardtwins+momdieAstoppedBWtrynatakeover-3Kyearslaterrevenge+mehartnowlool+science/techbeenoutlawed+BWwhasyoungbabebabymama/wannakillnonmutantkids+roboassassinturnedgood/joinedthem-girlkilledhimanddipped+AshootskillsBWlol+girlwaspossessedbyBW

From what I can remember this is classic Bakshi, action, adventure, violence and fantasy. I always applaud him for his bravery of trying different things and not making same old Disney. Time for a rewatch soon.

Well, that's enough rotoscope to last anyone a lifetime. Entertaining enough to sit through, although my eyes started to close down near the end with all armies amassing and it just went on and on. But seriously, I don't think Bakshi understood his own point, because when we finally get the super-evil, warmongering, nazi-symbol wielding bad guy's perspective, he wants his unborn child and his people to live in a place where the air and water isn't poisenous.

I'd love to see a live adaptation of this, starring Bill Hader in every role, imitating every single silly grimace and weird gesture. Most of the time I didn't even have a clue what the animators were thinking. At first I thought Bakshi had animated everything by himself, considering the animation's crudeness and how many shortcuts were taken instead of doing it right. And it's not like the story or the voiceover acting seem like much effort went into them, either.

There was definitely some novelty and appeal in watching an animated genre movie not aimed at children, but I have a big problem with the film's assertion that nature and godliness are automatically good, while science and technology are automatically evil. No kidding: The "good" wizard flat-out says he wants to outlaw science and technology. So yeah, fuck you, people on chemotherapy, dialysis and respirators!

It's like The Stand, except animated and a lot worse.

A fantasy epic from Ralph Bakshi, Wizards is a visually fascinating tale about the centuries long battle between technology and nature as well as the persuasive power of propaganda and the evils of Nazism. The animation(particularly the backgrounds) are great and are really good(even when it isn't) and it's just an entertaining film to watch.

It had its moments

this movie still sticks out in my mind whenever I think of great animated movies, the sound in it tends to be kinda shitty, but in a way that works for the movie too with how gritty it is. The story itself is fantastic, two kids born, one pure evil, the other pure good. a world that you find out later is earth after centuries of war when the evil one digs up remnants of the nazis, its an odd crazy little movie. I'd watch it over and over again.

A cool little grown-up kids' film, with on-a-budget, but very creative animation techniques. Everything about this film comes across as simple, but it manages to work really effectively, tying very broad themes to a familiar fable in a very hip and sometimes surprising (the Wizards battle?!) fashion.

This movie is amazing. I don't know how else to describe it. It's a brilliant little film that Ralph Bakshi put a good amount of very obvious effort in. The animation is a bit lacking, the acting can be a bit rough, but the overall feel the movie gives is just perfect. The ending is still one of my absolutely favorite endings to a movie, ever.

I wish Bakshi had been given more recognition, along with money to finish his feature films the way he wanted to. He's the true father of adult animation, as proven by this fantasy epic that features a lot of insane visuals and cynical comedy. Within the confines of their limited budget and rotoscoping techniques, these guys know more about storytelling than the people crafting most of today's blockbuster animation.

again bakshi pulls me into another one of his movies and although it didnt live up to my expectations it was still a very interesting movie and as usual it looked cool. i have a book on bakshi and everytime i read about one of his movies i develop more of an understanding and appreciation for it and luckily wizards is his only movie that has an interview with bakshi in the special features. learning more about his movies makes them even better.

Bizarrely written, animated and everything else I can think of. Interesting enough to see once.

This is probably the movie that will let you determine whether you like or dislike Ralph Bakshi. I'm sure some people would say it's a little heavy-handed to essentially make the villains Nazis, but I believe Bakshi does this as more of a personal statement than a quick and dirty method of characterization. This is definitely a good choice if you're looking for some unique, more grown-up animation outside the more mainstream studios like Disney.

Good times!

Wears it's metaphor on it's sleeve like a shiny, Swastika-shaped cuff-link, which isn't quite a bad thing. Pretty enjoyable film, but nothing really spectacular.

I don't have anything against Bakshi, but I didn't find this very appealing. The characters are flat and bland (making them vulgar doesn't make them any more interesting), the story is very slow and whenever something happens it's usually pretty inexplicable (e.g. the priest scene, which seemed pointless and empty), and the immaturity of it all mars the experience.

The mix of hard-won success, and failure despite the same obvious dogged effort, is the reason to watch any Bakshi work, and here that duality is at its most striking. For every scene that is belabored bullshit (e.g. "They killed Fritz") there is another that will send chills down your spine.

State-of-the-art (for its time) animation and some humorous plot twists.

Another icky Bakshi film

This piece's got complete odd and strange idea: war machine against failry fellows. I know that he "ripped off" the idea from The Lords of the Rings but this way it looks just awful. For who he pointed this film I cannot imagine. Strange but true, but the most Bakshish characters are soldiers with gas mask on. They he made fine. The rest is mishmash.

Ralph Bakshi is a genius and his style is immaculate.

weird animation and even weirder story.

Dark and atmospheric. Entertaining. Once.

Weird animated fantasy. Some surreal elements. Lame and gratuitous humor and the attempt to be more than it is hurts it.

This seemed very unique and wonderful to my 16 year old mind at the time... Try it...

Sloppy and stoopid animated fantasy. I have no clue why anyone would look at this and decide to give Bakshi a budget to try and adapt LOTR.

As a rule I like Ralph Bakshi, and though people bag this I actually like it

It hasn't aged all that well, and even in its day WIZARDS was more successful as an example of how animation could be used to tell more adult stories than it was as a movie on its own terms. In particular, the Questing stuff falls pretty flat today, but I still like the film's many visual layers (not the least of which lies in the shamelessness with which Bakshi ripped off the work on underground cartoonist Vaugn Bode).