Monday B Movies: Wizards
(Or should I be calling this 'Cult Classics'? I don't think everything will be a cult classic that I cover, so I'll stick with this.)
Like many films that get deemed a cult classic, Wizards has a number of issues. Written, directed, and produced by Ralph Bakshi, who is much better known for The Lord of the Rings, and Cool World, Wizards is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy story (with Nazis). It's not one of my favorites ever, though I do own a copy on DVD, because this is a trippy movie.
This is really an animated movie of the 70s, and to me is a sure sign that one person should not be doing all the things Ralph Bakshi did. Even though the film is only 80 minutes long, I always think it's much longer, which is never a good thing. It could have done with perhaps another guiding hand. It also is not exactly subtle. You can read any number of ideas in to this, though the most obvious one will beat you over the head before too long. The very heavy Nazi plot is probably one of the reasons that it does not score so well and is a cult classic, and not a classic. (See Rotten Tomatoes for some of this.)
Beyond that we get the usual industrialization = bad, nature = good idea. It's a story that comes around a lot, particularly in certain genres, i.e. fantasy, dystopian, post-apocalyptic. I'm not a huge fan of this idea. First, too often it is really simplified, and very stretched. Yes, I know some people think along those lines, and that you also can't put all shades of gray in to a limited medium such as a movie, or a book. That doesn't mean I have to like it when yet another person waxes on about how industrialization is all bad, and nature is all good. Also, this film jumbles together science and technology. Because Science is bad, right?¹
Throughout the film, I'm also always reminded that, wow, Ralph Bakshi was a guy, and he really didn't try to break out of stereotypes for the woman in this movie. Elinor, the only named female character in this film that actually has a spoken role, is a joke. She's drawn wearing almost nothing², but the way she is treated by everyone around her. I mean, nothing tells me how good Avatar (the 'good' wizard) is, than the way he keeps being sexually inappropriate with his student. Elinor is supposed to be a princess? Some sort of important woman, who will next rule a land, and this is how she gets greeted by the elf good guy, Weehawk:
¹This is a rhetorical question. The scientific method is not in and of itself bad, though bad things have been done with it. I really like having vaccines, and a growing knowledge of our universe and how it works. I like science! I get really sick of this trope of 'Science is Bad'.
²This isn't horrible in and of itself, other fairies in this movie are wearing the same or less. The issue is that she seems to be the only fairy who looks mostly human, and is about human sized. Really, the only thing that makes her a 'fairy' are her wings.
Like many films that get deemed a cult classic, Wizards has a number of issues. Written, directed, and produced by Ralph Bakshi, who is much better known for The Lord of the Rings, and Cool World, Wizards is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy story (with Nazis). It's not one of my favorites ever, though I do own a copy on DVD, because this is a trippy movie.
This is really an animated movie of the 70s, and to me is a sure sign that one person should not be doing all the things Ralph Bakshi did. Even though the film is only 80 minutes long, I always think it's much longer, which is never a good thing. It could have done with perhaps another guiding hand. It also is not exactly subtle. You can read any number of ideas in to this, though the most obvious one will beat you over the head before too long. The very heavy Nazi plot is probably one of the reasons that it does not score so well and is a cult classic, and not a classic. (See Rotten Tomatoes for some of this.)
Beyond that we get the usual industrialization = bad, nature = good idea. It's a story that comes around a lot, particularly in certain genres, i.e. fantasy, dystopian, post-apocalyptic. I'm not a huge fan of this idea. First, too often it is really simplified, and very stretched. Yes, I know some people think along those lines, and that you also can't put all shades of gray in to a limited medium such as a movie, or a book. That doesn't mean I have to like it when yet another person waxes on about how industrialization is all bad, and nature is all good. Also, this film jumbles together science and technology. Because Science is bad, right?¹
Throughout the film, I'm also always reminded that, wow, Ralph Bakshi was a guy, and he really didn't try to break out of stereotypes for the woman in this movie. Elinor, the only named female character in this film that actually has a spoken role, is a joke. She's drawn wearing almost nothing², but the way she is treated by everyone around her. I mean, nothing tells me how good Avatar (the 'good' wizard) is, than the way he keeps being sexually inappropriate with his student. Elinor is supposed to be a princess? Some sort of important woman, who will next rule a land, and this is how she gets greeted by the elf good guy, Weehawk:
Elinor: Weehawk!With all of these things, and some lazy animation, it's not a surprise that more people were not drawn to Wizards. There are some beautiful stills, and this film can be entertaining, and it's particularly neat to compare this with the Lord of the Rings which is clearly an outgrowth of this style of animation. There is a core of a good story here, somewhere. If you watch this, I'm going to suggest what I always suggest with B Movies: watch it with a crowd of people, a big bowl of your favorite snacks, and subtitles, so you can make all the ridiculous comments you want. This film is excellent for that.
Weehawk: Slut!
¹This is a rhetorical question. The scientific method is not in and of itself bad, though bad things have been done with it. I really like having vaccines, and a growing knowledge of our universe and how it works. I like science! I get really sick of this trope of 'Science is Bad'.
²This isn't horrible in and of itself, other fairies in this movie are wearing the same or less. The issue is that she seems to be the only fairy who looks mostly human, and is about human sized. Really, the only thing that makes her a 'fairy' are her wings.
Comments