In high school, I was dating a girl who’s dad introduced me to this movie. I had no idea what to expect. Long after I had ended the relationship with his daughter, Pete and I are friends to this day.
It also is because the movie states that the demon forces under Blackwolf’s command were scary looking but actually cowards, they didn’t have any discipline, and worse would break and run if enough of them were killed, the projector was balckwolf’s way of terrorizing/breaking the elves/magic forces with blitz and holocaust imagery, which paralyzed them and allowed his demons to massacre them, as well as motivating them to do so. without the projector their advantage was gone and with blackwolf dead, they had no power holding them together.
@@mckenzie.latham91 this is true of the Nazis, though only partly. Sure not every Nazi were cowards or people just strongarmed into their position because their families would pay the price otherwise (quite a few were wholeheartedly monsters). But their strength lied in propaganda, if they could get people in a fervor, whip people up until they were willing to fight to the bitter end? Get a charismatic leader and secret police and you'd have the National Socialist Party in all of their monsterousness. But when they started losing serious ground they began to doubt. When Berlin was bombed, only the army and SS were still fighting, when the leader killed himself and the Reichstag fell, the Germans surrendered almost immediately. The SS kept on but could accomplish nothing without the resources of a nation.
One of the background artists of this movie, Ian Miller, also worked on early versions of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy; his dark fantasy style was really fitting for the universe.
It totally shows in the design of the early mercenary / Imperial soldier models too. Bakshi influenced the living hell out of the Nottingham-based team.
I can see the Warhammer Fantasy in those city backdrops. In fact, that's what they were reminding me off while I was watching it - the Enemy Within and similar.
Here's an interesting bit of trivia: a lot of the stock footage of "nazi" war machines they used for rotoscoping is actually footage of American equipment, the animators are just using it as a stand-in for actual WWII German hardware. But the fun part is that most of the tanks I saw in this movie are very obviously (well, obvious to tank enthusiasts, at least) M48 Pattons... which got used as stand-ins for German Tiger Tanks in WWII movies for decades. Even in the realm of animation, the Patton continues to find work as the Tiger's stunt double. And I think that's absolutely hilarious.
Very few German tanks actually survived the war (largely due to well you know, Germany losing) so WWII movies were almost always forced to use American tanks with a German paint job as stand-ins. A lot of people that have only ever seen WWII movies are thus trained not to even notice the difference.
All I know about tanks I learned from like maybe 2 Lindybeige videos, and even then the tanks looked American to me. I always associate the US with relatively small quick tanks, and the Germans with really big heavy tanks. I'm sure it's not that simple.
Oh good ! I’m not the only nerd who noticed all this ! … I’m like “ That looks like a scene from Patton “ and “ ..the Germans didn’t have Walker Bulldogs “ 😂 …… it’s kind of refreshing to see this comment with so many likes !
I remember seeing this as a kid. My mom was going to the video rental place, and my brothers and I asked that she pick up "The Wizard," as we were big on Nintendo. She came back with this and we watched it. I think we were too young to understand the concept and imagery, but I'll never forget our reaction to hearing a cartoon say "I'm glad you changed your name you son of a bitch."
@@Dunlop-hg2ql I'm *kinda old enough* to remember when showing *BATHROOMS / RESTROOMS* was frowned upon even if they DIDN'T show a toilet, etc. The series " Love, American Style " was about as spicy as things got. But if my parents heard anything SOUNDING REMOTELY profane or obscene, click ! That channel would CHANGE ! With alacrity.
I think I remember seeing the ending to this and being completely caught off guard by Avatar just pulling out the gun and shooting the evil wizard guy.
This movie invoked emotion that reflected the dirt and violence in the era. Being raised on 70s- 80s cartoons this one has a special place with the last unicorn. ❤
For reasons I cannot fathom, my father thought it suitable to show this film to my sister and I when we were four years old. Thanks Dad, for instilling me with a lifelong love of fantasy, violence, and films with an animation crew of four.
The Halo Scrolls The real question is “are _you_ being sarcastic?” 😀 Sarcasm is tough to read, but I’m pretty sure that comment is. Especially with the movie being Wizards. The same type of folks who would blame video games, blame slasher flicks, heavy metal, D&D, etc. too. Cartoons, after Comics/Dime Novels, were one of the first mediums to get blamed for corrupting the youth, so Wizards is a perfect movie for that comment.
This movie could never have been made any other way and been nearly as successful. It literally created its own niche and then filled it. And I will be forever grateful.
5:06 He's a robot painted red. That means he's 3 times faster than the usual robot of that type. Once Necron-99 is mass produced, they'll crush the federation!
@@Buttsmcgee069 OI GIT OF COURSE DA RED NECKRUN GOWS FASTER IT RED INT IT?! NEXT USE BE ASKING IF DA YELLOW WONS DONT BOOM DA BIGGEST. HA HA HA THE BASIKS OF EDUC…. EDJU…. LEARNINGS IZ A FOREIGN KONCEPT TO U INNIT.
A big influence on this film was Vaughn Bode's comic strip "Cheech Wizard," which was very subcultural. He was a unique talent and he should be remembered.
Bode had a character known as Cobalt 60 which was the inspiration for Nektron 90. And he had a whole series that was based on WWII German army called Junkwaffel. Well worth looking up.
This is sort of like a D&D campaign, but halfway through a player got confused and thought they were playing Fallout, but the DM just rolled with it. And there's boobs and Nazi imagery.
When Avatar is doing some conjuring, two of the words in his spell casting are "KRENKEL, FRAZETTA!" Frazetta I'm sure everyone recognizes, but Roy Krenkel was a famous Artist whose work appeared in SEVERAL publications, including Marvel comics and MAD magazine, not to mention numerous book covers!
“Listen guys trench warfare doesn’t work when you don’t have guns” Trench warfare also doesn’t work when you are facing against a literal 4th Reich blitzkrieg
It didn't even work against a 3rd Reich blitzkrieg, either. Though to be fair, the Maginot Line did work as intended. The problem is that the British and French didn't expect an entire army to rush through the Ardennes (even though it happened once in 1914).
@@MatthewSmith001do you not get what they were saying? bakshi made some corny, sleazy stuff that was bound to age poorly, but he was also great with expressions, universal truth, style and worldbuilding
The beauty of Bakshi is his ability of animation story telling with an extreme limited budget. The still frames were not just a great example of ingenuity, but I really feel the imagery has more of a resonance that most full animated scenes from other animated films completely miss. Not to mention Bakshi has more artistic diversity in his little toe than most modern animators have in their entire being.
Sora: As long as we believe, Believe with our hearts. We can do anything! Then he gets shot by a Nazi as Donald's shellshock kicks in. Then it goes from fantasy, to Rip and Tear.
I liked that he used Zootopia as a comparison piece near the end. Seeing as how it actually came close to being a dark and violent animated movie before they totally rewrote it.
@@jaymartin8273 The final version just leaves all the characters as arrogant unlikable cunts with no development and the moral message of "don't worry if you're in a job you personally can't perform. Someone else will do your work for you."
I always loved these old adult cartoons. It makes me wonder what US animation today would be like if Bakshi was as influential as Walt Disney. We might have R-rated cartoons that aren't cheap flash animations now.
Well 4 years later, and we see a rise of more mature cartoons that aren't cheap sitcoms that satirized American life for the umpteenth time. There are still plenty of bad adult cartoons, but there will always be bad cartoons no matter what. But now, Primal, Invincible, Arcane, Smiling Friends, Castlevania, Hitmonkey, Vox Machina, Tuca and Bertie, and more are becoming more experimental and ambitious. While it would be nice that Adult animation don't have to copy Simpsons, Family Guy, or South Park to be successful, it's better to be late than to never show up.
Even Spielberg himself admitted he could never do a straight dramatic or tense scene without succumbing to an inherent need to soften it with a bit of humor. You can see his attempts at that in Schindler's List and The Color Purple.
First time I saw this I was 6 or 7, as I got older I thought I just imagined it. As an adolescent, I took a bunch of mushrooms and went to a friend's house who had this movie on. Once again, after I sobered up I thought it was just the mushrooms doing their thing. Wasn't till my early 20s when I confirmed that the movie did indeed, actually exist. Great movie, love the art and different styles used in unison. Very unique and one of a kind. 👍
If you're wondering where some of the live-action footage comes from, it's Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 historical drama Alexander Nevsky. Which is kind of appropriate because the Teutonic Knights were very obviously used as an allegorical stand-in for Nazi Germans.
What happened to the PG rating? The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) realized that the public really was just NOT getting the point. They even created another rating, PG-13, hoping if they put an actual age in the rating people would understand not to bring children under that age to the show - they never did get it though, and that rating was softened to let children come as long as they were accompanied but some one who was technically a legal adult. But go to an R-rated film in USA now in 2018, especially if you go during the afternoon, and you are likely to find children as young as infants, 1,2, 5, 10 and 12 years old alternately scared and screaming, bored and screaming wandering through the aisles in a mixture of bored, scared and /or screaming.. or crying as any young child would if stuck in a dark movie theater for an hour and a half or longer. When you walk past the ticket podium you can even hear parents interrogating the ushers looking for loop-holes: "So.. how hard IS that R rating? Is there a lot of cursing and nudity or just blood, gore and violence? Because we are just FINE with letting our 10 year old son sit through 2 hours of brutal murders, Nazi atrocities, and people getting blown up.. we just don't want him to see bewbs!"
This is quite true, though I did see all 3 of the matrix films in theater as a child with my parents and not only was my mind blown away, I was inspired to take martial arts classes
Those were some cruel, cruel parents right there. Thankfully, in the UK, we had the Holiday show on Sundays at about 5.30 pm; each season featured a different montage of holiday shots during the opening credits, and the montage always featured a pair of bared boobs, which was nice.
Really funny because lots of G PG movies back in the day had Tits like 16 Candles,airplane,Logan's run,splash,romeo and juliet,outlaw josey whales, and clash of the titans just to name a few. I don't get this idea where "violence is ok but tits aren't" comes from when I've met adults from both sides as well as ones where both weren't ok. Not to mention how movies can be R for any number of reasons,Hell J Edgar got an R just because they said Fuck once
'Wizards' is excellent. If only Bakshi could've made 'Cool World' the way he wanted to initially, he'd likely still have made many more animated films afterwards including Wizards II.
"And maybe theres a happy little elf and a perky nipped fairy lady riiiiiiight there. That'll just be our little secret..." That was by far the most ive laughed at something on TH-cam. Ever. Seriously instead of milk coming out my nose I thought it was gonna be my brain. Well done! I know youre pretty damn popular on TH-cam but still more people need to see your stuff. Youre my favorite movie critic for sure. You also pick the best movies. I was thrilled to know that I had not completely imagined Blood Diner in a very drug fueled daydream. Cant wait til the next review!
Theres alot of anime that still doesn't make it to the west and is made for all kinds of audiences. Unfortunately most imported ones are shonen shows (for young boys) and porn or hentai. Granted things are increasingly changing, there's Crunchyroll after Sony bought them and Funimation. Also even Netflix is snapping up series to sub and dub as soon as they air. Anime is a medium that covers all kinds of genres and audiences, just as Bakshi wanted in the "West". In western animation there's more adult-oriented shows, mostly comedy, akin to the Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Futurama, and etc. Granted the quality of related shows on say Netflix can vary.
I saw Wizards in 77 when I was 10. Played at my local movie theater in SoCal as a matinee, for the local kids! It was a double feature with Fantastic Planet, another not for kids animated movie. I'm not sure what the theater owners were thinking, but the tickets cost about $2.50 and popcorn and soda was like another $2.75 or something. These features had a profound effect on me and I am sure changed the way I looked at cartoons from then on.
Whaaaat, you saw Fantastic Planet aged 10?!!? Hope you've got a good therapist ;) Just joking. I watched When the Wind Blows at about that age, thinking it was a fun cartoon, and somehow still survived it.
Mr Shambleface Given the similarity in premise, I always had that suspicion myself. Also, if what NerdXZ97 001 says is accurate, then that makes it seem even more likely.
My friend's dad thought this was just some cartoon VHS and rented it out for us to watch unsupervised...it was a weird and crazy experience for us 5 yr olds!
This is amongst my favorite movies from my childhood. It inspired my art style and made me think more deeply on why wars are fought. Thanks for reviewing it!
Man, I remember coming across this one quite a few years ago at a local movie rental place. What a wonderful film. The concept of clashing the horrors of reality with a fantasy setting is so genuinely creative. Especially with how seriously the characters in the film treat the themes for the most part. I really wish things like this coud still be made with somewhat of a budget these days, but I guess both moviegoers and mainstream producers don't have any respect for their own intelligence anymore...
This came on at 12am the other night. I knew about fritz the cat but didn't know the same guy made this too; I went in completely blind and was mesmerized by the weirdness. I didn't know if it was for kids or adults, and the nazi imagery caught me so off guard. I was falling asleep so I wrote down the name of the movie and finished it in the morning. Thank you for the video!
I love this movie. Bakshi is one of my favorite animators... even if his original idea for Cool World was ripped to shreds by the producers. One of the best.
Personally I find Bakshi's work to be quite interesting and fun to watch, but this movie is AWFUL! It is basically nothing but the ramblings of an aging NY jew struggling to put his tech paranoia across on film! The basic story telling and characters themselves, are also just total failures! So what in the world do you like about this movie?
HORRIOR absolutely agree with you. Love adult animation but hated this movie and never understood the hype. The plot is absolutely nonsensical, the characters boring. At times he playes the movie with by the book washed out stereotypes only to jump to anticlimax subversive resolutions (the hidden gun for example ). Add to that the confusing trippy combination of artstyles and the really awful sound design, horrible pacing + nonsensical fillers and you really got an utter train wreck of a movie.
I disagree. If it were released today, Wizards would be an R for the violence and Nazi imagery. (Yes, there's Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Indy's Nazis are buffoons. Bakshi's Nazi imagery is really darkly mythic.)
It was a cult film when it came out. The first time I saw that movie, the whole room cheered when Avatar shot Blackwolf. This is my favorite Bakdshi. You should look at "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." I would bet you would have a lot of fun with that.
Wizards is stolen from a comic called Cobalt 60 original artist is named Vaugh Bode!!! The creator of wizards has recently admitted and apologized for stealing the, idea look it up. Mark Bode the successor to Vaughn and recently talked about making his original idea with the cobalt 60 with Zach Snyder, Snyder however stopped the conversations of this movie with Mark because of all of the superhero movies that flooded the scene ten years ago and Zach went on to direct Superman instead.
@@patrickmassonne1919 It's a funny movie, partially... but a lot of the humor relies on it being a cheesy movie made that way on purpose, which undercuts a lot of the potential humor. This is a point I've tried (and failed) to make to people who are fans of movies like Sharknado: bad on purpose, is still bad. The unintentional humor you can derive from movies like say, Plan 9 From Outer Space, where there was a sincere effort made, will always be better than trying to derive humor from people aiming low on purpose.
I saw Wizards in the theater as a kid, and I was blown away by it. Seeing it as an adult, I recognize it's many, many flaws. But what Wizards is, that so many movies aren't, is actual ART. It's not a formulaic, franchised, Spielbergian button-pusher...it's got things to say, and tries to say them in innovative and amazing ways. Sure, the visuals are all over the map, and look cheesy and low-tech now, but in the 70s, this was mind-blowing imagery. I honestly believe that although Wizards misses it's mark in many ways, it aims so high (no pun intended), that even the miss is worth watching, thinking about, and discussing. And you can make some fun of the silly stuff, too. (I'm looking at you, Sean the Fairy!)
And that last "Columbo"-style turn on Blackwolf: "Oh, and one more thing, I'm glad you changed your last name, you son of a _bitch..."_ Say what you will about this movie, Avatar was a freaking beast for that 🤣
Hey! First time visiting your channel but OLD Bakshi fan! I adored him in my 20s and still love the "they killed Fritz!" scene. Thanks for rewaking some wild memories!
I think there was some back-story bit about avatar not being able to kill his brother, and somehow the name change actually removed that limitation. Magic rules are often about fine print. I could be misremembering though.
The Count of Monte Cristo I've read that the scene in Indiana Jones was originally planned as a big swordfight, but Harrison Ford was stomach sick that day so he suggested that he'd just shoot the guy instead. But at the same time, those scenes are still surprisingly similar so who knows?
@@dphalanx7465 To be fair the rotoscoping manages to work with the aesthetic of the film, showing these shadow demon armies and the post apocalyptic skyline and weather fitting the darkened rotoscoping stills.
@@mckenzie.latham91 My statement was not meant to be sarcastic. I believe that Bakshi has done more with rotoscoping than any other animation director in the 20th C.
@@dphalanx7465 I meant more in how the rotoscoping gets a lot of criticism by a lot of people, not that anyone here was doing that. I thought it was fair to mention that that style works well in this setting.
It's because PG now means "Practically G". The movies are sanitized to the point where they might deal with subjects young children shouldn't see but they're reasonably harmless. Before it meant that this might not be suitable for children and they meant it. There was no nudity, cursing was mild and there could be some violence. The original "Star Wars" was PG. Hell a movie like "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" threw the word "shit" in there specifically to avoid a PG rating. That bumped it up to PG-13.
Food for thought... Lion King has a G rating... My Little Pony the movie has a PG, if that doesn't prove ratings systems are practically pointless I don't know what does.
This is one of the movies that made think a little different about good and evil. Well imagine my surprise when I saw the last copy at this store. It took my breath away to think I had one of those movies that made look at the world in a different way.
I saw Wizards when it first came out. On the advice of someone who had seen it, three of us sat in the theater parking lot and got really wasted while our designated driver (one of the guys' sister) got the tickets. Twenty years later I saw it on the shelf in a (VHS) movie store. The only things I could remember about it were: it was very colorful, the whole crowd laughed a lot, there was an unexpected ending. Rented it, watched it again, still didn't remember much from the first time, only laughed a little, but enjoyed it enough to buy my own copy. Wasn't wasted that time. Fun movie.
I first saw this back in the early summer of 1977 at a small theater in Santa Anna, Ca. Had no idea what it was about, but being 16 and bored, figured "what the hell?" and was amazed. Have this movie on VHS and DVD and still watch it from time to time. My kids grew up with it and have their own copies for themselves. "Wizards" is a masterpiece that eclipses "Fritz the Cat" and "Cool World".
"Family Friendly" To be fair, when you realize just how much detail is in Grimm's Fairy Tales, and that they really were told to children, it almost seems like Ralph was just trying to bring back Grimm. And Avatar here probably just didn't watch Trigun to the end. But he caught up and learned the same lesson as Vash.
I came upon this movie one late night on tv years ago when I was babysitting. I was mesmerized, disturbed and couldn't look away. At least the kid I was watching was asleep
I first heard of Bakshi on the Sci-Fi channel anime marathon that also got me into Masamune Shirow and Project A-Ko. Pretty eventful weekend to shape my tastes pop culture wise.
In those dark days before Jessica Rabbit, there was Elanor. I think she was the start of my love affair with short, delightfully round, and soft women. Also, you forgot to give Vaughn Bode credit for the images that Bashki lifted/sampled. (A nice way to say ripped-off)
Here's another little fun fact... when fox approached Lucas to 'borrow' Mark Hamill (an established voice actor even by this point) Lucas said fine. But asked if they could NOT use the title 'Wizard Wars'! (Which was why the title was altered.)
Movies like this are why the MPAA eventually came up with the "PG-13" rating, because "PG" wasn't really taken too seriously by parents. Before PG-13, PG meant "not really for young children, but not enough sex, language, or explicit violence to warrant an R." PG-13 I guess was taken more seriously, but now it just means PG is seen as perhaps not for young children because of "suggestive themes" (which in my view, any children that understand what it's suggesting are probably old enough to hear the suggestions anyway, but w/e). Ratings used to be meant as guidance for parents, which arguably they still are meant to be, but now people just treat them as marketing tools telling people what audiences they are meant for. Moviemakers will actually adjust the level of violence and language in a movie up or down to get a certain rating based on what audience they want to attract. Shorter explanation, the standards were a lot looser back in the 60's/70's and a lot of movies that got PG back then would likely get PG-13 or even R under current standards.
Whole heartedly agree with the subjectivity of opinion angle! But I don't buy your 'humans are evil' claim. The flic is anti-imperialist, anti-corporate, anti-overconsumption & so on! But the film makes it clear not all humanity buys into these entities! You also gotta keep in mind that Mr. Cameron based the film off a bunch of old Sci/Fi books he read as a kid. (I could point out about 12!) & said themes were tre' chic in that period! Now for the record... 'Avatar' is by no means my favorite Sci/Fi film! But I give him MUCH credit for creating a work of vintage golden-age Sci/Fi!
I remember seeing commercials on TV for this movie, which were played only at late night. And I swear this movie was advertised as Rated R back in 1977.
In an interview with Bakshi, it did turn out there were scenes cut and changed as they couldnt afford to animate them due such a small and tight budget. The scene with the glacier is another such scene. They were supposed to end up some where else but having everything white saved on time and animation costs.
The Fantasy art of the characters (brown paper with black and white pencil) were the work of Mike Ploog, a master cartoonist. I've always thought of his work as super-organic.
Kudos for not censoring the Nazi imagery. We can all agree they were horrible people and did terrible things but that doesn't mean everything historical needs to be black boxed.
Eh the symbol itself is still widely used in Asian culture, it means unity, or something like that. But ya western culture primarily associates it with Nazis haha
@@haroldmaud9107 It's banned in Germany and frowned upon in every other western nation affected by WWII. Honestly though. Every side used tanks, planes and bombs so I'm not sure what's supposed to be so awful about it. The ideology that drove them was what was bad. They were also the aggressors. The war footage was the same thing every country did. I mean, it's war. Come on. You think it was different for the allies? UK bombed entire German cities with civilians. USA dropped 2 nukes on Japanese cities. Give me a break. There's nothing inherently "nazi" about the war footage other than Hitler and swastikas.
@@cptfalcon-9925 It is a very ancient symbol across all Indo-European cultures going back thousands of years. That's why the nazi regime chose it and other symbols such as runes (pre-Latin Germanic lettering). Because they were into that sort of thing. Shame that an ancient symbol is tarnished. As well as that little mustache and the name "Adolf."
Wow, I remember watching wizards when it came out remember my mom took us kids to the drive in to watch Fritz the cat. She was taken aback when it started but we talked her into watching the whole thing. Thanks Mom
I saw this in the theatre back in the 70s. Yes, I was blasted. What the fuck did you expect? I was a teenager and it was the 70s. About 10 years ago I got to meet Ralph Bakshi and have a 30 minute conversation with him at an animation festival, plus I scored a piece of signed production art from him.
In high school, I was dating a girl who’s dad introduced me to this movie. I had no idea what to expect. Long after I had ended the relationship with his daughter, Pete and I are friends to this day.
Lol. I have a relationship like that, too
Dylan Cross
now that’s a relationship 🙃
Pete knows what’s up.
Is Pete single? Coz I got news for you. Unless you're into that in which case that's cool.
Welp did you get laided
If you did then good job you got laided because of this movie
"With the projector destroyed, the war was over." That's quite an amazing analogy if you think about it.
Yes propaganda
It also is because the movie states that the demon forces under Blackwolf’s command were scary looking but actually cowards,
they didn’t have any discipline, and worse would break and run if enough of them were killed,
the projector was balckwolf’s way of terrorizing/breaking the elves/magic forces with blitz and holocaust imagery, which paralyzed them and allowed his demons to massacre them, as well as motivating them to do so.
without the projector their advantage was gone and with blackwolf dead, they had no power holding them together.
Perfect.
@@mckenzie.latham91 this is true of the Nazis, though only partly. Sure not every Nazi were cowards or people just strongarmed into their position because their families would pay the price otherwise (quite a few were wholeheartedly monsters). But their strength lied in propaganda, if they could get people in a fervor, whip people up until they were willing to fight to the bitter end? Get a charismatic leader and secret police and you'd have the National Socialist Party in all of their monsterousness. But when they started losing serious ground they began to doubt. When Berlin was bombed, only the army and SS were still fighting, when the leader killed himself and the Reichstag fell, the Germans surrendered almost immediately. The SS kept on but could accomplish nothing without the resources of a nation.
Social Media? Absolutely.
"In addition to weapons the bad guys also brought the funk" is my light today. The first video I've seen of yours and this sealed it.
"Look, One of the guys may have even brought a Disco Ball."
Ok
yes they do potty mouther 5:56 but still pretty awesome
"THEY'VE KILLED FRITZ!" is still the best line ever.
I never understood that line until today.
Someday when mankind is only bones, forgotten even by the wind "THEY'VE KILLED FRITZ!" will live on.
Dammit get out of my head. That's exactly what I was about to write
Oh there you go again, stepping on my lines, raining on my parade!!!
@@toddtaylor4649 Costing me medals!
One of the background artists of this movie, Ian Miller, also worked on early versions of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy; his dark fantasy style was really fitting for the universe.
It totally shows in the design of the early mercenary / Imperial soldier models too. Bakshi influenced the living hell out of the Nottingham-based team.
I can see the Warhammer Fantasy in those city backdrops. In fact, that's what they were reminding me off while I was watching it - the Enemy Within and similar.
Awesome
He also did some Lord of the Rings illustrations. Full of odd details
Wizards. An epic science fantasy with violence, nazism, and sexual innuendo. As Ralph Bakshi would put it, It's a family picture.
Ha ha!
Sounds like a party, lol
Beats Disney turning every teen in the US into a cumguzzling turboslut, you know, as they do..
Yeah we saw the same video.
@@afrog2666 Yup, now Disney just needs to start releasing family-friendly porn.
"Imagine if somethign like Wicked City, fucked a Loony Tune cartoon and you would still be like halfway there" - Brandon on Bakshi's animation, 2018
*"And maybe there's a happy little wizard and a perky nipped fairy lady riiight there. And that'll just be our little secret."*
😂🤣😆 bahahaha
Here's an interesting bit of trivia: a lot of the stock footage of "nazi" war machines they used for rotoscoping is actually footage of American equipment, the animators are just using it as a stand-in for actual WWII German hardware. But the fun part is that most of the tanks I saw in this movie are very obviously (well, obvious to tank enthusiasts, at least) M48 Pattons... which got used as stand-ins for German Tiger Tanks in WWII movies for decades. Even in the realm of animation, the Patton continues to find work as the Tiger's stunt double. And I think that's absolutely hilarious.
Very few German tanks actually survived the war (largely due to well you know, Germany losing) so WWII movies were almost always forced to use American tanks with a German paint job as stand-ins. A lot of people that have only ever seen WWII movies are thus trained not to even notice the difference.
Most Germans were acted by sweJ in movies because they controlled what was allowed to be shown in history books.
And M-47s from The Battle of the Bulge film. And I agree with Troodon
All I know about tanks I learned from like maybe 2 Lindybeige videos, and even then the tanks looked American to me. I always associate the US with relatively small quick tanks, and the Germans with really big heavy tanks. I'm sure it's not that simple.
Oh good ! I’m not the only nerd who noticed all this ! … I’m like “ That looks like a scene from Patton “ and “ ..the Germans didn’t have Walker Bulldogs “ 😂 …… it’s kind of refreshing to see this comment with so many likes !
I remember seeing this as a kid. My mom was going to the video rental place, and my brothers and I asked that she pick up "The Wizard," as we were big on Nintendo. She came back with this and we watched it. I think we were too young to understand the concept and imagery, but I'll never forget our reaction to hearing a cartoon say "I'm glad you changed your name you son of a bitch."
Yup
I saw it on cable after school.
That line hit me hard too.
Still one of the best anti-fascist movies
@@seanfaherty I haven't seen WIZARDS in..... I forget HOW LONG. Tempus fugits.
THAT was pretty shocking,. And quite groundbreaking too back in the seventies, because profanity was not something common in a cartoon.
@@Dunlop-hg2ql I'm *kinda old enough* to remember when showing *BATHROOMS / RESTROOMS* was frowned upon even if they DIDN'T show a toilet, etc. The series " Love, American Style " was about as spicy as things got. But if my parents heard anything SOUNDING REMOTELY profane or obscene, click ! That channel would CHANGE ! With alacrity.
@@Dunlop-hg2ql & when my mom & I actually WATCHED " Wizards " I felt like I was in a TRULY FREAKY alternate universe.
Mark Hamill had more screen time in this movie than Kingsman and The Force Awakens combined
I think I remember seeing the ending to this and being completely caught off guard by Avatar just pulling out the gun and shooting the evil wizard guy.
Two from the Luger and I get to go home.
Also he calls his brother a Son of a Bitch... like, brah, that's your mom too.
The cartoon bouncing noise over the execution from “Schindler’s List” was much funnier than it should have been.
I mean, you ain’t wrong.
This movie invoked emotion that reflected the dirt and violence in the era. Being raised on 70s- 80s cartoons this one has a special place with the last unicorn. ❤
For reasons I cannot fathom, my father thought it suitable to show this film to my sister and I when we were four years old. Thanks Dad, for instilling me with a lifelong love of fantasy, violence, and films with an animation crew of four.
I don't know why but Peace's design was my favourite
Designed by Vaughn Bodē
Um same? He was COOL!
It’s peace don’t you get it
@@willdpe1256 1qa6
"They were actually defeated with violence."
This can be said about almost every threat in human history.
Violence is like how Homer described alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
What are you talking about there was never any violence throughout history, its all caused by video games
goldencash4 are you being serious or sarcastic?
Louis Duarte
A bunch of people think you spelled “women” wrong.
The Halo Scrolls
The real question is “are _you_ being sarcastic?”
😀 Sarcasm is tough to read, but I’m pretty sure that comment is. Especially with the movie being Wizards. The same type of folks who would blame video games, blame slasher flicks, heavy metal, D&D, etc. too.
Cartoons, after Comics/Dime Novels, were one of the first mediums to get blamed for corrupting the youth, so Wizards is a perfect movie for that comment.
This movie could never have been made any other way and been nearly as successful. It literally created its own niche and then filled it. And I will be forever grateful.
5:06
He's a robot painted red.
That means he's 3 times faster than the usual robot of that type.
Once Necron-99 is mass produced, they'll crush the federation!
WAAAGGG RED MAKS DA BOYZ GO FASTAH
@@S_047But does red make a Necron go faster?
@@Buttsmcgee069 OI GIT OF COURSE DA RED NECKRUN GOWS FASTER IT RED INT IT?! NEXT USE BE ASKING IF DA YELLOW WONS DONT BOOM DA BIGGEST.
HA HA HA THE BASIKS OF EDUC…. EDJU…. LEARNINGS IZ A FOREIGN KONCEPT TO U INNIT.
@@Buttsmcgee069 I made a long orc speech but TH-cam didn’t save it and I can’t remember what I wrote sorry.
A big influence on this film was Vaughn Bode's comic strip "Cheech Wizard," which was very subcultural. He was a unique talent and he should be remembered.
Bode had a character known as Cobalt 60 which was the inspiration for Nektron 90. And he had a whole series that was based on WWII German army called Junkwaffel. Well worth looking up.
"I'm too old for this sort of thing. Just wake me up when the planet is destroyed." Love it!
This is sort of like a D&D campaign, but halfway through a player got confused and thought they were playing Fallout, but the DM just rolled with it. And there's boobs and Nazi imagery.
Yes I want in on that action.
Lmao 😄😂
Are there not copious boobs in your DND games?
Nah, this is just the transitioning point between the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series.
More like the Prototype for Rifts,with a smidge of Gamma World
"The safe word is Frazetta."
Well if that line doesn't warrant an upvote, nothing does!
Ah but Frazetta was the God-king of fantasy art at the time.
I just want to know how he knew my standard safeword?
anjinash holy fuck that was hilarious lmao!
Delgen1951 at the time?? of all time!
When Avatar is doing some conjuring, two of the words in his spell casting are "KRENKEL, FRAZETTA!" Frazetta I'm sure everyone recognizes, but Roy Krenkel was a famous Artist whose work appeared in SEVERAL publications, including Marvel comics and MAD magazine, not to mention numerous book covers!
“Listen guys trench warfare doesn’t work when you don’t have guns”
Trench warfare also doesn’t work when you are facing against a literal 4th Reich blitzkrieg
Historically true. People are always preparing for the last war.
party time! got a date for that?
It didn't even work against a 3rd Reich blitzkrieg, either. Though to be fair, the Maginot Line did work as intended. The problem is that the British and French didn't expect an entire army to rush through the Ardennes (even though it happened once in 1914).
Actually trenches were being used as far back as medieval times, because they provided a fortified position out of arrow fire range.
And especially when you AREN'T TALL ENOUGH TO SEE ANYTHING!
Paradoxically, Bakshi was ahead of his time and totally of his time.
Oxymoronic much? Fun.
@@MatthewSmith001do you not get what they were saying? bakshi made some corny, sleazy stuff that was bound to age poorly, but he was also great with expressions, universal truth, style and worldbuilding
The beauty of Bakshi is his ability of animation story telling with an extreme limited budget. The still frames were not just a great example of ingenuity, but I really feel the imagery has more of a resonance that most full animated scenes from other animated films completely miss. Not to mention Bakshi has more artistic diversity in his little toe than most modern animators have in their entire being.
"THEY KILLED FRITZ!!!!"
The developers of Everquest 2 loved this line so much that they threw it into their NPC dialogue as an Easter Egg for one of their zones.
7:27
How petty.
“Max..Max...i’m okay, see i’m alright"
I cant wait for Wizards to be in Kingdom hearts
I get the feeling Nomura would be all over that if he knew about it.
............We must Send Nomura a copy of Wizards.
Hell no.
@@Panther-Strife4724 you mean hell yeah
holy hell yes! Sora has a very awkward sexual awaking.
Sora: As long as we believe, Believe with our hearts. We can do anything!
Then he gets shot by a Nazi as Donald's shellshock kicks in. Then it goes from fantasy, to Rip and Tear.
Just imagine what Ralph could've accomplished if someone had actually given him a budget to work with.
It’s a massive what if but I really don’t want undercut his creative endeavors. He’s great.
@@1travstone He was a real trailblazer for adult animation. Unfortunately, I love what he tried to accomplish more than the actual movies he produced.
I liked that he used Zootopia as a comparison piece near the end. Seeing as how it actually came close to being a dark and violent animated movie before they totally rewrote it.
And the final version was still pretty dark, so it evens out :=)
What would Quentin Tarantino's _Zootopia_ have been like!? It's right here: th-cam.com/video/C7jgkk7AhPE/w-d-xo.html
@@jaymartin8273 The final version just leaves all the characters as arrogant unlikable cunts with no development and the moral message of "don't worry if you're in a job you personally can't perform. Someone else will do your work for you."
@@legionbeast Eh I personally wouldn't go that far but yeah still pretty serious for a 'kids' movie
Yeah, with the predators being forced to wear shock collars that will shock them if they express any emotion other than happiness.
I always loved these old adult cartoons. It makes me wonder what US animation today would be like if Bakshi was as influential as Walt Disney. We might have R-rated cartoons that aren't cheap flash animations now.
Satanen Perkele Very off, but ok
Well 4 years later, and we see a rise of more mature cartoons that aren't cheap sitcoms that satirized American life for the umpteenth time. There are still plenty of bad adult cartoons, but there will always be bad cartoons no matter what. But now, Primal, Invincible, Arcane, Smiling Friends, Castlevania, Hitmonkey, Vox Machina, Tuca and Bertie, and more are becoming more experimental and ambitious. While it would be nice that Adult animation don't have to copy Simpsons, Family Guy, or South Park to be successful, it's better to be late than to never show up.
Did I just laugh at an execution scene from Schindler's List?
That was so wrong!
"We aren't going to argue with these people!"
*[BLAM]*
That's some good editing there if you're laughing at that movie
Yeah, I know. I'm totally going to hell for it.
Even Spielberg himself admitted he could never do a straight dramatic or tense scene without succumbing to an inherent need to soften it with a bit of humor. You can see his attempts at that in Schindler's List and The Color Purple.
Ralph Bakshi’s work is phenomenal. Seriously underrated and awesome.
First time I saw this I was 6 or 7, as I got older I thought I just imagined it. As an adolescent, I took a bunch of mushrooms and went to a friend's house who had this movie on. Once again, after I sobered up I thought it was just the mushrooms doing their thing. Wasn't till my early 20s when I confirmed that the movie did indeed, actually exist. Great movie, love the art and different styles used in unison. Very unique and one of a kind. 👍
I saw this at the movies when I was in high school.
If you're wondering where some of the live-action footage comes from, it's Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 historical drama Alexander Nevsky. Which is kind of appropriate because the Teutonic Knights were very obviously used as an allegorical stand-in for Nazi Germans.
What happened to the PG rating?
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) realized that the public really was just NOT getting the point.
They even created another rating, PG-13, hoping if they put an actual age in the rating people would understand
not to bring children under that age to the show - they never did get it though, and that rating was softened to
let children come as long as they were accompanied but some one who was technically a legal adult.
But go to an R-rated film in USA now in 2018, especially if you go during the afternoon, and you are likely to find
children as young as infants, 1,2, 5, 10 and 12 years old alternately scared and screaming, bored and screaming
wandering through the aisles in a mixture of bored, scared and /or screaming.. or crying as any young child would if
stuck in a dark movie theater for an hour and a half or longer. When you walk past the ticket podium you can even
hear parents interrogating the ushers looking for loop-holes: "So.. how hard IS that R rating? Is there a lot of cursing
and nudity or just blood, gore and violence? Because we are just FINE with letting our 10 year old son sit through 2
hours of brutal murders, Nazi atrocities, and people getting blown up.. we just don't want him to see bewbs!"
This is quite true, though I did see all 3 of the matrix films in theater as a child with my parents and not only was my mind blown away, I was inspired to take martial arts classes
America fuck yeah ! Guns are good and boobs are evil
It's not "war crimes", its "war features"
Those were some cruel, cruel parents right there.
Thankfully, in the UK, we had the Holiday show on Sundays at about 5.30 pm; each season featured a different montage of holiday shots during the opening credits, and the montage always featured a pair of bared boobs, which was nice.
Really funny because lots of G PG movies back in the day had Tits like 16 Candles,airplane,Logan's run,splash,romeo and juliet,outlaw josey whales, and clash of the titans just to name a few. I don't get this idea where "violence is ok but tits aren't" comes from when I've met adults from both sides as well as ones where both weren't ok. Not to mention how movies can be R for any number of reasons,Hell J Edgar got an R just because they said Fuck once
'Wizards' is excellent. If only Bakshi could've made 'Cool World' the way he wanted to initially, he'd likely still have made many more animated films afterwards including Wizards II.
"And maybe theres a happy little elf and a perky nipped fairy lady riiiiiiight there. That'll just be our little secret..."
That was by far the most ive laughed at something on TH-cam. Ever. Seriously instead of milk coming out my nose I thought it was gonna be my brain. Well done! I know youre pretty damn popular on TH-cam but still more people need to see your stuff. Youre my favorite movie critic for sure. You also pick the best movies. I was thrilled to know that I had not completely imagined Blood Diner in a very drug fueled daydream. Cant wait til the next review!
A huge fan of Ralph Bakshi's work here. I wish there were more adult animated like this nowadays.
Some anime is done for adults.hunter x hunter,JoJo bizarre adventures and cowboy bebop all have violence not suited for kids.
Theres alot of anime that still doesn't make it to the west and is made for all kinds of audiences. Unfortunately most imported ones are shonen shows (for young boys) and porn or hentai. Granted things are increasingly changing, there's Crunchyroll after Sony bought them and Funimation. Also even Netflix is snapping up series to sub and dub as soon as they air. Anime is a medium that covers all kinds of genres and audiences, just as Bakshi wanted in the "West".
In western animation there's more adult-oriented shows, mostly comedy, akin to the Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Futurama, and etc. Granted the quality of related shows on say Netflix can vary.
Amen.
I saw Wizards in 77 when I was 10. Played at my local movie theater in SoCal as a matinee, for the local kids!
It was a double feature with Fantastic Planet, another not for kids animated movie. I'm not sure what the theater owners were thinking, but the tickets cost about $2.50 and popcorn and soda was like another $2.75 or something. These features had a profound effect on me and I am sure changed the way I looked at cartoons from then on.
Whaaaat, you saw Fantastic Planet aged 10?!!? Hope you've got a good therapist ;)
Just joking. I watched When the Wind Blows at about that age, thinking it was a fun cartoon, and somehow still survived it.
I bet this had some influence over Adventure Time lore, only with less Nazis and guns
Mr Shambleface kinda fun since the same animators graduated from ralph bakshi school.
and less tits....well in the show anyways. Gotta love rule34.
Mr Shambleface Given the similarity in premise, I always had that suspicion myself. Also, if what NerdXZ97 001 says is accurate, then that makes it seem even more likely.
Mr Shambleface
Twice Upon a Time was probably an influence to Adventure Time as well.
Mr Shambleface Ralph Bakashi has a school?
I loved "Fire and Ice". He put his name like 20 times in the opening credits on that one lol
Yeah he was really proud of that movie. Frank Frazetta worked on it too.
That juke box was produced magically, so then maybe THAT made it alright?
What about the Luger?
The trike Mom taught? We can hide things up your sleeve.
My friend's dad thought this was just some cartoon VHS and rented it out for us to watch unsupervised...it was a weird and crazy experience for us 5 yr olds!
This is the movie from my childhood that gave me a chubby, pixie fetish.
Agreed
This is amongst my favorite movies from my childhood. It inspired my art style and made me think more deeply on why wars are fought. Thanks for reviewing it!
Man, I remember coming across this one quite a few years ago at a local movie rental place. What a wonderful film. The concept of clashing the horrors of reality with a fantasy setting is so genuinely creative. Especially with how seriously the characters in the film treat the themes for the most part. I really wish things like this coud still be made with somewhat of a budget these days, but I guess both moviegoers and mainstream producers don't have any respect for their own intelligence anymore...
Intelligence is bad but also good today.
Remember, you are stoopid if we say so
"It's a FAMILY picture!"
Justin Karvelot hahaha...I wish
I'm surprised it got the PG rating when it was released on DVD in New Zealand. It was originally rated M.
shanta824 its a nostalgia critic joke
This came on at 12am the other night. I knew about fritz the cat but didn't know the same guy made this too; I went in completely blind and was mesmerized by the weirdness. I didn't know if it was for kids or adults, and the nazi imagery caught me so off guard. I was falling asleep so I wrote down the name of the movie and finished it in the morning. Thank you for the video!
Convinced my mom to rent this for me from the local video store, based on the PG rating. She made me turn it off...
And Ralph Bakshi is indirectly responsible for the Nostalgia Critic’s “A Family Movie” joke.
A FAAAAAAAAMILY Pictah!
hes also responsible for stealing the idea for Wizards from Vaughn Bode
@@ratskraad5890 I see slight resemblances between their works.
Not only does Ralph regret Cool world he also regrets that
😂😂
I love this movie. Bakshi is one of my favorite animators... even if his original idea for Cool World was ripped to shreds by the producers. One of the best.
Personally I find Bakshi's work to be quite interesting and fun to watch, but this movie is AWFUL! It is basically nothing but the ramblings of an aging NY jew struggling to put his tech paranoia across on film! The basic story telling and characters themselves, are also just total failures! So what in the world do you like about this movie?
HORRIOR absolutely agree with you. Love adult animation but hated this movie and never understood the hype. The plot is absolutely nonsensical, the characters boring. At times he playes the movie with by the book washed out stereotypes only to jump to anticlimax subversive resolutions (the hidden gun for example ).
Add to that the confusing trippy combination of artstyles and the really awful sound design, horrible pacing + nonsensical fillers and you really got an utter train wreck of a movie.
"What happened to the PG rating?" Easy: the addition of PG-13 for films like this (1984).
I disagree. If it were released today, Wizards would be an R for the violence and Nazi imagery. (Yes, there's Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Indy's Nazis are buffoons. Bakshi's Nazi imagery is really darkly mythic.)
Maybe for the sexual conduct.
It was a cult film when it came out. The first time I saw that movie, the whole room cheered when Avatar shot Blackwolf. This is my favorite Bakdshi.
You should look at "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." I would bet you would have a lot of fun with that.
Wizards is stolen from a comic called Cobalt 60 original artist is named Vaugh Bode!!! The creator of wizards has recently admitted and apologized for stealing the, idea look it up. Mark Bode the successor to Vaughn and recently talked about making his original idea with the cobalt 60 with Zach Snyder, Snyder however stopped the conversations of this movie with Mark because of all of the superhero movies that flooded the scene ten years ago and Zach went on to direct Superman instead.
@@ratskraad5890 influenced by. Not the same thing.
Never got it. Never will.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes that is.
@@patrickmassonne1919 It's a funny movie, partially... but a lot of the humor relies on it being a cheesy movie made that way on purpose, which undercuts a lot of the potential humor. This is a point I've tried (and failed) to make to people who are fans of movies like Sharknado: bad on purpose, is still bad. The unintentional humor you can derive from movies like say, Plan 9 From Outer Space, where there was a sincere effort made, will always be better than trying to derive humor from people aiming low on purpose.
"Very bad. Not good." has become a meme. I still use it a lot.
BTW, well done, Kid.
You make it sound like Wizards is a bad thing. It was brilliant. My favorite cartoon. I always hoped there would be a sequel.
I saw Wizards in the theater as a kid, and I was blown away by it. Seeing it as an adult, I recognize it's many, many flaws. But what Wizards is, that so many movies aren't, is actual ART. It's not a formulaic, franchised, Spielbergian button-pusher...it's got things to say, and tries to say them in innovative and amazing ways. Sure, the visuals are all over the map, and look cheesy and low-tech now, but in the 70s, this was mind-blowing imagery. I honestly believe that although Wizards misses it's mark in many ways, it aims so high (no pun intended), that even the miss is worth watching, thinking about, and discussing. And you can make some fun of the silly stuff, too. (I'm looking at you, Sean the Fairy!)
I feel the same about wizards.
Ha, you don't seem to know Brandon. He actually really like this movie. Check out his Starcrash II review for a movie that is a bad thing :)
I mean, where is there to go with a sequel?
There's definitely at least two things to love about this movie.
That schindlers list boing got a like out of me
I laughed and had to replay it.
I respect your opinion, but as for me, that sh*t ain't funny in any context. Do love Brandon's sense of humor though. Peace.
'Let me show you a trick mom taught me while you weren't around...'
"To use on special occasions such as this".
And that last "Columbo"-style turn on Blackwolf:
"Oh, and one more thing, I'm glad you changed your last name, you son of a _bitch..."_
Say what you will about this movie, Avatar was a freaking beast for that 🤣
My parents saw this in the theater. They showed it to me years later, probably before they should have, and I've loved it ever since.
Hey! First time visiting your channel but OLD Bakshi fan! I adored him in my 20s and still love the "they killed Fritz!" scene. Thanks for rewaking some wild memories!
"I'm glad you changed your last name, you sonovabitch"
Great one liner, Avatar, but you do realize you share the same mother...
I think he meant "I disown you" before murdering him, seeing as his brother probably abandoned their mother's maiden name.
Was her name "Martha"?
I think there was some back-story bit about avatar not being able to kill his brother, and somehow the name change actually removed that limitation. Magic rules are often about fine print. I could be misremembering though.
This is a guilty pleasure film of mine. The ending confrontation caught me off guard when I first viewed it.
You shouldn't feel guilty for loving this movie, it's a classic.
I thought of this movie at the end of the Logan movie where Logan shoots the doctor. Nobody thinks he'll pull a gun.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Do you think Bakshi was a fan of Indiana Jones?
Gertrud Bondesson Well this came out in 1977 and Raiders came out in 1981. So either Spielberg was a fan or it's a coincidence.
The Count of Monte Cristo
I've read that the scene in Indiana Jones was originally planned as a big swordfight, but Harrison Ford was stomach sick that day so he suggested that he'd just shoot the guy instead. But at the same time, those scenes are still surprisingly similar so who knows?
Holy crap, FINALLY! I've been waiting for someone to cover this madness. :P
should check out off the shelf review of this film its quite entertaining as well.
I was soooo stoned when I first saw Wizards when it came out. It was sooooo freaky.
9:17 I'm pretty sure they used footage from 1938 masterpiece "Alexander Nevsky".
They did. Also "Zulu", and "Battle of the Bulge". And all the WW2 documentary footage they could get for free. God Bless the King of Rotoscoping!
@@dphalanx7465 They used "Battle of the Bulge", too? That would explain the overabundance of Pattons pretending to be Tiger Tanks, then.
@@dphalanx7465 To be fair the rotoscoping manages to work with the aesthetic of the film, showing these shadow demon armies and the post apocalyptic skyline and weather fitting the darkened rotoscoping stills.
@@mckenzie.latham91 My statement was not meant to be sarcastic. I believe that Bakshi has done more with rotoscoping than any other animation director in the 20th C.
@@dphalanx7465 I meant more in how the rotoscoping gets a lot of criticism by a lot of people, not that anyone here was doing that.
I thought it was fair to mention that that style works well in this setting.
Ralph also gave the world Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, in 1987.
Vincent Franklin
Along side the creator of Ren & Stimpy.
That was really good
This was before pg 13. Pg 13 was made for these movies
Plus, rating and animation is weird. The second Ghost In The Shell movie when released here was given a PG-13, and that had PLENTY of violence.
It's because PG now means "Practically G". The movies are sanitized to the point where they might deal with subjects young children shouldn't see but they're reasonably harmless. Before it meant that this might not be suitable for children and they meant it. There was no nudity, cursing was mild and there could be some violence. The original "Star Wars" was PG. Hell a movie like "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" threw the word "shit" in there specifically to avoid a PG rating. That bumped it up to PG-13.
When it was released in New Zealand, it was given the M mature rating. When It was released on DVD, got the PG rating.
yet ironically... now pg-13 films wouldn't allow half the stuff in this movie in such amounts.
Food for thought... Lion King has a G rating... My Little Pony the movie has a PG, if that doesn't prove ratings systems are practically pointless I don't know what does.
As a child of nine, I saw this in the theaters when it came out, and I blame it for my life long fascination with the Luftwaffe.
This was one of the films I studied in animation school.
more movies should do this kind of post-apocalyptic, fantasy/sci-fi mashup setting
This is one of the movies that made think a little different about good and evil. Well imagine my surprise when I saw the last copy at this store. It took my breath away to think I had one of those movies that made look at the world in a different way.
I think my phone is spying on me. I caught the last five minutes of this channel surfing on tv earlier today, and now TH-cam suggests this.
I saw Wizards when it first came out. On the advice of someone who had seen it, three of us sat in the theater parking lot and got really wasted while our designated driver (one of the guys' sister) got the tickets. Twenty years later I saw it on the shelf in a (VHS) movie store. The only things I could remember about it were: it was very colorful, the whole crowd laughed a lot, there was an unexpected ending. Rented it, watched it again, still didn't remember much from the first time, only laughed a little, but enjoyed it enough to buy my own copy. Wasn't wasted that time. Fun movie.
I first saw this back in the early summer of 1977 at a small theater in Santa Anna, Ca. Had no idea what it was about, but being 16 and bored, figured "what the hell?" and was amazed. Have this movie on VHS and DVD and still watch it from time to time. My kids grew up with it and have their own copies for themselves. "Wizards" is a masterpiece that eclipses "Fritz the Cat" and "Cool World".
"Family Friendly" To be fair, when you realize just how much detail is in Grimm's Fairy Tales, and that they really were told to children, it almost seems like Ralph was just trying to bring back Grimm. And Avatar here probably just didn't watch Trigun to the end. But he caught up and learned the same lesson as Vash.
I came upon this movie one late night on tv years ago when I was babysitting. I was mesmerized, disturbed and couldn't look away. At least the kid I was watching was asleep
12:48-13:09 Admit it Brandon, you have an elf fetish.
Can yo blame him? I mean, look at this fine example: e621.net/post/show/1414606/absurd_res-big_breasts-big_butt-breasts-butt-cleav
whiterabbit75 Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well.
+geardog24
I'm also a man of wealth and taste. Have you guessed my name? :P
who doesn't?
this was the movie my father and i bonded over when i was a child and that's why i'm a little weird now.
Necron is clearly influenced by Vaughn Bode's "Cobalt 60" character. Bode's "Cheech Wizard" also seems influential to "Wizards" as well.
I was in middle school when my parents rented this movie for me back in the late 80s early 90s, and it blew my mind. LMAO. Good Memories!
I first heard of Bakshi on the Sci-Fi channel anime marathon that also got me into Masamune Shirow and Project A-Ko. Pretty eventful weekend to shape my tastes pop culture wise.
Me too
Man I remember watching this film alot when I was a kid.
kingdomkreep yeah back then you didn't know what Nazis were
In those dark days before Jessica Rabbit, there was Elanor. I think she was the start of my love affair with short, delightfully round, and soft women.
Also, you forgot to give Vaughn Bode credit for the images that Bashki lifted/sampled. (A nice way to say ripped-off)
I checked the Vaughn Bode stuff and Wizards is quite the rip-off..
You had me at "you can pose for a Hawkwind album cover later". I love you, man.
You officially ruined Schindler’s List. That takes some talent.
The extra information I found out from this review alone blew my mind. Awesome!
Here's another little fun fact... when fox approached Lucas to 'borrow' Mark Hamill (an established voice actor even by this point) Lucas said fine. But asked if they could NOT use the title 'Wizard Wars'! (Which was why the title was altered.)
Saw this in the late 80s as a kid and followed up with heavy metal. I was hooked on the gritty american animation style.
My favorite movie... The PG part had me crying with laughter....lol
Movies like this are why the MPAA eventually came up with the "PG-13" rating, because "PG" wasn't really taken too seriously by parents. Before PG-13, PG meant "not really for young children, but not enough sex, language, or explicit violence to warrant an R." PG-13 I guess was taken more seriously, but now it just means PG is seen as perhaps not for young children because of "suggestive themes" (which in my view, any children that understand what it's suggesting are probably old enough to hear the suggestions anyway, but w/e). Ratings used to be meant as guidance for parents, which arguably they still are meant to be, but now people just treat them as marketing tools telling people what audiences they are meant for. Moviemakers will actually adjust the level of violence and language in a movie up or down to get a certain rating based on what audience they want to attract.
Shorter explanation, the standards were a lot looser back in the 60's/70's and a lot of movies that got PG back then would likely get PG-13 or even R under current standards.
@@troodon1096 I have seen The Omega Man and that had a topless scene and the movie was rated PG.
One of my favorite movies, the struggle between good and evil, it’s weird as hell😂😂😂
So it was Ralph Bakshi was created the first Avatar.
No, it wasn't.
Whole heartedly agree with the subjectivity of opinion angle! But I don't buy your 'humans are evil' claim. The flic is anti-imperialist, anti-corporate, anti-overconsumption & so on! But the film makes it clear not all humanity buys into these entities! You also gotta keep in mind that Mr. Cameron based the film off a bunch of old Sci/Fi books he read as a kid. (I could point out about 12!) & said themes were tre' chic in that period!
Now for the record... 'Avatar' is by no means my favorite Sci/Fi film! But I give him MUCH credit for creating a work of vintage golden-age Sci/Fi!
it was actually the Hindus but whatever
Wizards and Avatar are classics.
DonPeyote
It was actually the Sumatrans but whatever.
Actually I can recognize some of the stock footage used in this film.
Zulu!!!
Castle Keep!!!
Cyrus Karloff that's right
Zulu Dawn as well. He evidently liked both those movies...a LOT.
Charge of the light brigade as well, I think.
I thought I saw the cavalry charge from Waterloo but might be wrong.
The "terrible aiming" of the Stormtroopers was actually part of the plan to track the rebels to the terrorist base on Yavin IV
In the first film
@@thomastakesatollforthedark2231 And Darth Vader wanted them alive in the other films as I recall it.
@@onlypeaceindeath ehhhhhh
I remember seeing commercials on TV for this movie, which were played only at late night. And I swear this movie was advertised as Rated R back in 1977.
In an interview with Bakshi, it did turn out there were scenes cut and changed as they couldnt afford to animate them due such a small and tight budget. The scene with the glacier is another such scene. They were supposed to end up some where else but having everything white saved on time and animation costs.
The Fantasy art of the characters (brown paper with black and white pencil) were the work of Mike Ploog, a master cartoonist. I've always thought of his work as super-organic.
Kudos for not censoring the Nazi imagery. We can all agree they were horrible people and did terrible things but that doesn't mean everything historical needs to be black boxed.
Uhhhhhhh when has Nazi imagery EVER BEEN against the rules in the first place?
It's not against the rules per se, but in today's political environment few have the guts to display it anymore no matter the context.
Eh the symbol itself is still widely used in Asian culture, it means unity, or something like that. But ya western culture primarily associates it with Nazis haha
@@haroldmaud9107
It's banned in Germany and frowned upon in every other western nation affected by WWII.
Honestly though. Every side used tanks, planes and bombs so I'm not sure what's supposed to be so awful about it. The ideology that drove them was what was bad. They were also the aggressors. The war footage was the same thing every country did. I mean, it's war. Come on. You think it was different for the allies? UK bombed entire German cities with civilians. USA dropped 2 nukes on Japanese cities. Give me a break. There's nothing inherently "nazi" about the war footage other than Hitler and swastikas.
@@cptfalcon-9925
It is a very ancient symbol across all Indo-European cultures going back thousands of years. That's why the nazi regime chose it and other symbols such as runes (pre-Latin Germanic lettering). Because they were into that sort of thing. Shame that an ancient symbol is tarnished. As well as that little mustache and the name "Adolf."
Damn you, Brandon. Another DVD you've convinced me to buy!
Wow, I remember watching wizards when it came out remember my mom took us kids to the drive in to watch Fritz the cat. She was taken aback when it started but we talked her into watching the whole thing. Thanks Mom
That was THE best Wizards' Duel ever.
I saw this in the theatre back in the 70s. Yes, I was blasted. What the fuck did you expect? I was a teenager and it was the 70s. About 10 years ago I got to meet Ralph Bakshi and have a 30 minute conversation with him at an animation festival, plus I scored a piece of signed production art from him.