Wizards (1977)

Tolkien with a lava lamp

By Thomas  Jul 26, 2004

Pros: Great landscapes and 70's soundtrack

Cons: Tolkien rip-off

Bakshi was quoted in the May 2004 Entertainment Weekly as saying, "I get lots of e-mail that says emotionally speaking, I was closer to Tolkien, as great as I hear the other films were in effects... I'm not down on Peter Jackson. I'm sur...e he did a good job.. but I haven't seen his films. I don't see where it would do me any good... The Lord of the Rings ain't my life. It's Tolkien's life. It's just not that important to me anymore."In the interview featurette included with the Wizards DVD, Bakshi never once mentions LOTR. Come on now, Bakshi. LOTR was once your life, at least between 1975-1977. The story and theme parallels between Wizards and LOTR is so obvious, it's embarrassing. Instead of a ring, there's the "dream machine" which is TV/media (I actually like that idea, but Tolkien already alluded to it with the Palantirs). Instead of a "bad blood" feud of Dwarves vs. Elves, it's Faeries vs. Elves. There's even a Shelob-like sequence in a cave, for crying out loud. I could go on forever. There's very little original material here where narrative, plot, and theme are concerned.On the positive side, Bakshi is one of the most inventive animators ever with a style somewhere between Crumb, Terry Gilliam, and Dr. Seuss. I absolutely love his landscapes, the rotoscoping technique (which is very retro, but also very eery), and the use of film footage as backdrops. The seventies soundtrack brings a smile to my face, despite being dated and locked in a time capsule (wah-wah guitar and flange rule.)This movie is definitely not a "family movie," though Bakshi seems to think it is. It does, however, deserve to be a classic of low-budget adult animation, along the ranks of others like Pink Floyd's "The Wall," Laloux's "Fantastic Planet," or "Vampire Hunter D." Read more Less