I first watched this film at the tender age of 9 and even then found it awfully sloppy and crude by animation or narrative standards. Bakshi claims that this movie is aimed at kids, and while I have to admit it's a lot more kid-friendly than something like COONSKIN or HEAVY TRAFFIC, there ain't a lot here for kids to like.

Truly, this film doesn't hold up too well with a lot of unsuccessful blending of animation with rotoscoped footage, which, to be honest is more often just processed film than it is truly "rotoscoped", which would imply actual work went into it. The final battle scene is actually pretty hard to tell what in the Hades is going on with so many reused cells and ugly roto'd stock footage. I'm happy to see that his techniques in this area blended together much more beautifully in his next 3-4 films, the high point of which would be FIRE AND ICE.

Too much of the script feels awfully first drafty. For instance the villains of the piece don't really seem to have much motivation for their desire to destroy the world beyond just the usual "oh, they're evil" mentality. Similarly, none of the heroes are likable or even the slightest bit interesting aside from the criminally underused Peace, the red uniform wearing android from the cover.

However, I have to hand it to Bakshi for making up for his lack of resources with a lot of heart and a lot of love in rampant abundance. The most successful portions of this film are the side-vignettes showcasing the ridiculous villains. The scenes in "Skortch" are wonderfully gloomy and campy, complemented quite well by Andrew Belling's excellent (though at times quite dated) score. A lot of the vignettes are quite funny, though the success and amount of humor follows with the rest of the film's elements as being quite inconsistent.

WIZARDS is a film with a lot of little things in it to appreciate even though the film as a whole is disjointed, cruddy, and rather tedious. I can say though that I'm glad I own it and watch it once every few years just because at the very least it's a great mood piece and has a much more personal & creative feel to it than most more recent animated features.

Very...bizarre. Be prepared for a lot of psychedelicness if you watch this film. Some people dislike that stuff. I personally love it.I would talk a bit more about WHAT was bizarre, but I won't spoil anything. I'd like to say, though, that this film does actually have meaning to it. Many reviews go on about it being a greatly uneven jumble of battles, nudity, decapitations, kung fu, mutants, prostitutes, fairies, robots, gnomes, dwarfs, wizards, elves, machine guns, lasers, tanks, and bright colors, but if you actually pay attention and think about it, you can find both morals and metaphors. Unfortunately, I won't be able to compare it with any of Ralph Bakshi's other films, as this is the only one I've seen, but I hope to see others in the future. One more thing, though. Bakshi may have called this his first "family" film, but it has some language (d***, hell, b****, slut), sexual undertones, and bloody, mildly intense violence.

Mr. Bakshi's allegory is fairly obvious from the outset, but he and his animators are convincingly professional. They have devised a melange of animation and live footage that gives their feature mystical, slightly scary and, occasionally, comic tones.