I’ve mentioned before that Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards is not a good film, but it is an oddly compelling one.
His later Fire and Ice is a better film, but still not quite a good film. It’s hurt by its lackluster opening, which features some of its least attractive animation, of a not-so-glacial glacier, and its least appealing character, an Elric-meets-Freddie Mercury necromancer named — wait for it — Nekron, who’s under his controlling mother’s thumb.
The simplistic story and wooden characters don’t help. The beautiful princess takes the form of a microkini-clad fleshpot, apparently whisked away from some drug lord’s pool party, our male lead hardly seems to notice, and the mysterious stranger, Darkwolf, steals the show.
It’s a bit like Star Wars, but with Leia played by Jayne Mansfield, in an outfit smaller than the infamous Return of the Jedi bikini, and the Death Star taken out by Han Solo.
That said, the film does feature some amazing rotoscoped action sequences atop beautifully lush background paintings — including some by Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light.
Addendum: The original video I embedded has been pulled from YouTube. Enjoy the trailer: