By Todd Garbarini
My introduction to Ralph Bakshi’s animation came in November 1978 when I turned ten. My father had been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series and, after having seen Rankin and Bass’ The Hobbit cartoon the year before, I was eager to see the new large-screen treatment of Tolkien’s beloved adventure. Up until this point, all of the cartoons that I had seen theatrically were made by Walt Disney, with the exception of Charlotte’s Web (1973), Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure and The Mouse and His Child, both from 1977. So, along with Watership Down, it was unusual to see a cartoon aimed at adults and rated PG.
To my young eyes, The Lord of the Rings did not disappoint. I loved the music (I still have the 8-track!) and the visual style (including the rotoscoped scenes wherein the animators drew over live-action, which invoked much consternation from others with whom I debated the film’s merits). It was not until some years later that I became more aware of Mr. Bakshi’s previous filmography which included the very-adult-oriented Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, and Wizards, the latter of which played frequently as a midnight show at the Middlesex Mall cinema in South Plainfield, NJ.
Despite recalling the ads for American Pop, Hey Good Lookin’ and actually seeing Cool World theatrically, one film seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Although it had an August 1983 theatrically release date, Fire and Ice, a sword and sorcery epic that I caught up with on VHS in 1991, completely slipped by me. I would imagine that due to the prevalence of like-minded fare in the early 80’s (think Conan the Barbarian, The Beastmaster, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Krull, Hearts and Armour, etc.), Mr. Bakshi jumped on the bandwagon with this film, collaborating with none other than artist Frank Frazetta, the indisputable king of fantasy art. Fortunately, Blue Underground, William Lustig’s wonderful DVD and Blu Ray company, has released this film in both formats.
The plot is fairly straightforward and is told to us through a voice over. An evil magician named Nekron exerts his power over the people beneath his northern lair by forcing a glacier over their villages. Anyone who has managed to escape this inevitable doom flees to the kingdom of Fire Keep, which is ruled by King Jarol, located among volcanoes. Since Nekron wants all of the villages and not just some of them, he invariably runs into resistance. Nekron kidnaps Jarol’s scantily-clad daughter, Teegra (a prerequisite in any sword and sorcery epic, even a cartoon!). Teegra manages to escape and meets up with Larn, a warrior whose village has been wiped out and has left him alone (shades of The Beastmaster). Teegra spends the rest of the film escaping and getting captured several times over.
While the story may not be the film’s strongest asset, the animation certainly is, and the new Blu Ray is the perfect medium to showcase Mr. Bakshi’s work and all of the image’s nuances. The background paintings are gorgeous, and really pop out. The sound is also well-balanced.
As far as extras are concerned, all of the features from disc one of the 2005 Blue Underground standard DVD have been ported over: an audio commentary with Mr. Bakshi; the Making of Fire and Ice; Bakshi on Frazetta; Sean Hannon’s Diary Notes (he voices Nekron); a photo gallery of behind-the-scenes images; and the theatrical trailer. Frazetta: Painting with Fire, the documentary that appears as an extra on disc two of the 2005 standard DVD, does not appear on the Blu Ray, so if you have the standard DVD, hold on to it. Despite this exclusion, I highly recommend the Blu Ray of Fire and Ice.
Now, if we could only get Mr. Bakshi to collaborate with Luis Royo…
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